Filed under What Is Really Free Online? A Method Guide
What should you look for first?
Commercial genealogy sites generally charge for full access, with free trials or free indexes that do not include the full record. A free index on a commercial site is still a lead to the official holder, not a substitute for the record.
If a search floods you with results, add the date range before you add anything else. Dates are the fastest way to cut a flood to a list. Do not let a familiar surname carry the search. In a large record set, a familiar surname is the weakest filter you have.
How do you work through it step by step?
Order matters more than speed here. The same records, opened in a different order, produce a different timeline, and only one of those orders can be checked. Steps that look bureaucratic, noting references, dating entries, separating lists, are the steps that keep a long research project honest. Do the unglamorous steps first. Fixing names, numbers and dates feels slow, and it is what makes every later step possible.
- Start from the official holder catalogue or site for the record you need.
- Note whether what is free is an index, a transcription, or a digitised copy.
- Check a transcription against the digitised copy or the catalogue entry before relying on it.
- Plan paid steps, such as copy orders, only after the free finding aids have fixed the reference.
Making sense of what you find
Do not read a unit diary as if it were written for you. It was written for the unit, in unit shorthand, and personal details appear only where the unit needed them. When two sheets give different dates for the same event, note both, check which sheet was written first, and let the earlier sheet carry the timeline, with a note of the disagreement. A word that looks familiar may have meant something narrower, or something entirely different, when the record was written.
What are the common dead ends?
If the dates you have are approximate, say so, and search a range rather than a single year. A record filed under a neighbouring year is a common miss. A record set described as complete usually means complete for its own purpose, not complete for yours. Check what the set was made to record. The most expensive dead end is a wrong person adopted early. Everything after that looks consistent, because it was built on the wrong foundation.
Where to go next from here
Do not collect records for their own sake. Each new record should earn its place by answering a question the timeline actually asks. Let the question this record raised choose the next record. A record opened out of curiosity, rather than out of a question, rarely advances a timeline. When you close this guide, close it with a question written down. Questions written down become next sessions; questions remembered become lost sessions.
Primary sources for this guide
Claims in this guide are kept general and point to official holders, so you can check the current position with the holder itself. This guide is general educational information only. It is not personal professional advice, it does not offer a record lookup service, and it does not determine any individual's service.