Correspondence and Help

About Genealogy in Taishan County

23 July 2006

Correspondence

Write to me, if you can supply additions or corrections to these pages, details about the Tan clan of Taishan county, especially of Bei Hou village, or interesting Taishanese research experiences. My e-mail address is included as an image: .

As I am not a genealogist and do not have the time, I will not do your research or offer you advice, so don't ask me. Most certainly don't demand it of me, or get offended, sarcastic or threatening. As a consequence, I will not reply to emails on topics other than those aforementioned.

Help

That being said, I would like to offer some generic advice.

There are four things that are more important than anything else:

Join your local family history society and do their research course. This will train you in the correct research techniques, and familiarise you with the sources that are available to you in your locality. You will also then have people who are experienced and local. After a while, you will be able to help others in the society as well.
Read the pages on this web site with a large dose of informed common sense. If you can prove me wrong, I would be glad to hear about it, and will modify the page appropriately.
Be unremittingly humble and ruthlessly honest. This will leave you open to correction, and even the most "expert" is capable of error and needing correction. This will also protect you from wishful thinking and propagation of misinformation.
Be systematic. Start from yourself and work backwards, one step at a time. Do not be tempted to make jumps. If you can't prove it by documentary evidence, you don't know it.

And with that ... enjoy.