Living in a post-WWII neighbourhood for the past 17 years, tree maintenance is something I take seriously. Dutch Elm disease took about seven of our elms not long ago, so maintaining the health of the trees that were left in our large yard became our priority.

My favourite of all our trees is a massive 60 or 70 year-old cottonwood – a stately old thing with an attractive lean and a canopy that stretches like a ballerina’s arabesque across the width of the yard.

Despite my father-in-law’s insistence that one day soon the cottonwood will fall on my garage, an arbourist assured me the tree could well be standing long after I’m gone, and a little regular maintenance could assure that.

This is true for genealogical work as well. Trees posted online may outlive their owners, so be conscientious and try to make them as accurate as you can.

Not sure of a fact? Some websites allow you to tag a fact you’re unsure of, to warn others of your uncertainty. The worst thing we can do in posting our family trees is pass along false information to anyone viewing them. If you truly don’t know a fact, find a way to indicate that you’re guessing or approximating, or leave it out entirely until you’ve found a creditable source that provides the detail. Also, and I can’t emphasize this enough, add the citation for that source, and attach an image of the document (JPG, PDF), if possible, to the fact.

Do regular, light maintenance on your family trees. Check those hints you’ve been too busy to look at. New sets of data are digitized and transcribed all the time, especially now that AI can do the work. Do not trust hints blindly – analyze them for yourself before you accept them. Do they originate close to the timeframe in question? Are they a reliable source (i.e. governmental documents, contemporary newspaper articles)? Do they put the information you’ve posted previously about an ancestor into question? Do I need to reconsider my facts?

On that note, reassess assumptions you may have made earlier in your genealogical journey. I was pretty trigger-happy when I first got on Ancestry all those years ago, accepting others’ family trees without careful consideration. I you feel you may have added something dubious when you were in your genealogical salad days, it’s okay to remove that information. Pruning is allowed! It’s okay to admit you made mistakes driven by enthusiasm. When you know better, do better.

I’ve probably stretched this metaphor a little far, but it is important to consider the afterlife of any information you post online. If accuracy is what we’re seeking as budding or seasoned genealogists, we want our work to strengthen our family trees and benefit generations to come.