Look at the Records!

I’m doing some family history research for a second cousin, and in writing up information about his father, Robert Edward Curtis, I saw that he was born in 1923 in Michigan. Every family tree on Ancestry has his place of birth as Acme, Grand Traverse County; probably because that’s where the family was living at the time of the 1930 census.

However, Robert Curtis himself has told us where he was born, on the World War II draft registration card that he filled out and signed in 1942.

He was born in Sparta, Michigan, which is a little town in Kent County, north of Grand Rapids. Many (if not most) of those family trees have this record attached, obviously without looking closely at it.

Just to make sure, I ordered a copy of the birth record from the Kent County Clerk.

Object lesson: look at the records you attach to your family tree!