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Tag: getorganized

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Cite sources! Always! No exceptions!

When you get on a roll and you are finding lots of new information about your ancestors, it’s very easy to get caught up in the moment. STOP!! Have you remembered to make note of where your information is coming from? Citing sources is not the most exciting part of genealogy research, far from it. But if you don’t cite sources, you WILL forget where you found out the information.

“So what?” I hear you cry! “Stopping to do that boring stuff will make me lose my flow! There’s so much exciting information right here I need to gather!” That is true. But that information isn’t going to disappear while you take a few moments to make some notes.

Why is it important to cite sources?

Let’s say you find out something critical about an ancestor that allows you to tie them into a family line that you then continue to research several generations further back. Two years (and hundreds of hours of research) later, you find another piece of evidence that totally contradicts what you thought you knew. This new piece of evidence ties them to a totally different family, unrelated to the first. What do you do? How do you decide which piece of evidence is correct since they can’t both be? Answer: you go back to the sources and critically examine them both to see which is most credible, or use them to decide where you might look for further supporting evidence for each.

Problem: you didn’t cite the source of the first piece of evidence. And now you just don’t remember where you saw it. Was it from an official document, reported in the newspaper, in a book, on a website, did you hear it from a family member or did you find it on someone else’s family tree and assume it was right? How reliable was it? Where can you go to check it’s accuracy further? You just don’t know. Therefore, you also don’t really know if the tree you constructed based on that information is correct. Perhaps you’ve just wasted two years barking up the wrong family tree!

Citing your sources is all part of good genealogical organization.

What does ‘cite sources’ actually mean?

For a professional genealogist, there’s a very specific way of doing it, with specific formats for different sources of evidence. At the end of the day though, for your own personal family tree (unless you’re planning on publishing it), the main goal of citation is to be able to easily find your way back to the source of the information. It can be as simple as attaching a copy of the source to the relevent family group sheet, or attaching a scan of it to the relevent person(s) in a family tree computer program or online. If it’s a page of a book, make sure you’ve noted which book – author, title, publisher, edition – as that may not be apparent from the photocopied page! Some subscription genealogy services will have the sources amongst their offerings and you can directly connect them to the person(s) in question.

A well-sourced family tree saves you time and headaches

If you have unfailingly added source citations to all your ancestors as you have discovered them you can save hours of pulling your hair out trying to remember what made you assume something was true about them. You can simply go back to the sources and compare them for likely accuracy.

  • How close was the source to the actual event?
  • Who recorded it? Why?
  • Would they have had any reason to record the information inaccurately, either deliberately or by error?
  • Did you misinterpret it?
  • Is it a correct source but for a completely different person with a similar name?
  • Did the source itself rely on secondhand information (or third hand, or fourth hand)?

Get as close to the original source of the information as possible. If your source cited another source, seek that out and verify it.

And remember the more individual sources of evidence you have for each fact about your family members, the more confidence you can have that it is correct. Aim for at least three!

Have you ever wished you’d kept a better record of where you found some evidence? I know I wish I’d started my research the way I do it now! Comment below…

Finally, I know I said I was going to bring you a blog on finding your female ancestors as a follow up to a previous blog, but a fellow genealogist published a fantastic article about that topic on her blog soon after my saying that. Rather than reinventing the wheel, I would urge you to take a look here!

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Organizing genealogy research

organizing genealogy research organize
organizing genealogy research pile of documents

Genealogy is one of those activities that creates a whole lot of ‘piles of stuff’ that increase exponentially with every generation researched. You need to work out how you’re going to be organizing genealogy research right at the beginning of your family history journey. Otherwise, you run the risk of not being able to find the information you’ve gathered when you need it. You may even miss vital clues that you may have overlooked first time around with documents. You could possibly end up purchasing multiple copies of the same document as you forgot you already had it. Somewhere.

Is there a standard method for organizing genealogy research?

It really doesn’t matter which exact process you use to get your research organized. So long as it works for you, and allows you to be able to access the information you have easily and reliably, there are many ways to do it. However, follow the golden rules below whichever method you choose.

Essential golden rules

  1. Keep copies of your work. Keep them in separate places. Heaven forbid, if your house burns down and all your work is lost, you will regret it if there is not a copy somewhere. Scan or at least photocopy all documents, photos, correspondence etc. What works for me is uploading scans to the family tree I keep online and attaching them to the relevant people. Scans of correspondence are backed up into my Google Drive.
  2. Preserve your documents with appropriate storage methods:
    1. use only ‘acid-free’ paper/cardboard and plastic sleeves
    2. do not use metal paper clips or staples which will leave rust marks
    3. never use sticky tape to repair tears (have you seen what ancient sticky tape does to paper?)

My suggested method for taming those paper piles!

A good place to start is with your existing pedigree chart, and assigning the ahnentafel numbers for each person. You’ve already talked with your relatives and obtained as much information as possible from them so you probably have three or four generations of basic information covered by now. You can create your pedigree chart worksheet by hand using printed forms, use a family tree program on your computer, or use a genealogy website and enter the information there. Even better, do all three and you have then ensured you’re backed up in several places. I have my main working file on Ancestry.com. I sync it with Family Tree Maker on my computer and regularly print out charts for family lines as they evolve. In fact, I have uploaded my tree to every site that I subscribe to. Therefore, if disaster strikes, the tree will survive. Somewhere.

So what is ahnentafel numbering? This is a method of ensuring that each ancestor has their own unique number and cannot be confused with anyone else. If like me, you have two 5x great grandmothers named Mary Smith on totally different branches of the tree, this is a godsend. And it provides a great starting point for your filing system.

You are number one. Your father is number two. Your mother is number three. Your father’s parents are four and five. Your mother’s parents are six and seven. And so on. Just number vertically down each generation of the pedigree chart. If you have a family tree program it will likely be able to generate them for you.

Next steps, get the filing bug…

Now, create a file for each set of parents. For example, your paternal grandparents (ahnentafel numbers 4 and 5) would have their own file. Into this, you insert all the documents and certificates you have for them, photos, newspaper clippings etc. In front of this, I place a ‘family group sheet’. This is a summary page of their vital information along with their children’s. You can find templates for family group sheets online, purchase them or generate them from your family tree program.

I also have a summary spreadsheet of all the documents I have for them that I can tick off as I get them. Great for knowing if I’ve captured people in relevant census records, have all the necessary certificates, have immigration data, wills, etc. It also, therefore, shows at a glance what I still need to potentially find.

The third item I include is a genealogy research log. Here, I make a note of what records I have searched and what was found. This can save you hours of reinventing the wheel. It’s a common curse for the genealogist to come back to a family line, forget what they’ve checked and check it again. Possibly multiple times over the years. The research log prevents that. Don’t forget to record negative results as well as positive. These are just as valuable and often provide clues themselves. Keeping a research log is also a fantastic way to keep your thoughts focused on your goals for this family line.

Now you have everything neatly organized, so when you plan to visit a repository, library or archive you can simply select the family folders you will need to take with you. Or just take your laptop or tablet if it’s all been entered online. Instead of having stacks of random paper at home, you have a filing drawer with all your files arranged. It may be by ahnentafel numbers, or by surname in a hanging file that includes each generation in individual folders ordered by ahnentafel. Whatever works for you! The main point is…it’s organized!

It’s never too late for organizing genealogy research!

If you’ve been doing your genealogy research for a while and never implemented an organization system, do not despair! It is always possible to ‘KonMari‘ your work. Set aside a few hours and dig through those piles. You may be surprised what gems you find now that you have more context to see where they fit!

My way is not the only way…

For more ideas, I recommend you take a look at the category for this subject at Cyndi’s List. She lists several sites with information on the topic, and you may find the perfect method for you.