How to Cite Sources Accurately

From: "Barry Evans" barryevans@bigpond.com
To: ROOTSMAGIC-USERS-L@rootsweb.com
Well, I've been doing this genealogy thing for 5 weeks now and since I'm about to embark on some family-to-family GEDCOM exchanging I thought I would do some database housekeeping. I'm an experienced database user and researcher, but a [rookie] genealogist. While housekeeping my citations/sources/[repositories] I have found that (perhaps like many rookies before me) I have sometimes confused and/or duplicated them. Most I can sort out (using lists and duplicate/merge facilities- are there any other [recommended] ways?), but a few are a bit abstract. In particular can a more experienced person suggest a standard way of citing/sourcing/repositorying (is there such a word?) the FreeUKGEN and its major parts FreeBMD and FreeCEN? Another one that causes me strife is 1837online. For all of these, quite often I am only going as far as citing a index number and not bothering to order a certificate due to cost. Both 1837online and FreeBMD/CEN are owned by organistions that go under a different name and are simply providing the indexes from other organisations making my head spin as to who exactly is the source and repository. Thanks. Barry

DearBARRY,
Whenever in your genealogical research you use something such as an index instead of the real thing, you must take care to cite the index, and NOT the real thing.

Despite one's best efforts, indexes can have errors and are at least two or three steps removed from the original. There can be:

• handwriting translation errors

• microfilm viewing errors (ink bleeding from the back side, etc.)

• eye fatigue

• transcription errors (skipping lines, transposing numbers, etc.)

• typing errors

• database errors

• printing/typesetting errors

• copy/paste errors when placing data on web pages

• website database errors

• website search engine errors

Whether you look at a website, book, document on microfilm or original document, each item should be accurately reflected in your notes and source citations. (Even sources where you did NOT find anything on an ancestor.) That way you leave a big audit trail for those who follow. They need to know what documents you looked at so a value judgment of your lineage assumptions can be made.

It gets particularly important when you cite a book or web page that cites another resource. You must cite the book or website, NOT the original source document, quite simply because you didn't look at the original source document.

I went to freebmd.rootsweb.com and located an entry for an ancestor. When I copied and pasted the info it looks like this:

Alfred John Alfred St George Southwark 4 403

A SOURCE CITATION for this information could read something like:

Free BMD. <http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/> [first name] John [last name] ALFRED of St. George, Southwark [Volume] 4 [Page] 403 born June 1942.

NOTE the use of square brackets to designate first name and last name positions which are obvious on the web site, but might not be on a citation, in this case where either name could be a surname. Also the square brackets define the "4403" clearly defined the FreeBMD web site, but lost when the copy and paste to this email was made.

NOTE that in the original copy/paste, the PLACE of St. George Southwark does not state England, so you must add it to provide a full citation that means something to those not living in the parish of St. George in Southwark, so an amended statement of citation might read:

Free BMD. freebmd.rootsweb.com [first name] John [last name] ALFRED of St. George[,] Southwark [, Surrey, England] Volume 4 Page 403 born June 1942.

NOTE that a researcher puts his own comments in [square brackets] to clarify the original entry. Not using square brackets would imply that the original index entry had the words "Surrey, England" in it, which it did not.

An appropriate alternative might be:

AUTHOR: The Trustees of FreeBMD, a charity registered in England and Wales, number 1096940
TITLE: Index Birth Records
PUBLICATION: http://freebmd.rootsweb.com
ACTUAL TEXT: Alfred John Alfred St George Southwark 4 403
COMMENTS: On 14 March 2004, the FreeBMD online transcription of the official government Civil Registration index of births, marriages and deaths for England and Wales provided an entry for John ALFRED in St. George, Southwark, which is likely the Parish of St. George, in the town of Southward, in Surrey, England. The index cites original birth record in Volume 4 Page 403 - June 1942. This may be our John ALFRED born 14 June 1942, but we have not yet obtained the original birth record to compare with family records.

• Mills, Elizabeth Shown. Evidence! Citation & Analysis for the Family Historian. January 2000. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co. ISBN: 0806315431 http://www.amazon.com/... This book provides page after page of examples including how to cite email, web pages, and magazines articles referencing other sources.

• Silicon Valley PAF Users Group. Family History Documentation Guidelines, Second Edition. January 2003. San Jose: self-published. http://www.svpafug.org/ Although designed for users of the PAF (Personal Ancestral File) program, the SVPAFUG has long been known for providing genealogists with excellent guidelines promoting uniformity of documentation. They started back in the old MS-DOS days when we only had the notes field in which to place our source citations. These guidelines can be adapted for use with any genealogy management software.

• University of Chicago Press Staff. Chicago Manual of Style, 15th Edition. April 2003. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN: 0226104036. <http://www.amazon.com...

Happy family tree climbing!
Myrt     :)
DearMYRTLE,
Your friend in genealogy