Genealogy Tips: Citing Your Sources

 After choosing a genealogy app to record your data and finding some data to work with, the next thing you should do is learn how to cite your sources! A family tree without source citations is meaningless and should not be trusted. As my college prep English teacher stated many years ago “When you write your research paper, I don’t care if you tell me the sky is green with purple polkadots, as long as you provide three independent sources for that information in your footnotes.” Even if the tree seems well-sourced, nothing should be accepted as fact unless you’ve retraced the research done.

I’ve managed to avoid the common newbie mistake of just entering information without checking the source and I’ve always included at least rudimentary citations. Unfortunately, as I’ve become more experienced, I’ve learned that these rudimentary citations are often not good enough. Basically, your source citation should include enough information to allow you to retrace your steps in your research, and allow another researcher to retrace your steps and verify your information.

There are several guides for citing sources. The ‘gold standard’ is Elizabeth Shown Mills ‘Evidence Explained’. This 885-page book gives examples for citing almost any type of source you can imagine, and if it isn’t in there, you can always visit the Facebook page and ask for advice. To be honest, though, I consider this overkill for anyone who is not a professional genealogist preparing reports for a client or a genealogist who hopes to publish her research professionally some day. It is complicated and cumbersome, and somewhat intimidating, meaning I am less likely to cite more sources if I try to use this as a guide. I always feel like I am creating them the wrong way, to why bother?!

Other genealogists prefer a more simplified approach to source citation. Ben Sayer’s Practical Citation uses this approach. You can also use other approaches including the Chicago style method of citation, the MLA style, etc. Your genealogy software will probably have some citation templates built in. Mine does, but I still find it necessary to modify the template to meet my needs. You may also choose to use a companion app that organizes your sources outside of your genealogy database, like Evidentia, or even a spreadsheet. The St. Louis Genealogical Society has a handout with templates for the most commonly used types of sources. These follow the Evidence Explained model of citing sources.

Unless you plan to publish professionally, my advice is to just  do whatever works for YOU, but make sure you do SOMETHING to cite your sources! Using a birthdate for your grandma’s sister because your grandma told you so is fine, as long as you include a citation saying the information came from a conversation with Grandma and giving an approximate date for the conversation. The important thing is that when someone asks you how you know grandma was born in 1937, you can tell them where you found that information. They can then decide if this is a reliable source or if they need to do more digging!

Free Ancestry Access To Military Records

 I just saw this and want to share with everyone! Ancestry is celebrating Memorial Day by offering free access to military records this weekend. This is good now through Memorial Day - Monday May 29, 2017. It's a great time to gather those WWI and WWII draft registration records if you haven't done that! Then stay and look around to see what else you can find.
Here's the link to access the military records

FREE ACCESS TO MILITARY RECORDS

Genealogy Tips: Choosing Your Genealogy Software

This weekend I was working with a friend who is relatively new to genealogy. I decided to type of a few hints for her based on my experience with genealogy over the past 15+ years. Then it occurred to me that others may find this interesting. So today I am starting a new series on my blog.
Disclaimer: These hints are all my opinion based on my experiences. What works best for me may not be what is best for you! Read these for information and opinion, but when you make choices, do what feels right to you! And if you have advice, please feel free to leave a comment. Genealogy works best when we all share and learn from each other!

You can build a family tree online many places, but most experienced genealogists recommend that you build your family tree in a database on your own computer and then export a gedcom file to be imported to one or more online sites that let you build a family tree. (I will be discussing these sites in a coming post) There are many reasons for keeping your tree on your own computer. Here are a couple.

• Some sites let anyone make changes to the family tree so if someone who is not as meticulous in their research as you are comes to a different conclusion, they can also your family structure!
• Online site have been know to be sold or go out of business. If the site disappears and your only copy of your tree is on the site, all of your hours of research is lost! If the site is instead sold to another company, the new company may require a subscription for you to access your data.
• Online site have been know tor crash. Just like when a company goes out of business, you may lose access to your tree and all of your hard work.

There are many family tree programs available. Some are Windows only and some are Mac only. All offer free versions or trial versions that allow you to try the program out and upgrade to a paid version later if you like it. Here are some of the most popular.

• Reunion - this is Mac only and the one I’ve be using for over a decade! There is also a companion app, ReunionTouch, for your iPhone that lets you sync over dropbox so you can make changes on the go
• Legacy - this is Windows only. There is a free version and a paid version. Click on the download link to see the differences. Most beginning genealogist will probably not need anything more than the free version gives you, but you may well want to upgrade as you become more experienced!
• Family Tree Builder from My Heritage - this is a free program for building a family tree. I have not used it, so I’m not sure how much functionality there is without a My Heritage subscription. There is also a companion My Heritage mobile app for both iOS and Android, but again, I do not know if it is dependent on a subscription to My Heritage.
• Roots Magic - There is a free version, Roots Magic Essentials, which is probably all a beginning genealogist needs. Again, you may want to upgrade to the paid version as you gain experience. Click on the ‘Features’ link to see the differences. There is a companion app for your mobile devices, however, at least in the case of the iOS app, it has not been updated in almost 18 months. I suspect it may be one of the apps that will not work on the iPhone after the next iOS update in the fall.
• Heredis - I just discovered this one and I’m impressed. I probably won’t switch because I’ve been using Reunion forever, and I’m used to the way it works, but I’d give it serious consideration if I was just starting out. I particularly like that there is a mobile app and it looks good! You can sync with the desktop apparently, but can also use it as a stand-alone or import a gedcom from your software — which I’ve already done! It looks great on my iPad!

Some things people like to consider when making a choice

• Price
• Features available
• Syncing with Ancestry (not something I find useful or smart, but you might)
• Mobile app companion and ability to sync your tree on all of your devices. (through the cloud, over your network, through gedcom import, etc)
• Access to support (Reunion has a message board with participation by both users and developers who jump in to answer questions and offer)
• How frequent are the updates
• Are there built in search abilities (these allow you to search Ancestry and other sites directly from your database
• Report & Chart generation -
• Source templates - this is VERY important and one of the things you need to commit to doing right from the beginning! 

The best way to make your decision is to download the free version of a couple of different apps and decide which works best for you.