On Genealogy—Lessons in Finding Your Past:

Documentation, Proof, and Keeping It All Straight


by Joan M. Kay
from The Kaitlyn Mae Book Blog


This is a "do as I say, not as I do" post, folks.

For you could see by taking a browse through my family group records, a great many of my facts have not been documented clearly. Or well. Or at all. I've very often been lazy as a summer pond when I'm researching.

But no longer.

I used to tell my husband proudly and while tapping my head, "I've got it all up here." I soon learned, when I once wanted to tell a fellow researcher about a mystery woman I'd found living in Rockingham County, Virginia, circa 1760, and had not written down the citation for the property tax list I found her on, that my head can not hold everything, or even a lot of things. It's also not a good way to build a database of, oh, a few thousand family members. (And, yes, your research will eventually grow to include at least that many people. And they all come with documents, some with file-folder-bursting amounts.)

So we need to get the facts straight. And documented.

The Family Group Sheet


Family Group Sheet or Record, download available at Ancestry.com

The Family Group Sheet is where you will record vital information on your families and individuals: names and variation, birthdates and places, marriages, death dates and places, etc. It is a standard in genealogy. You will often hear from someone, willing to swap information or share their research, mention the "Sheet." As in, "I have a Sheet on Margaret McLaughlin. I'll send it to you." So to get with the In crowd, get a good Sheet, use it religiously.

You will need one for each set of parents in your tree if you're not using a genealogy computer program. (I swear by the Legacy program, though some genealogists don't like to use any software at all.) If you use Legacy, or some other program, you still need plenty of blank Family Group Sheet copies for your research trips. Once you return home, this will make it simple for you to enter the information you've found into your database.

Document

Source Summary, download available at Ancestry.com.

I like this form, though your citation information will take up a few lines for each document, because you will want to record more than is asked for on this sheet. Another great form to download is at Ancestors: Charts and Records, a PBS site.

In general, for each fact you find, you want to note: author of document (example, Auditor of Public Accounts); name or title of document ("Personal Property Tax Books, Bath County [Virginia], 1791-1816"); call number or microfilm canister number (LVA Reel 31); page or image number (XX); repository (Library of Virginia, Richmond); and researchers's annotation (optional and always bracketed[ ]) ["Record in good condition, readable, except for missing year 18XX).] For:

Auditor of Public Accounts. "Personal Property Tax Books Bath County [Virginia], 1791-1816." LVA Reel 31. Image XX. Library of Virginia, Richmond. [Record in good condition, readable, except for missing year 18XX.]

Your intention here is to tell other researchers (and yourself down the road) exactly where to find the information you have compiled. Just ask yourself while taking notes, Could another researcher easily find this specific document from what I have written here?

Keep the Source Summary for your family group in a file marked only for that particular family group, along with an up-to-date Family Group Sheet.

Oh, and by the way, buy these file folders in bulk. You're going to need them for the next Lesson.