I screwed up a LOT when I first built my family tree.

I’m not talking small things like messing up someone’s name or date of birth either. I’m talking about spending DAYS building out the lineage of someone I wasn’t even related to.

The reason was simple: Bad sourcing.

I put my trust in the “research” (I use that term generously) of someone who just slapped together their family tree without a care to citing any sources to their findings.

I’m not going to let that happen to you. That’s why I want to break down what good sourcing looks like and how you can source your family trees so they’re water tight.

Let’s dive in.

What’s a source?

Sources are just any pieces of information that allow you to draw conclusions about something on your family tree.

Like a birth certificate saying that your great-grandmother was born in 1920. Or a census that says that your family lived in Goliad, Texas during the late-19th century.

A source can even be a tombstone or a story your grandfather told you about another family member.

But not all sources are made equal. In fact, they can be broken down two ways:

  • Primary sources. This is the best kind of source. A primary source would be a first-hand account of your ancestor. EX: Birth certificate, census record, marriage and death certificate, baptismal record, etc.
  • Secondary sources. These are sources that rely more on word of mouth. Not nearly as good as primary sources but better than nothing. EX: Family history, rumors, transcribed interviews, etc.

You’re going to want to get primary sources for anything on your family tree. Of course, use secondary sources if they’re the only thing you have, but in general primary sources are where it’s at.

Keeping track of your sources also lets you know where you’ve already gone for information. Knowing what records you’ve already gone over can save you a ton of time in the future.

Now let’s take a look at a simple two-step process to excellent genealogical sourcing

The two-step sourcing method

Sources are like girls at a house party. Do you want to go to a party without them? No. Absolutely not. Unless it was a bachelor party, you’d turn around and leave immediately if there weren’t ladies there.

Same with sources and family trees. Much like girls at a party, sources give your family trees legitimacy (and they make them less sad).

Alright that’s enough with that analogy. That’s why when you have a good source, you’ll want to attribute them to your family tree to let everyone know where you found your information.  

Platforms such as MyHeritage and AncestryDNA will have sourcing tools that really take the pain out of this process.

If you’re working outside of those platforms though, there’s an easy way to cite your sources:

Step 1: Ask yourself the five Ws

When you find a source that you wish to cite, refer to the five Ws of journalism we all learned in English class:

  • Who provided the source?
  • What is the source about?
  • When was the source made?
  • Where did the source come from?
  • Why are you using this source?

Once you have the answers to those five questions now it’s time to …

Step 2: Generate a citation

The two most common citation styles are MLA and Chicago Manual. Either will work. The point is to get the information recorded so you can refer back to it later.

Luckily, you don’t have you dust off that MLA Style Manual you haven’t touched since high school. Just put your answers to the five Ws into a source generator like this one here: http://www.easybib.com/.

Once you do that, you’ll have yourself a solid citation.

Here’s what a finished citation might look like if you were using Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets as a source for some amazing reason.

Rowling, J. K., and Mary GrandPré. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Arthur A. Levine Books, an Imprint of Scholastic Press, 1999.

Once you have the citation, simply go to your family tree platform or however you’re recording your information and attribute it to the appropriate person.

Voila!

There you have it! A simple and effective way to cite your sources. For more information on this topic, be sure to check out MY sources for researching this article:

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