Beginner Genealogy -- Identify your sources

One important thing to remember about family history research is that you must keep track of your sources! What is a source? A source is anything that contains information you use in your family tree. These can include family sources like oral history interviews, family stories, obituaries, funeral cards, photographs, bibles, and other documents. As you continue researching your family tree, you will begin to find other sources including local records, county and state records, and even national or international records.

The important thing that I cannot stress enough about sources is to DOCUMENT them by providing complete CITATIONS for them. I carry several mantras that I learned in graduate school as an English major and one of them is "Cite your sources." Writing down source information will save you a lot of time and headaches in the future.

Basic citation information for any source will include information such as:

• Type of document
• Location of document
• Author or government agency
• Page number, volume number, or certificate number
• Date of document creation or publication

It is also helpful to include:

• Date of access
• Location of access (either online website or repository)

For visual learners, Ancestry.com's YouTube channel has a a slide presentation and step-by-step guide to citing sources in your online family tree or your family tree making software.