Hello friends and welcome back to the blog! I hope that your research and genealogical projects are going well. For many of these blogs, including the last few, we have delved deeply into different types of records and sources to further our family trees. However, something we have not talked about in depth is why and how to cite the sources we use to build our trees. As I like to say genealogy without documentation is mythology.
The first thing I would like to stress before we get into the meat of the topic is research logs. If you have yet to start a research log, I encourage you to start one. Research logs can be an extremely important tool to help you organize your work and sources, especially as you compile your citations. If you have yet to read the blog on research organization and logs you can find it on this same website under also under this same blog section.
Now that I hope you have taken research logs into consideration, I would like to speak on why I have found in my professional experience that citations are important. As I have already spoken to genealogy without documentation is mythology. It is vitally important in any serious genealogy pursuit. Whether that be the specific research project you are working on in the now or your broader family tree. You may have noticed that you find conflicting information if you compile citations for each of these you may be able to trace where you found the original information and compare it to the new contradictory source to find which one seems more correct or believable. Furthermore, citing your sources can provide a clear roadmap for future genealogists in your tree to follow. In doing so they can help you verify your conclusions or disprove them. Citing can even help you become a certified genealogist that can help you help others research their family trees!
So now that you’re convinced of the importance of citations you might ask me how might I cite my sources? Maybe in the past you have written a few papers and have had to quote from and cite different sources. Or maybe you are completely unfamiliar with the world of citations. Not to worry! The world of citations is easier to understand than you might think.
There are several different citation styles that different fields of study use. Some include the Associated Press Stylebook, The Bluebook, Chicago, MLA and APA. Fields such as the social sciences utilize the APA style for citation. Each of these styles constitutes a different way to organize information about your source/record. In other words, you can think of each of these styles as different scripts to help catalogue what you know about your sources/records. Amongst all of the options previously mentioned the Chicago style has been most effective for family history researchers. If you unfamiliar with the style it usually includes the following about a source: author, primary creator, editor, maintainer, title publishers, locator, annotations and missing data. If you are wanting to cite your sources/records correctly in this style I would recommend Purdue Online Writing Lab. There you can find an outline and examples of what your citation should or might look like depending on the details of your source.
I wish you all the luck as you begin your citation journey and remind you that though seemingly tedious citations can have a big payout in the end! If you are still finding yourself struggling with any of the concepts, we have talked about today please feel free to go back through old blogs where I address some of these topics more in depth, including that of research logs. If you would like more in depth walk throughs and lectures on this and other material, please check out my webinars located on this same website. Please let me know if you have any questions at all by reaching out to me using the above contact information. Good luck on your continuing genealogical journey!
Winona I Laird “The Genealogy Granny” https://genealogyeducationcenter.com
