Sourcing your Family Tree
Posted: 10 Jun 2021, 11:12
My absolute pet hate regarding Family History is the number of Trees on subscription websites that are unsourced and/or incorrect!
Please, when starting out on your Family History journey, DO Not copy from other people's Trees unless the fact you copy is properly sourced by the Tree holder. Just because 10 trees all have the same fact it doesn't make it right. If you do copy then please make note that the fact is unsourced.
I am not going into the specifics of sourcing in this piece but would point you towards the following website
Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to ...https://www.evidenceexplained.com
This website follows on from the " Sourcing Bible" EVIDENCE EXPLAINED by Elizabeth Shown Mills. A weighty book that takes sourcing to the nth degree. Many of us devise our own short form version of Elizabeth's methods.
The most important thing to learn is to distinguish between Primary and Secondary sources. To add a fact to your tree you should find at least one Primary source eg a birth, marriage or death certificate, or a baptism, marriage or burial in a parish record, something that is written 1st hand on the day of the event or very shortly afterwards. A Secondary source would be the same fact but backed up by a second hand fact eg. A transcription of Parish Records on a website.
There are many more examples of Primary and Secondary sources on the website above. Try and find as many primary and Secondary sources that you can for every fact you add to your tree. If you cannot find a Primary source then mark the fact appropriately.
Please, when starting out on your Family History journey, DO Not copy from other people's Trees unless the fact you copy is properly sourced by the Tree holder. Just because 10 trees all have the same fact it doesn't make it right. If you do copy then please make note that the fact is unsourced.
I am not going into the specifics of sourcing in this piece but would point you towards the following website
Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to ...https://www.evidenceexplained.com
This website follows on from the " Sourcing Bible" EVIDENCE EXPLAINED by Elizabeth Shown Mills. A weighty book that takes sourcing to the nth degree. Many of us devise our own short form version of Elizabeth's methods.
The most important thing to learn is to distinguish between Primary and Secondary sources. To add a fact to your tree you should find at least one Primary source eg a birth, marriage or death certificate, or a baptism, marriage or burial in a parish record, something that is written 1st hand on the day of the event or very shortly afterwards. A Secondary source would be the same fact but backed up by a second hand fact eg. A transcription of Parish Records on a website.
There are many more examples of Primary and Secondary sources on the website above. Try and find as many primary and Secondary sources that you can for every fact you add to your tree. If you cannot find a Primary source then mark the fact appropriately.