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RECORDING FOR THE FUTURE

© Christine Sievers

As a genealogist, we are an archivist, an historian, and a researcher. I think it was my love of this detail that drew my into genealogy. Meticulous recording of information has become my passion.

The reasons for keeping careful research notes are several. Our family history will never be completed in our lifetime; and we do it in the hope that someone will pick it up after us- a grandchild, or even a distant cousin. For others to continue with our research, we must leave behind detailed records. Closer to home, there are times when we need to refer back to a source; and clear records saves us time. Finally, the more we get into genealogy, the more serious we take our endeavor and want to be judged by professional standards.

I have divided genealogical information into three categories: personal and verbal, written, and electronic. First, let's look at personal and verbal. This includes information we have first hand knowledge of, interviews with relatives and family friends, and letters. Documentation of who, where, and when is important because these bits of information are from people's memories. A future genealogist, who takes up our work, must be able to judge their reliability. Letters are included in this category because we must record clear information about the letter writer, to whom it was written and the relationship, and when it was written for its factualness to be judged.

This type of personal information make our genealogies come to life, and add color to our research. They are the stories that we weave around a family tree. However, they may not be completely factual, and this is the message we must somehow pass down to the future genealogists.

The next category of information is written, a traditional published form (such as, a book) or the original or a copy of a record (such as, a birth certificate). Again, to leave clues for future research, either ours or someone else's, we must document our source. Board of Certification of Genealogists-Skill Building has some clear and concise tips on how to do this.

The last category is electronic information. Email and the internet has become a great source of information for genealogists; but, it brings with it unique problems in documentation. Mark Howells article, A Cite For Sore Eyes-Quality Citations for Electronic Genealogy Sources covers this issue excellently.

Now that you know how to document your sources, where do you put it? Family Group Sheets are the standard for recording our information. I use one sheet for each source of information I have on an individual. I write down only the information found from that source, and note that source on the sheet. I, also, have a family group sheet which is a compilation of all the information I have gathered on an individual. It may seem time consuming, but I have found it worth the effort to keep my brain straight on where I have found what.