When people first get interested in their family history they
are not fully prepared for what is about to happen to them. Genealogy is an addiction. New
genealogists discover that they now have to do this hobby for the rest of their life! The
first few weeks of intense genealogical research turns what used to be lovely,
well-ordered persons into compulsive, determined zealots with only one thing on their
mind... get that genealogy stuff! Husbands go night after night without their dinner,
children are left to fend for themselves, and relatives begin answering their phone with,
"Oh, it's you again... but I thought I already told you everything I know."
It is a genealogical fact of life that something strange happens to nice people
they lose control of their lives. Those of you who are just starting out in genealogy and
have not learned this yet should put this magazine away NOW. I would not want to be the
one who caused you to spend the rest of your life looking for dead relatives.
But, if you are already hooked and have a large collection of paper that is taking over
your house then you should stay with us. I will try to give you some ideas for
organizing your genealogical records (otherwise known as "piles of paper").
The Paper Problem
Perhaps the most common problem experienced by genealogists is the stack of
paper that begins to collect. As the paper grows, genealogists move gradually from a file
tray to a series of file trays; to a file cabinet, then several file cabinets; and for
some, a loss of several rooms of their house to the mountain of paper.
If you can describe your genealogy collection as "piles of paper" you may be
interested in how I found a way to organize mine. My first success with organizing my
genealogy came after a disaster. In 1974, after about two years of doing genealogy, most
of my paper files were neatly stacked (in manageable piles) on a drafting table built from
saw horses and a flat door. When one of the saw horses collapsed, one end of the table
came crashing down and scattered all of my two years of genealogy all over the room. My
experience of picking up the paper from the floor is where I first began developing a
method of organizing that mess. I will describe what I learned.... and if you truly want
to get organized too, then I suggest that you start by throwing your entire paper
collection into one large pile in the center of a room. With that done, let's see how you
can pick them up, and in what order. But first, let's identify what is in that pile of
paper.
What's in the Pile?
When you first started in genealogy, you could put everything you had in one
neat 3-ring binder. It wasn't long before it was several binders, then file cabinets....
and you know the rest. When the collection was small, you could have marriage
certificates, photos, pedigree charts, family group sheets, notes you had taken, copies
from censuses, etc., all together in the same small notebook. In fact, if you dumped the
contents of the small notebook into one pile of paper, you would still only have a small
pile. Now multiply that small pile by the number of years you have been doing genealogy...
and dump the contents of your file cabinets, boxes, etc. into one pile. You would find
that the entire pile can be broken down into different categories of paper. So, let's
start by separating the sheets of paper in the large pile into categories. We only need to
identify three.
Category 1 - Notes and Documents
This category will have the largest number of sheets of paper. It contains the
photocopies of pages from books, copies of census extracts, birth certificates, marriage
licenses, deeds you have copied, and so on. The paper in this category pertains to all of
your families and many different surnames. This is the heart of your genealogical
research. This category has the raw research notes, documents, and copies of things that
mention your ancestors.
Virtually all of these records in the Notes and Documents category are
"events". We may find information on our ancestors in the form of family groups,
but more often we locate information as references to births, marriages, deaths, burials,
and residences. A "residence event" may be a military record, a deed, a land
record, or a tax list, for example. A residence event may simply be a record that proves
that your ancestor lived in a certain place at a certain time.
A copy of a birth certificate may give several events: a birth, a residence for the
parents, residence for an informant, name and location of a hospital, etc. An ancestor
mentioned in a book as the deputy sheriff is another "residence event". A
cemetery record reveals a "burial event", and so on. If you receive a family
group sheet in the mail giving all kinds of events for members of a family, you could call
that sheet a "family event".
Not everything you know about your families may come from facts written down on paper.
You may have recordings on audio or video tape that includes genealogical information. If
so, you need to transcribe the genealogy onto paper and include that paper sheet in your
Notes and Documents section.
Begin thinking of this first category as a "database". This is a paper
database of facts about your ancestors, and no computer is required.....not yet anyway.
After separating this category from the others, your goal should be to have every fact you
have ever found on your ancestors in one group the Notes and Documents. If you have
facts in your memory that have never been written down, now is the time to do that. The
Notes and Documents category is going to be your complete database of information. And
later, we are going to organize it in such a manner that you will be able to find any
particular piece of paper in seconds! For now, just get every one of the sheets of paper
that belong in the Notes and Documents category separated from the other two categories.
Category 2 - Compiled Sheets
This second category includes family group sheets, pedigree charts, surname
lists, descendancies, and any compiled genealogical information that came from different
sources. Most of these sheets of paper were compiled by you. The information on them came
from the notes and documents you have collected.
Dealing with the paper to be separated into the Compiled Sheets category will not be
difficult. You can put family group sheets in one notebook or file folder, for example.
The same is possible with pedigree charts and descendancies. But, you cannot organize
these types of records very well if they are all interfiled with the other categories.
After all of these materials are separated from the rest, you may want to work on
organizing this category first, because it will probably be the easiest to do.
Make file folders or notebooks to separate the various types of sheets in this
category, such as family groups sheets, pedigree charts, and others. When you are done,
take your entire family out to McDonalds to celebrate your incredible achievement. For
now, ignore that still very large of pile of paper that is in the middle of your kitchen.
(If you have dogs or cats, you might want to cover it with plastic wrap).
Category 3 - Research Aids
This category does not necessarily give names of people, but is important to
your research project, because it includes "how to" items, lists of libraries in
Ohio (because you have an interest in Ohio research), maps, lists of professional
genealogists, societies, clubs, commercial vendors, etc. This category also includes your
personal library of books pertaining to genealogical research, and of course, would
include your back issues of the Genealogy Bulletin, and other magazines.
Items in the Research Aids category are not difficult to organize. You can simply start
file folders to collect all of things that relate to Ohio, and label the file
"Ohio". You will find that the majority of the Research Aid category can be
organized by its geographic origin, e.g., libraries in Indiana, lists of genealogists in
Ohio, how to do research in South Carolina, and so on. Research books will organize
themselves by being placed on a bookshelf. However, if any of your books contain
information about your families, you need to copy those pages from the books and include
the copies with the "Notes and Documents" category.
You should be able to organize all of your Research Aids (or call it your
"personal library") in no time at all. These materials seem to sort themselves
by place, so to get some quick gratification, get the Research Aids organized along with
the second category, Compiled Sheets, and you will be left with just one large pile of
paper. As it turns out, you can not really organize the Notes and Documents until they are
separated from the other two categories so just leave them in the middle of the
room as a neat stack of paper until you have the first two categories done. Before wading
into the Notes and Documents, reward yourself with a large hot chocolate sundae for having
done such a marvelous job of it so far. It would be advised that before starting on the
Notes and Documents that you have at least a 24 hour break, and a full night's rest. The
next steps get harder.
With category two and three done, you have accomplished a great deal. You will have
your compiled sheets in order, and you will have your research library in order. But you
still have the first category, Notes and Documents, which is still a very large pile of
paper. In this pile are notes and documents on everybody you have collected. You have your
paternal side of the family as well as your maternal side of the family in there. Before
we take on this awesome task, let's define the reasons that are causing this category to
be so difficult to organize.
Problems Related to the Nature of Genealogical Research
Problem One: We have as our goal in genealogy the job of identifying families.
We are taught early that a family group sheet is our worksheet and everything we do should
be based on the family group. The fact is, we do not start with a family group sheet
we start with names and events. The reason so many genealogist's notes and
documents need help is that they are trapped into a "family oriented" way of
thinking. Perhaps a better way of thinking is to free yourself from families and develop
an "surname oriented" filing system. I will attempt to walk you through the
process of changing from a "family system" to an "surname system" for
the care and preservation of your notes and documents.
To explain, let's forget about families for a moment. Let's assume that the
genealogical "events" for individuals, which are found in the notes and
documents, precede the work of filling in a family group sheet. And, if that is true, then
the first papers that need to be organized are not the family group sheets, but the notes
and documents that are used to compile the family group sheets.
Organizing family group sheets, as you already know, is not the problem. The problem is
finding that marriage record you know you have.... you know when and where you found it
the first time....you even remember the color of the walls of the library, the microfilm
reader you were using, the people who were in the room at the time, and what you had for
lunch that day you just can't remember where you put that darn marriage record! I
will propose a method that will allow you to find any marriage, any birth, any death, or
any residence event for any person. And you will be able to do it in seconds.
Problem Two: We gather genealogical information on more people than just our
immediate relatives. As a person born with the name Dollarhide, I was born curious about
that surname. Today, I collect any person I can find with the name, believing that we are
probably related. Any genealogist with an unusual name in their background knows about
this we collect a lot of facts about a lot of unknown extra persons simply because
they have the right name.
Virtually everything we collect as genealogists can be associated with three types of
people in which we have an interest. Therefore, the notes and documents that you have
collected will have sheets of paper for three types of people:
1. Ancestors. Of
course we are interested in our ancestors, and any piece of paper that gives the name of
an ancestor is something we want to save, however slight.
2. Collaterals. These are people who are the brothers and sisters of our
ancestors, and their descendants. They are important to us because understanding their
genealogy may lead to our own lineages. Therefore, we usually are interested in saving
every instance where a known collateral's name is written down somewhere.
3. Suspicious. This may be the largest group of people we collect. We are always
finding some person with the right name who lived at the right time in the right place
which means the person is highly suspicious of being an ancestor or at least
closely related.
Because of the nature of genealogical research, these types of extra people cause us to
collect much more paper than just our ancestors. We don't want to lose contact with these
people because they may turn out to be an ancestor, so we save every sheet of paper,
hence, our paper files grow and grow and grow.
Solving the Paper Collecting Problem
There is a solution to the paper collecting problem. Since we collect notes and
documents for ancestors, collaterals, and suspicious people, and, because we add extra
people with the same surname because we think they may be related, then why not create a
well organized database of information just for the notes and documents? Instead of saving
notes and documents by family, we could save notes and documents by surname. Hey! That
means you could save notes and documents on anyone! It also means you might be able to
find a record when you want it.
More importantly, if you start thinking about "surnames" instead of
"families" as the way you control the paper in your notes and documents files,
you have some new options. For example, what if you treated the ancestors, collaterals,
and suspicious people as equals? What effect would that have on your note taking? If you
sorted your notes and documents by surnames instead of by families, you could create a
database of information that was not limited to a family relationship at all. Remember,
the notes and documents happen before a family group sheet happens. Therefore, a surname
is a unifying factor which brings together people who are ancestors, collaterals, or
suspicious. It also frees you from a family oriented filing system.
There is one other important unifying factor in genealogy, and that is the place where
someone lived. For example, by collecting and then sorting all Dollarhide who ever lived
in North Carolina, regardless of their relationship to me, I would have a database of
Dollarhide notes that would be fairly easy to organize. And, I would be able to create
family group sheets from that database much easier. So how do we go about creating a
surname oriented database? We do it by following some simple rules:
Rules For Saving Notes and Documents
Let's forget that you still have this incredibly large pile of notes and
documents sitting in the middle of your kitchen. Instead, let's assume that you are
starting your genealogical research tomorrow. Everything is new. We will now start fresh.
Under these conditions, I can give you some really good rules to follow and your
genealogical collection will be the envy of every other genealogist you know because you
will be able find every event record for every person you have ever collected, every time,
guaranteed. Here are my four rules:
1. Control the sheet size
2. Separate sheets by surname
3. Separate surname sheets by the place of origin
4. Give every sheet a page number
Each of these four rules is explained below:
1. Control the Sheet Size
As students we learned how to prepare for a written essay in high school. We were
taught to use 3" x 5" index cards, noting such things as the author's name,
publisher, date of publication, etc., followed by a brief quote or two from the source we
had found in the library. This method worked well because the cards could be sorted easily
and provided a bibliography once the report had been written.
However, genealogists attempting to use this system will quickly discover that they
rarely have enough room on the card to write all the notes they may want to capture. Not
only that, genealogists are fond of copying whole pages of text from books, not just a few
notes here and there. To make matters even worse, genealogists receive information from a
variety of sources letters from relatives, documents from vital statistics offices,
interview notes, phone notes, or information from other genealogists. The nature of
genealogical research does not allow the use of 3" x 5" cards effectively,
because a separate collection of the full-size documents would then be necessary.
We have also been known to go to the library without a note pad, using whatever paper
we could beg, borrow, or steal to write down the latest census data we found. If the
little sheet of paper is covered with a larger sheet of paper in the file box at home, the
little sheet of paper will probably be in the "lost" category in the near
future.
Standardizing the sheet size for taking notes using 8-1/2" x 11" paper solves
this problem. If every note were taken on this sheet size, the smaller notes can be taped
to standard sheets to bring them into conformity, and if a researcher follows this simple
rule faithfully, the ability to find notes and documents for later analysis will be
enhanced immediately.
To make this technique even better, using a pre-printed form to take all notes has
several advantages. First, the sheet size will be controlled at the time the note is
taken. 3-hole paper saves having to punch holes later, and the sheet has a place to be
filed when taken home. An example of such a form for genealogical note-taking is shown on
page 11.
2. Separate Sheets by Surname
Many genealogists are already separating documents by the surname of the family to
which it pertains. "Surname books", that is, standard 3-hole notebooks, are
commonly used by genealogists. One book would contain everything that is known about one
surname, including those people who married into a family or the collateral families to
the main surname. At this level of collection it is not necessary to separate known
ancestors from collaterals or suspicious persons. The important thing is that the person
has the right surname and could be important to the project. As the notes are gathered,
write the surname at the top of each page and devote an entire page to the notes for that
surname or names connected with that surname. If a new surname of interest is encountered
while you are in research, start a new sheet for the new surname. This simple separation
of notes by surname will allow you to file any sheet of paper logically, and without
having to recopy your notes when you get home from the place of research.
Typically, genealogists find themselves sitting in front of a microfilm projector
copying down notes from original records. Even if the genealogist was careful to copy all
the Johnson family records from one county, what happens sometimes is that another family
surname pops up something that was not expected. This happens frequently in the
course of collecting genealogical records. The serious mistake is to mix these surnames on
the same sheet of paper. If the Brown family is on the same sheet as the Johnson family,
even though these two families were not related to each other, the only recourse later may
be to use a pair of scissors to get the notes separated by the surname. Therefore, simply
starting a new page when another surname is found will separate the surnames at the time
the notes are first taken down.
Separating documents into surname books limits what is stored in the books to just the
notes and documents and does not admit such things as maps, lists of libraries,
genealogical societies, or other material not directly related to a certain surname.
(Remember there are two other categories, we're only talking about Notes and Documents
now). The goal is to create a collection of reference material relating to a certain
surname in such a way that family sheets can be prepared later but assurances that
all of the known facts are easy to find.
A family record mentioning several other surnames that married into the family could
all be saved as part of the main surname. The surname book contains information about the
families and individuals important to the project, not necessarily just the known
relatives. This is a key element in storing references in this manner. The problem of what
to do with non-relatives has been solved: treat them the same as the relatives at this
level of collection. If later research reveals that a reference item is not part of the
family at all, the sheet can be removed and discarded. But until that time, the collection
can contain any and all references to any surname of interest to the project.
Now the rules begin to make sense. If the same sheet size is used 3-hole,
8-1/2" x 11" notepaper and all surnames are separated on different
sheets, a system of collecting notes and documents will pay off. With these two rules
only, the note doesn't need to be stacked on top of the pile at home any new sheet
can immediately go into a surname book as another page.
3. Separate Surname Sheets by the Place of Origin
Once the documents have been stored on the same sheet size and placed in the
appropriate book for the surname, the next step is to break down the sheets by the place,
or origin, of the record to be saved. The logic behind this concept needs to be explained.
There are three vital pieces of information every genealogist must know to pursue
genealogical evidence: 1) a name, 2) a date, and 3) a place. With these three things
known, a treasure chest of information will be made available for further research. Of
these three, the place is the one that tells you where to look for further information.
The place of the event, such as the birthplace, place of death, place of marriage, place
of residence, etc., is what a genealogist must know before a copy of that record can be
obtained.
We live in a record-keeping society. The jurisdiction that created the record is the
place. That jurisdiction must be known before we can learn anything. If this fact is
clear, then the idea of separating source material by the place is a logical step to take.
Therefore, the many sheets of notes and documents pertaining to one surname can be further
separated by the origin of the records. Experienced genealogists know that once the county
of residence has been established, a treasure chest of information awaits in the
courthouse, the local library, a funeral home, a cemetery, a local genealogical society,
etc., all of which can provide much important information about a family that lived in
that locality. That information cannot be found without first knowing where to look.
Separating the sheets by the place is an easy task to control because virtually every
single genealogical reference item will have a place attached to it. So, the top of the
sheet should first show the surname for the record, followed by some designator for the
place of origin.
For example, one surname book could contain all the Johnson in Iowa in one section and
the Ohio Johnson in another section. If the Johnson family of interest started out with an
immigrant to New Jersey, followed by migrations later to Ohio, then Indiana, then Iowa,
etc., these states could be arranged in that particular order which would tend to
put the family reference material in loose chronological order for the time periods they
were in a particular place. This method of collecting source material will place records
for certain individuals in more than one place section if a person moved from state to
state over the course of his life. Don't worry about this yet we are going to get
all of these place-oriented records back when we create family group sheets so get
the surnames together in one book, then divide the book by the places of the records.
The place designator can be broken down further. If there were many Johnson in Ohio, it
may be worthwhile to separate this section by county. The important thing about this
method of organizing notes and documents is that when information about the Johnson family
in Ohio is needed, a genealogist knows where to look for what is known about the family in
that area. It is also the logical place to file a new piece of information.
The Reference Family Data Sheet example on page 11 indicates how a surname/place
designator can be used. A two-letter code commonly used by the U.S. Postal Service is an
effective way of giving a place designation. When the note or document is first being
prepared, write the surname at the top of the page, then the place designator. The
pre-printed form, of course, gives a genealogist a reminder of what needs to be done for
every note and document prepared.
4. Give Every Sheet a Page Number
The fourth rule is to simply give every page in the surname book a number. With the
surname notebooks organized in sections for the places divided, each sheet can be given a
number that allows for the retrieval and return of sheets to a proper position. A sheet
number need only be a consecutive number starting with 1, adding numbers as sheets are
accumulated.
A full sheet number might be Johnson/OH/24, meaning the sheet belongs in the Johnson
surname book in the Ohio section, and within that section it is page 24. This sheet number
is assigned on a "first-come, first-served" basis, so there is no need to
rearrange sheets later to get 1790 records before 1870 records. Genealogists find and
collect records in random order, so they can be filed randomly too. This allows for adding
sheets within a section as the records are found.
But, since the references have already been sorted by surname/place, the sheet number
is simply a designator to put a sheet back into known position, and it provides the means
of indexing references sheets later. The page number is a key element in this filing
system. If an index is to be prepared in the future, or if a genealogist plans to use a
computer some day, page numbers will be critically important.
Note:
The preceding text, beginning with "Rules for Saving Notes and Documents",
was gratuitously lifted, nearly word for word, from a book entitled, Managing a
Genealogical Project (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1988, rev. 1991). But
since the author of that book is the same as the author of this article, no special
permission was necessary. I just thought you should know that I didn't just make this up.
Back to the Pile
of Paper
Now that we have reviewed the four rules for taking new notes and setting up
surname books, what about the mess you still have lying in the middle of your kitchen?
Well, you will need the following items before you can get started:
- A good pair of scissors
- A bottle of Elmer's Glue (or some other kind of stick-um), or Scotch tape (or Irish
tape, which doesn't have to be returned to its owner after you use it).
- A felt marker (color optional)
- A three-hole punch
- Several cardboard boxes, one for each surname you have
- Several 3-hole ring binders, at least one for each surname you have
- Set of sheet dividers for each binder
- 8-1/2" x 11" blank white paper (one ream should do it)
- Knee pads
- A sign that warns your family, "fines are double in work areas"
Start slow. Pick up a piece of paper from the pile. What surname does it relate to?
Smith? Write "Smith" at the top of the page. What place does it relate to?
Kansas? Write "KS" after Smith. Now go get a cardboard box. Mark it
"Smith". Place the first sheet of paper in the Smith box. Now get another sheet
of paper from the pile and do the same thing. New surname? Get another box.
Along about the third piece of paper, you will probably discover that both Smith and
Johnson are mentioned on that one, and if these two names did not marry each other or have
some special connection, then you need to use your scissors, and cut the Smith portion
apart from the Johnson portion. Now get two blank 8-1/2" x 11" sheets of paper.
Stick or tape the Johnson note on one sheet and the Smith note on the other. Label the top
of each sheet with the surname and place. Put them in a cardboard box for each surname.
You will also discover some sheets early on that do not lend themselves to be cut up.
These are the ones that mention several different surnames in the same paragraph. Cutting
up these type of sheets won't work well, so put these to one side so you can take them to
the nearest photocopy machine. You will need to make as many copies as there are ancestral
surnames mentioned. Remember, we are trying to separate all of our notes and documents by
surname if that means copying a resource more than once, that is what it will take.
A marriage record is an example of two surnames mentioned that properly should go in
two different surname books. You could make a copy of the marriage record so one could be
filed with the groom's surname, the other with the bride's maiden surname... or you could
simply make a quick note on a new sheet with the names, dates, places, and a
cross-reference notes that tells a reader that a full marriage document is filed in a
different surname book. That cross-reference note is a full size sheet, and could take the
place of another marriage document in another surname book.
As you see the sheets building in the boxes, you should begin to see what is happening.
You are building surname files.. and isn't it exciting! But even if you are not bubbling
with excitement yet, this is what you will need to do to your current notes and documents
to adopt this filing system. If you are willing to do it, you will love what happens when
you have them all prepared this way.
Once you have all the sheets of paper off the floor, your pile will not exist anymore.
You now have several cardboard boxes with nifty stacks of 8-1/2" x 11" paper in
them. So, grab the box of your choice (how about Johnson) and get a 3-ring binder that
will hold all of them. Too many for one binder? Add more binders as necessary. Next, get
someone to clean off the kitchen table. Now, go through the entire Johnson stack and make
smaller stacks of the Johnson sheets for each place the Johnson lived. Sheets that are not
already 3-hole punched need to be punched now.
Creating stacks for each place is sort of like correlating pages, and you could
possibly involve other members of your family in this exercise, "OK, Don, I want you
to collect all of the Johnson in Iowa in your stack. And, Angie, you have Ohio". If
the family starts fighting over which state they get, promise that when they are done they
will all get fed. (Which, of course, is something that none of the family has done
together since you first got into genealogy).
If you have sheets that are smaller than 8-1/2" x 11" then stick or tape them
to a full size sheet and add the surname and place at the top of the page. If you have
documents that are larger, you can fold them so they will go into a note book, or you can
make or buy a "pocket" sheet. These can be purchased from a K-Mart, Wal-Mart, or
perhaps in the school supplies area of a local supermarket. The purchased pocket sheets
are pre-punched for 3-holes and have a pocket where an over-sized folded document can be
inserted.
If your pile includes original documents you may want to make photocopies of them,
which would also allow for reducing the size, if necessary, to fit your notebooks. You can
treat original photographs the same way make copies for the notebooks. The
originals can then be stored with other documents or photos in a container kept in a dry
place. (A good selection of acid-neutral storage boxes for extended safe storage of
original documents and photographs are identified in AGLL's preservation catalog).
Once you have gone through one surname and separated by place, each sheet in a
surname/place stack can now be numbered. You can arrange these sheets any way you want at
this time, but any new sheets will be added at the back and continue the numbering. If the
first stack you take on is the Johnson/Iowa stack, start numbering the sheets IA-1, IA-2,
IA-3, IA-4, IA-5, and so on. Do the same for each stack of sheets for each place you have
separated. When this is done you can place all of the sheets in a 3-ring binder. Use the
sheet dividers to separate the sheets by states/places.
Any expression of wild and crazy celebration at this point is perfectly in order. You
are permitted to take your shoes off, let your hair down, shout with glee, or hug and kiss
any person who happens to be in the room. You are finished with the pile!
Retrieving Notes and Compiling Family Sheets
If all your notes and documents are organized as described above, a genealogist
has the means of locating multiple sheets for analysis. The process of comparing and
compiling information from the notes is one which most experienced genealogists
understand. However, the problem of locating every research item can be frustrating if the
notes are not in a place where they can be removed (or returned) easily.
The next step of compiling a family sheet is the point where most genealogist compare
the notes, evaluate the contradictions that always occur, and then make a decision about
the dates, places, and events necessary to enter information about the family members.
This process is sometimes lengthy and worrisome, and often leads to ideas where new
research might be necessary. With a large collection of research notes, the process is
even more complicated, and some means of indexing the information becomes critical.
With the notes and documents easily retrieved from the surname notebooks, a family
sheet can be prepared more easily, but more importantly, a complete list of every sheet
that was used to compile the family information can be cited.
The Importance of Genealogical Evidence
Genealogists have at their disposal a rule of law called The Preponderance of
Evidence. It is possible if one can fully document all sources to make
assertions about the relationships between people. There may not be a single document that
states, "He was the the son of...", in your document files, but there may be
overwhelming evidence to demonstrate that a relationship of father to son was indeed the
case. If a court of law in the U.S. can accept such evidence, then it can be used by
genealogists as well.
In fact, there are numerous instances in which professional genealogists have testified
in court about genealogical evidence regarding an heir to property, or some matter in
which genealogical evidence was in question. Genealogical evidence is no different from
the evidence provided in a criminal case, where the prosecuting attorney must produce
overwhelming evidence that the accused was indeed the criminal. However, the important
fact about evidence is that everyone who reviews it must come to the same conclusion.
Therefore, the pieces of evidence must be made available so that anyone can scrutinize the
findings. If the same conclusion is reached, then it is indeed possible to make an
assertion about "the son of..." without having a single document that actually
states that fact.
Any reference to a person, however slight, should be included in the notes and
documents collection. This means, for instance, that an obituary should be obtained even
if the death certificate for this person has already been acquired. It also means than any
other piece of evidence relating to that death should be gathered, e.g., survivors'
memories, funeral programs, cemetery office records, tombstone inscriptions, stone mason
records, insurance papers, social security records, and anything that may give clues about
the survivors of the deceased. The more references collected, the more information that
will be revealed about the ancestors or descendants of the person who died. Adding
multiple references to a death or other event is the way we build a preponderance of
evidence. This is the method in which a genealogist can prove something without a shadow
of doubt being cast on the evidence. A complete list of references should accompany every
genealogical presentation, whether the presentation is a few family group sheets or a
thousand-page book.
Preparing a List for a Family Sheet
There are several ways of listing the sources and itemizing the evidence for
genealogical purposes. First, a genealogist could simply write a narrative which describes
the steps taken, listing every source and the conclusions reached. Second, a formal list
could be prepared that itemizes all sources that make any mention of one person. And
third, such a list could be prepared for each family group, showing the page number in the
notes/documents collection where the information is found.
This latter method has merit if the family sheet is being prepared anyway, so why not
simply list every reference that was used to compile the family information? Better yet,
why not use the back side of the family sheet to do it? This is good record-keeping,
because in compiling the family sheet every reference item from the documents file can be
listed one at a time. Then, as new information is added, the new reference item can be
added to the list as well.
Remember the suggestion was for every reference sheet to have a number now the
importance of that page number is evident. But beyond the simple reference to the page,
more information might be worthwhile having in the list. An example of how this system can
be implemented is a family sheet designed to list the references. The sample of a Compiled
Family Data Sheet on page 14 and 15 demonstrates how this method works. The front of the
sheet is a standard group sheet for a family, giving the husband, wife, and children with
their pertinent genealogical data. The back side of the sheet has a place to list every
Reference Family Data Sheet that was used for that particular family.
Note that the first thing needed is to tell the genealogist which surname book the item
came from, what section within the surname book, and what page number with that section.
"Dollarhide/IN/3" indicates that the reference is in the Dollarhide surname book
in the Indiana section, and within that section it is page 3.
There are several advantages in listing all references on the family sheet in this way.
Not only does the list indicate every research item that was used to compile the family
group, it provides a list that can be mailed to other genealogists showing what has been
collected for that family. Genealogists who receive letters from other genealogists asking
for "everything you have on the Brown family" can send the list of references
first.
The list also tells a genealogist where to find records that been stored in more than
one place. For example, records concerning Nancy Pierson before her marriage can be stored
with the Pierson surname book. Records after her marriage to Jesse Dollarhide can be
stored in the Dollarhide surname book. A copy need not be made for each book if the list
indicates where each particular reference has been filed.
List References for One Person
Another optional step in compiling information is to make a sheet for each
pedigree ancestor. A special form to do this called a Master Data Sheet is shown for Mary
Winslow. The concept of having one sheet for all of the vital statistics for one person is
one which many genealogists find useful. This particular form has expanded the information
about one person and includes a small pedigree chart to assign an ahnentafel number to
each pedigree ancestor.
On the back side of the Master Data Sheet is another form called a Research Log. This
lists every Reference Family Data Sheet that mentions Mary Winslow. It is a similar
listing to the one on the Compiled Family Data Sheet, and may repeat some of the same
information. The advantage of this is that it enables you to locate each item for one
person and then prepare the master vital statistics for that person. The individual list
can be made for any person, not just ancestors.
With a well organized Notes and Documents file, particularly one with page numbers for
every sheet of paper, you have several other options to create an index to the names
appearing in it. We described one method of using the back of a family group sheet to show
a list of references, giving the name of the surname book, place section, and page number
where the full details are stored. The same sort of list can be prepared for individuals,
using a Master Data Sheet and Research Log form that allows for listing every reference
for one person.
An index of the names in your notes and documents paper database could be also be
prepared using 3" x 5" cards, a rolodex file, or using a computer database
program. The fact that your notes are well organized will give you several options to
prepare an index if listing the sources on family sheets or individual sheets does not
cover everyone in your paper database.
Summary
You can organize your genealogical notes and documents, but only if you are
willing to separate them from other types of paper in your files, such as compiled sheets
and research aids. With a well organized set of notes and documents and page numbers for
each sheet of paper, you can make lists on family sheets or individual sheets that will
give you access to your notes in seconds. In addition, you will have the means of
preparing more sophisticated indexes to your notes by using computer database programs.
About the Author
William Dollarhide has been a genealogist since 1971. He began writing
professionally about genealogy in 1984 and currently writes feature articles and acts as
the executive editor for the Genealogy Bulletin magazine.
Dollarhide has authored several genealogy books including three published by
Genealogical Publishing Co. Inc. of Baltimore, Maryland:Managing a Genealogical Project;
the Genealogy Starter Kit ; and with William Thorndale, the Map Guide to the U.S. Federal
Censuses, 1790-1920. The Map Guide and Managing books are both in the
"top-twenty" list of best-selling genealogy reference books.
On his own, he has designed numerous forms, maps, and charts for genealogists which are
now published by AGLL, Inc. Since joining AGLL, he has helped thousands of beginning
researchers on the World Wide Web though his renowned beginners guide to genealogy
entitledSeven Steps to a Family Tree. His most recent books includeMap Guide to American
Migration Routes, 1735-1815 andBritish Origins of American Colonists, 1629-1775. |