Realtors have an axiom –– location, location, location, and location. The genealogical corollary to that is –– documentation, documentation, and documentation. Family group sheets, GEDCOM files and any other form used to share genealogical information should be as fully documented as formal manuscripts. Even those who have no intention of submitting their work to a journal, or of publishing a book, will swap information with others.

Experienced genealogists agree that accurately recording the full citation data from a source the first time is essential. You may vividly remember those first few finds, but, as more and more information is gathered, details blur, contradictory data is found and memory is not sufficient. Nor is it sufficient to declare, "I wouldn’t have written it down if it weren’t true." Whether the source is a probate court record, a yellowed newspaper clipping, grandfather’s diary, or a conversation with your father, cite your sources –– practicality, credibility, and ethics require careful source citations. Most of us must also admit that we’ve occasionally neglected to do that and had to backtrack –– time and effort we’d rather have spent seeking new information. Make every effort to record all of the elements of a source while it is still in your hands

Sources versus Citations

Before we get into the details of how to cite sources, let’s take a brief look at genealogy. The genealogical research process involves finding our ancestors by collecting sources that, when combined with our own knowledge, skills, and intuition, result in the evidence from which we draw conclusions. To be of value to others and to ourselves, the process must be thorough, disciplined, recorded, and reported.

Citations may be embedded in parentheses within the text, shown as footnotes (at the bottom of each page) or as endnotes (same as footnotes but at the end of a chapter or at the end of the work). Citations are links between a recorded event and one of the sources used as evidence to support our recorded conclusions about the event. To be effective, citations must be complete and consistent. While you don’t have to use one of the accepted forms of citations, using a non-standard style may cause readers to discount the validity of your work. The citation forms used in this article are taken mostly from The Chicago Manual of Style (for traditional sources) and the Modern Language Associates (MLA) style guides online.

How Sources Are Cited –– The Basic Format

Here is the basic format for traditional citations. It has four descriptors in the following order: Author, Title, Publisher, Locator. Or in greater detail: Author, Article Title, Publication title, (Publisher place, Publisher name, Year published), Page number. Let’s take this part by part:

Author: List up to three authors in the order their names appear on the title page of the work. For works with more than three authors, list only the first author and add "et al." In a work comprised of a collection of chapters by separate authors, such as The Source, use the form for periodicals.

Title: For a periodical or collection of works, first list the article’s title then the publication’s title. Article titles are shown in quotations and publication titles in italics.

Publisher: List the city, state, and country, followed by the publisher’s business name. These are almost always shown on the title page of a book. If the publisher is not shown, list the place information (if known) and say "published by author" (as is often the case with family histories). For works published by the author, include the postal address if it is listed in the work.

Locator: This is usually page number, but in legal and reference works, such as The Chicago Manual of Style, it may be paragraph numbers.

Annotations: These are optional comments by you about the source. Place them in square brackets (the nearly universal symbol for author comments). They may address the credibility and reliability of the source, your rationale for the conclusion made from the source or some other comment of value to the reader or later to yourself.

Missing data: Indicate missing data using the following abbreviations: for no date, use "n.d."; for no publisher, use "n.p."; for no author use "__________" [10 underlines].

Examples for Published Sources

Single Author Book:
Helen Kelly Brink, Some of the Descendants of Asa Phillips (1793-1844); Who were Born in Vermont and Who Settled in Steuben County, New York in 1802, (Marco Island, Florida, By the Author, 1992) p.34.

Single Author Article:
Fannie Clifton, "Some Brixey and Clifton History." The Brixey Bulletin (Grand Prairie, Texas, Brixey-Wylie Press), 2:4 (Fall 1992), pp. 39-40.

Newspaper Item:
Charles G. Ferris obituary, Van Wert, Ohio, Van Wert Weekly Bulletin, 21 September 1888, p. 4, col. 3.

Citing Unpublished Sources

Citing unpublished sources is equally important; and because fellow researchers cannot pull a book from the shelf to verify your data, it is even more critical that your citation be specific. Each citation should identify the informant, the place, the date, and the information given, plus to whom it was given and where that information is stored. Comments describing the informant’s reliability may be added.

Examples for Unpublished Sources

Vital Records:
Death Certificate for Jacob F. Rost, 24 September 1924, File No. 28093, Missouri State Board of Health. Certified copy in possession of author.

Census Records:
1850 United States Census (Free Schedule), Pitt Township, Wyandot County, Ohio; p. 233, family 86, dwelling 79, lines 967-977; June 1, 1850; National Archives Microfilm M-19, Roll 719. [This was a particularly readable film.]

Specifics for Electronic Sources

Citing online or other technology sources is a special case, although the basics still apply. Remember that the implied factors for traditional source citations do not apply and we must be literal to help others find the work. Digital sources differ from hard copy sources only in that citations to them must include instructions for others to find the cited file.

Whenever material in a citation is not obvious, an explanation in the annotation is appropriate. In some cases URL (Uniform Resource Locator). Also a postal address is included when available, as email addresses tend to change more often.

Examples for Electronic Sources

Web Site File:
Ted Kennedy [[email protected] or 2345 Any Street, Anytown, Maryland, 12345]. "My Smith Genealogy." <www.cityview.com/mygeno/jones.htm> August 1996. [This file contains numerous hyper-links, with three in the Smith section. On 21 December 1996, these three were checked and found to be active but with no additional Smith data.]

Extract from CD-ROM File:
Broderbund Family Archive CD-ROM #319, Ed. 1, Census Index: U.S. Selected State/Counties, 1870, Date of Import: 11 January 1996. Individual: Longcor, Lucinda. County/State: Wabasha County, Minnesota: Lake City. Page #: 030. Year: 1870.

One Last Point – Use YOUR Sources

A citation must cite the source you used, not the one that someone told you existed in their citation. Another person’s research, even cited, is hearsay to you until you see the source yourself. For example, if a cousin tells you that she extracted your grandfather’s birth information from his birth certificate, then your cousin is your source for the information, unless she provided you a photocopy, a scanned copy, or you actually saw her copy of the certificate. This is perhaps one of the most difficult concepts of genealogical research for many to accept.

Family history research is maturing as a discipline. We must learn to be more thorough in our publishing and sharing. Documentation is as essential to our genealogy as it is to any other publishing endeavor. It is never too late to start citing sources. It’s not difficult; do it now!

About the Author

A professional genealogist, Wylie's specialty is teaching genealogical skills to computer users and computer skills to genealogists. He serves on the Board of the Association of Professional Genealogists (www.apgen.org), the Computer Interest Group and Standards Committees of the National Genealogical Society (www.ngsgenealogy.org), and is past-president and a founder of GENTECH (www.gentech.org). He can be reached at [email protected].

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