My grandmother Arline and her sister Mercy were enthusiastic amateur genealogists. As a teenager, Great Aunt Mercy prepared a printed descendent list for her family, and years later she lovingly crafted a beautiful family history book for her great-niece. The parchment paper pages are still crisp with gilt and brightly colored paint; the hand-drawn pedigree charts are rich with names, dates, and places. Only one thing is missing to make this treasure even more valuable—sources.
As my charming mom quite emphatically said, “What do you mean ‘sources’? I know it!”
How did Great Aunt Mercy really know that Samuel Chamblin was a cousin to Jefferson Davis? How did she make the connection to Roger Williams of Rhode Island? Why did she think Amy Brown was a descendent of Chad Brown, founder of Brown University?
A few footnotes quote relatives or list reference books, but most of Mercy’s family genealogy is presented as a beautiful but unsubstantiated theory. I have spent years checking family lines, establishing a chain of sources, and working to confirm or deny Mercy’s work.
What I do know is that my grandmother, Arline, was a more careful researcher than Mercy. Numerous letters in Arline’s papers bear witness to her ongoing genealogy correspondence with historical societies, researchers, and repositories. Letters written by Mercy to her sister Arline show an ongoing discussion between the two sisters as they tried to document their family tree. One sister wanted written proof; the other wanted family stories.
One thread that runs through their letters is as fresh today as it was nearly one hundred years ago: without proof, there is no truth.
As much as I am grateful for the head start with their genealogy work, if Mercy and Arline had made better source notes, I wouldn’t be repeating old research today.
This chapter explains citation basics and offers practical ideas for documentation. Resources include handy checklists for catching citation specifics and links to further information.
Remember when research meant hardbound books shelved in brick libraries? Those were the days! Assembling a bibliography for a research paper was a simple affair: author, title, publication information.
When did things get so complicated? Photocopy machines, scanners, digital cameras, and the Internet have made it easy to produce and distribute multiple copies of originals. We no longer have to travel to a brick-and-mortar archive to laboriously view microfilmed census images. Those same images are now digitized, indexed, and available online as duplicate originals waiting to be viewed from our own home. Wonderful, you might say; that is, until you need to create a source citation.
If the online image is consulted, it is no longer sufficient to cite the book itself as the source of information. The reason for this is obvious if you have ever been confronted with an online census image where the lines of the page you need are obscured by a folded page or blurred beyond recognition. An original source and each copy may contain all kinds of variations, including:
If you had a hard time locating a document the first time and finally found it by searching a second or third database, imagine the difficulty someone may have retracing your steps without a careful citation. Future researchers need directions to the exact source used, not the damaged images along the way.
As you examine a source for information, it’s important to be aware of the type of document you are reading. Is it an original or a derivative?
Original sources are in their first form. Period. An original source is something that exists as it was created. Technically, even microfilmed census records are not originals; that status has to be reserved for the paper–and-ink copies made by the census taker. However, as citation expert Elizabeth Shown Mills notes in her book Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace, often “image copies of an original record when produced by an authoritative or reliable agency—as with microfilm or digital copies produced to preserve the originals or to provide wider access to them” are considered as original sources (page 826).
Derivative sources are materials produced by copying, extracting, or otherwise manipulating the original. A community index of census records is a derivative source.
To go back to the example of the letter my grandmother wrote to her mother, each of the following is a derivative of the original source letter:
Genealogists talk a lot about sources and how to cite them. Some researchers are sticklers for formal academic-style references. Some start out with good citation practices but become frustrated by complicated style guides, and eventually become less conscientious. Others follow a haphazard citation style of partial source information, cut and paste from internet sites, and photocopied title pages from books. Still others don’t see a need for citing sources at all. (If I had to assign myself to one of these categories, I’d admit that I don’t mind citing sources.)
So which came first, the source or the citation?
Source (noun)—a person, place, or thing from which something originates; She was the source of his happiness. In genealogy research: The 1850 U.S. Population Schedule Census is the source used for establishing the name of my great-grandfather.
Source (verb)—to obtain from a particular person, place or thing; The exotic spice was sourced from the Middle East. In genealogy research: Be careful to source your information.
A genealogical source could be almost anything all, from a printed document to a telephone interview or an e-mail. Sometimes, information from several sources is analyzed to determine a relationship or establish a fact.
While a source provides information, a citation describes exactly how to locate the source.
Citation (noun)—a reference to the origin of the information pointing directly to the exact materials consulted. The citation directed him to the U.S. Federal Census of 1850 for the Edward Thompson household in Woodstock, Windsor County, Vermont.
Genealogy citations can be constructed using different formats depending on their intended use. Society journals use their own house style while historical societies and newsletters may require a different style.
That’s fine for writers, you might think, but I don’t intend to publish my research. It’s for my own use. Why should I bother with citations? There are three reasons every genealogist should cite their sources.
1. To Guide Others in Your Research Footsteps. Good research is repeatable; your descendants and fellow researchers should be able to follow your research trail and locate your sources.
2. To Test or Reexamine Evidence. A genealogist is never truly “finished” researching a family line. New evidence—and newfound relatives—may appear at any time, prompting old hypotheses to be reevaluated, or a fresh look at your conclusions may show an illogical date that needs double checking.
3. To Prepare Information for Publication. Time changes all of us. One day you might like to publish a short ancestor sketch of one your more colorful relatives, but you’re held back by the difficulty in retracing your steps to find and write the citations required by your local genealogy society bulletin.
Always take time to document your sources, one never knows what the future will hold.
Source notes do not have to be cryptic and confusing. Let it be your goal to craft citations that are
The best citation style is one that is the standard for your project. There’s no need to reinvent the proverbial wheel. Citing sources doesn’t have to be hard.
As a high school English teacher, I read hundreds of research papers and source lists each year and was continually amazed at the endless variety of citation formats my students submitted.
The requirements were clear and direct: use MLA (Modern Language Association) style citations. Students, however, seemed determined to create their own unique format based on some other style. I often suspected that some were influenced by their parents’ high school experience, especially when the daughters of physicists and physicians turned in work with perfect scientific-styled citations.
Genealogy research doesn’t demand perfect citations; after all, a citation is merely the road map to your source. Strive to give your readers and descendants clear directions so they can follow your footsteps if need be. It’s not so much about the comma as it is the turn in the road.
You may remember crafting source lists in high school or college. Depending on the subject, you probably followed MLA format for English and humanities papers, The Chicago Manual of Style for history papers, or APA (American Psychological Association) form for papers in the social sciences. No doubt, you learned that creating a correct citation was as much an art as a science.
As the Internet has expanded, so have the varied source styles necessary to document information found in e-books, ever-changing websites, e-mail, online journals and databases, and other online resources. It’s no longer a simple matter to string together author, title, publisher, date, and place of publication.
Genealogists have always faced a challenge in citing sources due to the vast and diverse nature of research materials. While scientists might chiefly cite work from published journals, genealogists refer to everything from an heirloom, engraved pocket watch to a cemetery transcription to an online census image to an original probate record.
In the same way that scientists can rely on APA style to guide their needs for a scientific citation format, genealogists can rely on a style tailor-made for family history research. Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace by Elizabeth Shown Mills is a citation style guide developed specifically for genealogists. The 880-plus page volume is a resource for citation style filled with extensive samples and discussion that builds on Mills’s earlier, and shorter book, Evidence! Citation & Analysis for the Family Historian.
EE (as fans call it) may be the gold standard for many genealogists, but it’s not required that you use EE style in order to provide a source citation. (EE is based on The Chicago Manual of Style.) Major genealogy journals today continue to require authors to submit their Source List in their specific “house style” or in one of the popular academic formats, such as MLA, Chicago, or APA. You can provide thorough source information without conforming to EE style, but it might be a bit harder to remember all the different components you need.
One of the chief advantages of Mills’s system is her insistence on citing the actual source used, whether it be a print book you hold in your hands or an online e-book version of a digitized copy of the very same book. When you correctly cite the version used, you help anyone who follows in your research footsteps to more easily find the source you consulted.
What’s important is not whether you choose EE style or Chicago, but that you take time to include all the information needed to locate the source. Like Elizabeth Shown Mills, and thousands of other genealogists, I think it’s easier to use the genealogy industry standard than to bend, fold, and staple another system to suit my needs. I like the way EE provides a reference to each item needed for a full and complete citation.
You may prefer to use one of the academic citation forms, and that’s okay. But do be prepared to face situations where the document consulted doesn’t fit the standard citation format. Whatever citation style you decide to use, be consistent. Read on for more citation style ideas.
If you still aren’t convinced that citing sources is time well spent, ask yourself: Isn’t it worse to spend hours (or days) locating a source you forgot to cite the first time? And who says that source citation has to be time consuming? Streamline your work with one of these shortcuts instead of dropping the citation routine altogether.
Your current genealogy software may be ready to lend citation assistance. More and more of the major genealogy database programs have integrated Evidence Explained style with their own source features, making it easy to enter the required information. The software does all the work to build the required citation with commas, periods, and italics exactly where they belong. Well, almost exactly where they belong. There are the inevitable variations, but it is a fairly good compromise to the alternative of correctly handcrafting each citation.
The best sourcing software will be relatively painless to use. If it’s so difficult that you grit your teeth just to input your source information, it’s time to find another option. Look for a program that gives you understandable prompts for necessary information and the ability to generate a complete source list. While there is no rule that states genealogy sources must be listed in either Chicago or Evidence Explained style, they will be formatted in one style or another; why not choose the industry standard?
Take another look at your genealogy software to see if the latest version offers this feature. If not, consider reviewing other genealogy programs that can take this job off your shoulders.
Source features to look for in genealogy software:
Hint: Good genealogy software will prompt you for each detail of a correct citation, making it easier to include all the information needed to retrace your steps.
Genealogists know that some sources reoccur frequently; you will often need to cite a federal census or local birth registration. Use Evidence Explained (or the style of your choice) to craft the correct citation, and then use this as a model for future references to the source. Some researchers develop an extensive EE styled source list they use over and over by cutting-and-pasting text. This can be a real timesaver if most of your research relies on the same sources.
Save your custom citations in a single word-processing document or spreadsheet, or in a database program, so you can quickly search and find the entry to use again. The key is consistency. Make a conscious decision to follow one style; I suggest using Evidence Explained, Chicago, or Turabian. Whatever style you choose, use it consistently.
Hint: The citation feature of your genealogy software will provide this consistency without any extra work from you.
Genealogy research doesn’t always take place online or near a computer. You may prefer to make handwritten notes, especially when working in a library or in the field.
Did you know that there’s an easy way to remember everything you need to include in a source citation? Use a source checklist for the basic information. Worry about crafting the citation later, but get the source information now. Add a copy of the handy Source Checklists at the end of this chapter to your research notebook or post one above your desk.
Do you frequently photocopy or scan documents, photos, or other materials? Have you received copies of a document without accompanying documentation? Don’t let your materials become orphans, that is sources without a home.
Blogger and citation-advocate footnoteMaven recommends creating a slim source tool to help you keep track of where you found the item instead of relying on cryptic codes or notes on the reverse side of an image. Create a word-processing document with a sheet of narrow strips that you can fill in with source information. Place the strip along the margin of each page of your document or photo that you scan or copy. Reduce the image size if necessary to allow for the source tool. Check out the footnoteMaven’s blog <www.footnotemaven.com> for practical tips on citing sources.
Students are big fans of doing everything online, so it’s not surprising that online citation generators are popular and getting better all the time. A citation website will prompt you for the source information and turn out a citation formatted in the style of your choice. Three online citation makers are:
Unfortunately, the results will only be as good as the information entered, and you will have to do some extra work to get everything required for a full genealogical citation. It can also be difficult to remember the detailed information required for a correct EE style citation. Some free online citation generators limit the number of citations you can create for free, or the formats available.
Following are the results of a free online citation maker for standard family archive item, the personal letter, formatted in Chicago style vs. Evidence Explained style.
NoodleBib Chicago Style Note:
1. Arline Allen Kinsel, “(Larkspur, Colorado) to ‘My dear Mama’ [Minnie Kinsel],” letter, October 12, 1919, Arline Allen Kinsel Papers, Privately held by Denise Levenick [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE], Pasadena, California, 2008.
Evidence Explained Style First Reference Note
2. Arline Allen Kinsel (Larkspur, Colorado) to “My dear Mama” [Minnie Kinsel], letter, 12 October 1919; Arline Allen Kinsel Papers, privately held by Denise Levenick [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Pasadena, California, 2008. Letter was inherited from Minnie Kinsel by her daughter, Arline, and passed on to Minnie’s great-granddaughter in 2000.
NoodleBib Express Generated Bibliography Entry
Kinsel, Arline Allen. “(Larkspur, Colorado) to ‘My dear Mama’ [Minnie Kinsel].” Letter. October 12, 1919. Arline Allen Kinsel Papers. Privately held by Denise Levenick [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE], Pasadena, California, 2008. Letter was inherited from Minnie Kinsel by her daughter, Arline, and passed on to Minnie’s great-granddaughter in 2000.
Evidence Explained Style Source List Entry
Kinsel, Arline Allen (Larkspur, Colorado) to “My dear Mama” [Minnie Kinsel]. Letter. 12 October 1919. Privately held by Denise Levenick [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Pasadena, California. 2008.
At first glance, it might seem that NoodleBib has done a great job presenting a citation very close to Mills’s Evidence Explained style. But, look more closely and you will see that the difference is in the details. While nearly all elements of the citation are placed in proper order and much of the punctuation is also correct, several particular elements will need to be adjusted, including:
If you’re looking for a shortcut to easier genealogy citations, online citation generators may not be the best answer. Instead, I encourage you take time to learn a few citation basics and then take advantage of the citation features of your genealogy database software. After all, ancestor hunting is a lot more fun than tracking down commas and periods.
Are you headed to a brick-and-mortar archive? Take along this handy checklist to help you remember to collect all the information you need for a correctly crafted citation.
For correspondence, photographs, artifacts, and newspapers, see the following specific checklists for additional details. All of these checklists are available as PDF downloads at <www.familytreeuniversity.com/familykeepsakes>.
For loose, undated, unidentified newspaper clippings:
BibMe <www.bibme.org>
EasyBib <www.easybib.com>
NoodleBib Express <www.noodletools.com/noodlebib>
Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace, by Elizabeth Shown Mills. <www.historicpathways.com>
APA Style, by the American Psychological Association <www.apastyle.org>
Chicago Style, from The Chicago Manual of Style <www.chicagomanualofstyle.org>
MLA Style, by the Modern Language Association <www.mla.org/style>
Turabian Style, by Kate Turabian based on Chicago Style <www.press.uchicago.edu/books/turabian/turabian_citationguide.html>
Citing Sources, from Cyndi’s List <www.cyndislist.com/citing>
“Cite Your Genealogy Sources,” from Kimberly Powell on About.com
<genealogy.about.com/od/citing/a/sources.htm>
Family Tree Magazine Source Citation Cheat Sheet
<www.familytreemagazine.com/info/genealogyessentials>
footnoteMaven, by Linda Palmer <www.footnotemaven.com>
“Genealogy Source Citations Quick Reference,” from High-Definition Genealogy