Documenting Your Family History

Recently, I wrote an article about finding cousins on the Internet. From some cousins, I have obtained valuable infromation. For other cousins, I can return the favor and pass on the information I have obtained. This results in a lot of genealogical information being passed around by my extended family.

This does not take the place of documentation! I want to pass on as much documentation as I am able to cousins who are doing serious genealogical work. So, my first step is to enter all the source material into my genealogy program. This serves three purposes. It helps me stay straight on what documents I have. Two, it provides source information to the cousins I pass it on to. Finally, it allows my cousins to see what I have in the way of documentation. To those who wish it, I will gladly send photocopies so their genealogy can be filled in.

When you begin working with far flung cousins on your family's genealogy, it is important that you keep it as accurate as possible. With the Internet, there can be a lot of misinformation. Passing around the documentation you have, and requesting the favor returned, keeps your Internet family on the proper research track.

For further information on documentation:

RootsWeb Guide Lesson number 12 - an excellent lesson on types of sources and documentation

About NGS: Standards and Guidelines - a collection of articles on proper documentation by the National Genealogical Society

Recording For the Future - a previous article I have written on documentation, note in particular the link to Mark Howells article on electronic sources

and for genealogical software:

Electronic Genealogy : if you have not gotten your genealogy program or are considering a change, this is an article I wrote to help you decide

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