Geneaology

Claire Furney

Dec 13, 2015 • 6 min read

References

Basics

Try to record for each person

date and place of birth
names of parents
date and place of marriage
names of children
date and place of death

Ancestor
: A person from whom you are descended - parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, great-great-grandparents and so on.

Collateral relationship
: Relationships between individuals who descend from common ancestors but are not related to each other in a direct (or lineal) line. These include brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins. While it is not necessary to trace these collateral lines when researching your family tree, they can often lead you to clues about your ancestors when you have reached a brick wall.

Charts

Ascendant chart
: An ascendant chart starts with you and moves back through the generations of your ancestors

Pedigree chart
: A type of ascendant chart which most people begin with. Commonly shows 5 generations of data on a single page. This chart only shows your ancestors - there is no room for siblings, multiple marriages, etc.

Ahnentafel chart
: Another type of pedigree chart in a table or list, presenting the information in a neat compact manner. Not used as much today.

Descendant chart
: Begin with a "progenitor", the earliest proven ancestor in a line. Often used to chart all of the descendants of a specific ancestor (often an immigrant ancestor or the first one living in a specific area or country).

Family group sheet
: This is the basic worksheet used for genealogical research. While a pedigree chart identifies your ancestry and serves primarily as a culmination of your work, the family group sheet is how you get there.

Family Group Sheets are essential.

they serve as a simple means of recording data
they make it easy to see at a glance what information is known and what is missing
they serve as a means of easily exchanging information with other researchers

Recording Names

Record names in natural order with uppercase surnames e.g. John William SMITH
Enter women with their maiden name. If the maiden name is not known use the first name only.
Record nicknames in quotes after the given name e.g. John "Jacob" William SMITH
Record name changes using a.k.a. e.g. John William SMITH (a.k.a. John William SCHOONER)
Record alternate spelling with the earlier usage first e.g. John William SMYTH/SMITH

Recording Dates

Use the accepted European standard of DAY, MONTH (spelled out) and four digit YEAR
Use the standard month abbreviations of: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, June, July, Aug, Sept, Oct, Nov, Dec
Specify approximate dates as either "about" (abt) or "circa" (ca. or c.)
Preface the date with bef. or aft. when an event occured before or after a specific date
Use bet. when an event occured between two possible dates
If a date can have multiple interpretations e.g. 01/02/1970 use the original date as written and write the interpretation afterwards using square brackets e.g. 01/02/1970 [1 Jan 1970]

Recording Places

Record place names from smallest to largest location
Country abbreviations: http://helpdesk.rootsweb.com/codes/
If only a city is known, consult a gazetteer to find out the county, parish, province etc
For locations where boundaries have changed record the location at the time of the event (if space permits, the current location may also be recorded) e.g. Beaufort Co. (now Pitt Co.), NC
Use probable / prob where place information is inferred, for example where place of death is inferred from place of burial e.g. prob. St. Michael, Bristol, Glouchestershire, England

Sources and Citations

http://genealogy.about.com/od/citing/a/sources.htm

Recording the full details of the source of any piece of information is crucial
assist others in evaluating your research and let them know what your facts are based on
provide a reference in cases where a newly found fact appears to conflict with previous assumptions
help you go back to a previously used source when you have missed information or found new details which lead to more information from that source

Source Types

Original vs Derivative
: Referring to the provenance of a record, original sources contribute written, oral or visual information not derived (copied, transcribed, summarised) from another written or oral record

Primary vs Secondary
: Within each source, whether original or derivative, primary information comes from records created at or near the time of the event from someone with close knowledge of the event. In contrast secondary information is from records created some time after the event, or from someone not present at the event.

Citations

Go from general to specific

Author - the one who authored the book, provided the interview, or wrote the letter
Title - if it is an article, then the title of the article, followed by the title of the periodical
Publication details - place of publication, name of publisher and date of publication, written in parentheses (Place: Publisher, Date)
volume, issue and page numbers for periodicals
series and roll or item number for microfilm
Where you found it - repository name and location, website name and URL, cemetery name and location, etc.
Specific details - page number, entry number and date, date you viewed a website, etc.

Site derivative sources properly by siting the index, website url, book or database which you used and not the actual source from which the derivative source was created (although this can be included as information about the derivative source)

Examples

Books

Willis H. White, "Using Uncommon Sources to Illuminate Family History: a Long Island Tuthill Example." National Genealogical Society Quarterly 91 (March 2003), 15-18.

Bible record

Family data, Dempsey Owens Family Bible, The Holy Bible (American Bible Society, New York 1853); original owned in 2001 by William L. Owens (put mailing address here). The Dempsey Owens Family Bible passed from Dempsey to his son James Turner Owens, to his son Dempsey Raymond Owens, to his son William L. Owens.

Birth and Death certificates

Citation should contain

type of record and name of the individual
file or certificate number or book and page
name and location of the office in which it is filed (or repository in which a copy was found)

Certified transcription of birth certificate for Ernest Rene Ollivon, Act no. 7145 (1989), Maison Maire, Crespières, Yvelines, France.

Henrietta Crisp, birth certificate [long form] no. 124-83-001153 (1983), North Carolina Division of Health Services - Vital Records Branch, Raleigh.

Elmer Koth entry, Gladwin County Deaths, Liber 2: 312, no 96, County Clerk's Office, Gladwin, Michigan.

From an online index:

Ohio Death Certificate Index 1913-1937, The Ohio Historical Society, online http://www.ohiohistory.org/dindex/search.cfm, Death certificate entry for Eveline Powell downloaded 12 March 2001.

From a FHL microfilm:

Yvonne Lemarie entry, Crespières naissances, mariages, déecs 1893-1899, microfilm no. 2067622 Item 6, frame 58, Family History Library [FHL], Salt Lake City, Utah.

Census Record

1920 U.S. census, population schedule, Brookline, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Enumeration District [ED] 174, sheet 8, dwelling 110, family 172, Frederick A. Kerry household; National Archives microfilm publication T625, roll 721; digital image, Ancestry.com, http://www.ancestry.com (accessed 28 July 2004).

Family Group sheet (someone else's)

Jane Doe, "William M. Crisp - Lucy Cherry family group sheet," supplied 2 February 2001 by Doe (put mailing address here).

Interview

Interview with Charles Bishop Koth (interviewees address here), by Kimberly Thomas Powell, 7 August 1999. Transcript held in 2001 by Powell (put mailing address here).

Letter

Letter from Patrick Owens (put mailing address here) to Kimberly Thomas Powell, 9 January 1998; held in 2001 by Powell (put mailing address here).

Marriage certificate

Marriage license and certificate for Dempsey Owens and Lydia Ann Everett, Edgecombe County Marriage Book 2:36, County Clerk's Office, Tarboro, North Carolina.

George Frederick Powell and Rosina Jane Powell, Bristol Marriage Register 1:157, Bristol Register Office, Bristol, Glouchestershire, England.

Newspaper Clippings

Include the name of the newspaper, the place and date of publication, the page and column number

Henry Charles Koth - Mary Elizabeth Ihly marriage announcement, Southern Baptist newspaper, Charleston, South Carolina, 16 June, 1860, page 8, column 1.

Website

Used for all information found online including databases, online transcriptions and indexes

Wuerttemberg Emigration Index, Ancestry.com, online http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/inddbs/3141a.htm, Koth data downloaded 12 January 2000.

Genealogical Proof Standard

Consists of five elements:

A reasonably exhaustive search for all pertinent information - examine a wide range of high standard sources to help minimise the probability of un-discovered evidence contradicting a conclusion.
A complete and accurate citation to the source of each item used - you can't evaluate an piece of information if you don't know where it came from. Also important to document all sources as found, even if they only corroborate already known facts.
Analysis of the collected information's quality as evidence
Resolution of any conflicting or contradictory evidence
Arrive at a soundly reasoned, coherently written conclusion

Research Logs

Definitions

consanguineous
: related by blood