Citing Your Sources

How important is it to cite your sources?

So you do genealogy as a hobby... your family knows you as the 'family historian', how important is it that you cite your sources?

I am always amazed at the number of family trees on Ancestry.com that go unsourced.

When I conduct preliminary searches for information, I rely on sites like Ancestry.com, MyHeritage, and FamilySearch.  Many people place a lot of information online that is not sourced through Ancestry.com failing to indicate where they get their information.

This makes it harder for the next person that comes along who may want to check/verify the information.

I have found many written reports from ancestors that dabbled in genealogy.  Some offered information that is not found anywhere else.  Perhaps they asked a living relative who knew the facts because they were only one generation removed.  Or perhaps it was hearsay. 

Without proper documentation, citing your sources, it is impossible to duplicate the information. 

I had one relative who had the privilege of asking the last living daughter of our immigrating ancestor questions about that immigrating ancestor.  And she did a wonderful job writing up a brief report concerning the family.  But...

She failed to cite her sources.  I haven't a clue what information was taken from the immigrating ancestor's daughter and what was not.  Furthermore, she states information as if they were facts: information pertaining to the childhood of our immigrating ancestor.  Where did she get this information?  Did she find it in a book?  Did she have privy to a lost document? 

Even documents that I order: birth, death, and marriage certificates, these should be properly sourced on the certificate itself.  This allows any family member either now or after I am dead, to find the same document.

So how do you properly source your information?

The authoritative guide to citing your sources that covers everything offline and online is: Evidence Explained by Elizabeth Shown Mills. 

This hefty volume will assist you in how to properly cite any source.  Then you'll know where you got all your information and so will your family.