Documenting Your Sources

You should consider documentation of an information source just as important as recording the information itself. Why? If you're like many family tree researchers you don't always work on your genealogy every day, maybe not even every week or month. You may have family lines that you haven't looked at in years! It's difficult to pick up where you left off unless you've documented the information sources. Secondly, if you send family data with no sources to a newly found "cuz", then you deprive them of the ability to review those sources. Finally, if you decide to "publish" a family history, you'll want others to know where you got the information so they won't question it. So documenting sources adds credibility and traceability to your effort. Its not difficult either; it just takes a little discipline.

There are two basic classifications of sources: Primary and secondary. Primary records are those created shortly after an event by someone having personal knowledge of the event. A birth certificate is an example of a primary source, or a family bible if the event is recorded soon afterwards by a witness. However, someone's old letter that has a birth date in it may not be reliable if it's written at a later time. Primary records are obviously the preferred sources for establishing historical facts.

Secondary sources are generally compiled from primary sources or are written from memory long after the event (such as the letter example above). Other examples might be a published family history or summaries of censuses and marriages for a county. Secondary sources are very useful, but their validity could be questionable. So you'll need to examine the primary source if you want to be absolutely sure about a fact. Sometimes, however, a primary source may not be available. So you'll have to rely on the secondary source. An example of this is using the military pension file of your great-great grandfather for his birth date if no other birth record exists. Since he gave the date, there is some credibility for its accuracy.

Just because a source is "official" does not mean that a fact is correct, either. A great example of this is a death certificate that lists the person's birth date. The date of birth is usually obtained from someone's recollection, which might be fuzzy. The birth date could be correct, but its not direct evidence of the event, so its circumstantial and possibly suspect. The death certificate is, however, direct evidence of the death date, assuming the attending physician or relative has attested to the event, and should be considered accurate in that respect.

Regardless of whether your information is from a primary or secondary source, document the source. Unless you plan to publish a scholarly work on your lineage, nothing elegant is needed. Use this basic rule: record enough information about the source so someone else can go retrieve it. If you get data from the 1900 census, for example, record the roll number, state, county, city/township, page number, and family number. This way cousin Sue can go look it up easily at her library. For books, record the title, author, publisher, date published or edition, and page number. Be sure to include where you found the source, e.g., Ohio Historical library. Once you've been in several libraries, its hard to remember which one had a particular book.

Once you have the source documented, you can tie it to the information in your history. If you have any of today's genealogy software, like Legacy Family Tree for example, then it will do this for you. If you don't have software, then just footnote the source to the fact in your end notes. For example:

"Jacob Smith was born May 7, 1845 in Washington County, Ohio1.

End Notes:
1. Declaration for Pension of Jacob Smith dated June 6, 1907, US National Archives."

With your sources documented, anyone, including you, can retrieve the same data bringing credibility and traceability to your family history.

By Ralph Bishop, Your Family Legacy

Genealogy Magazines

Top 5 Genealogy Magazines for Family History Enthusiasts
From Kimberly Powell,
Your Guide to Genealogy.
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Keep up with the latest genealogy news, tips and techniques with these five wonderful genealogy magazines - perfect for keeping you enthusiastic about family history year-round. Many are available for international subscription or on CD-ROM.

1) Heritage Quest

First published in 1985, this publication's enormous content "sets it apart from other genealogy magazines." This full-color bimonthly publication is an excellent reference tool for beginners as well as advanced genealogists.
Publisher's Site


2) Ancestry Magazine

Expert guidance for the beginner to advanced historian is available in this colorful bimonthly magazine packed full of expert articles, regular columns, book reviews, case studies and more.
Publisher's Site


3) Family Tree Magazine

Chock full of tips and info in a fun, easy-to-read format, Family Tree Magazine reaches beyond genealogy research to also encompass ethnic heritage, family reunions, scrapbooking and historic travel. This is a U.S. magazine, not to be confused with Family Tree Magazine in the UK.
Publisher's Site


4) Everton's Genealogical Helper

Back to its original black and white format, Everton's Genealogical Helper still packs in all of the great genealogy articles, news, tips, Web sites, queries and reviews that genealogists have come to rely on since the first issue was published in 1947.
Publisher's Site


5) Family Chronicle

Published six times per year, this excellent family history magazine offers a variety of topics of interest to genealogists from beginner through advanced in full-glossy color. Written by genealogy enthusiasts for genealogy enthusiasts.

The Value of Military Service Records

Ancestry Magazine 3/1/2000 - Archive
March/April 2000
Vol. 18 No. 2

Lest We Forget: The Value of Military Service Records

Throughout its brief history, the United States has been involved in major world wars, numerous Indian wars, police conflicts, various NATO and humanitarian actions, civil disorders, and international disputes. U.S. aggressive actions date from 1675 to the present. It is, therefore, a rare generation of American men and women who have not been inspired or required to fight, who have not registered for war, shown up for training, or even misled authorities to avoid service.

Many of us have undoubtedly grown up hearing heroic war stories recounted over and again. The excitement of these stories has inspired many family historians to learn more about their family members’ military service. Others want to document the service of an ancestor to join a patriotic society.

Because the military, being the archetype of bureaucratic organizations, has kept detailed records, these records are an invaluable source of information about servicemen and women and the families they may have left behind. Aside from the additional information to family stories, consider what these records represent in the history of the world.

Lest We Forget

• People of all backgrounds and ethnicity have served with honor in war.
  
• Both men and women have served in various military capacities.
  
• Some men and women served or were drafted in more than one unit and for more than one country.
  
• Many civilians have been actively involved in war efforts.
  
• Some men and women served voluntarily, some were conscripted, and some had serious moral reservations about service or simply did not want to serve.
  
• Every country makes mistakes. One of the United States’ most prominent wartime errors is the relocation of about 110,000 Japanese Americans during World War II.

Military research includes a variety of records. There are records of military units, records of individual soldiers who served—including career and voluntary records, records of prisoners of war, and records of civilians who were involved in wartime activities. Finally, there are veteran benefit records which are sometimes most valuable to family historians.

Military Unit Records

Many military records, generated during both peacetime and war, document the business of the military unit. These records may include pay records, correspondence, records of orders, and reports of activities and events that the unit encountered.

For some wars and units, researching its records can generate documents of the activities and battles of the military unit. These records may contain little or no personal information about the personnel in the unit. For example, some earlier wars have compiled event cards that develop a rough chronology of some units. This information was taken from muster rolls and returns. Unfortunately, records for all wars and units are not available—there are none for the Revolutionary War.

Enlisted Military Records

A host of records on regular service men and women exist that include letters, indexes of correspondence, medical reports, muster rolls, and court martial documents. These records date from the colonial wars to the present time. Officer’s records may include rosters of officers and reports of military posts, camps, and stations. Post returns date from the early 1800s to 1916.

The Record and Pension Office also has a consolidated name index which dates from 1775 to 1904. The Adjutant General’s Office has records on enlisted soldiers dating from 1848 to 1889. There are also records on the Colored Troops Branch that date from 1863 to 1889 that may include records of enlisted personnel.

The National Archives has a number of early regular Army records that may be of interest to the family historian. For example, its collection of cadet applications for the U.S. Military Academy date from 1805 to 1866. Enlistment registers date from 1798 to 1912. A soldier’s service record may be derived from pay records, muster rolls of the military unit, medical records, court martial records, and pension and benefit records.

Similarly, service records for volunteer soldiers range from the colonial wars to the present day. These records include information from a variety of sources. Abstracts of records exist in the National Archives that range from the Revolutionary War to the Civil War. This information was abstracted onto cards from muster and pay rolls, rank rolls, hospital and prison records, etc. and were organized in a system called "Compiled Military Service Records." The record may show the person’s name, rank, unit, date of entry, and discharge or death. It may also include more personal data such as age, a physical description, and place of birth and place of enlistment. Pay close attention to the date and place of enlistment and compare it to others who enlisted at the same place. These men are often family members or from the same geographic area.

If your ancestor does not appear on one of these lists, there may be a number of reasons. A soldier may have been in the regular army or in a unit from a state other than the one where he lived. He may have served under more than one name or used different spellings of his name. Then, it is possible that accurate and complete records may simply not have been kept or were destroyed or lost.

Some things to keep in mind when researching military records where the information was abstracted onto cards:

• The name on the jacket is the one chosen by the abstractor and is not necessarily the correct one.
  
• If the soldier was in more than one unit, there may be more than one jacket envelope.
  
• Service by a solder for a state militia that did not muster into federal service will be located at various places and will not be included in the records at the National Archives or in the federal records groups. If the unit has a state name, the unit was probably also indexed in the state indexes.

There are compiled military service record indexes for the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Mexican War, Indian wars, Confederate army, Spanish American War and Philippine Insurrection, but not for the Union army in the Civil War.

Veteran and Post-Service Records

One of the most commonly used military records tells researchers about the activities of military personnel after their service was over. These records include applications, surveys, grants for bounty land warrants, etc. Military associated medical records and records of veteran’s homes may also help to illustrate the veteran’s activities during service.

Some of the most popular military records seems to be the service pension records. These records are typically rich sources of data for family information. The pension may identify the dates of service, some of the highlights of the service, and the type of disability, if any, that the veteran suffered from. Finally, and most importantly, pension records may include information about the veteran’s family and relatives. Pay special attention to any fellow comrades in arms as they may be relatives and/or family friends that help to connect a family or veteran to a particular area.

Pension records can exist outside of military units. In Kentucky, for example, depositions or other sworn statements of military service are often recorded in the County Clerk’s Minute or Order books. These very rich record sources may include vivid details of the service as well as activities and movements of the family after the service. Also, they may include the circumstances and physical health of the veteran at the time of service and at the time of the deposition. These affidavits can be recorded in nearly any court of record.

Other post-service records that should not be overlooked include soldier burial, headstone applications, cemetery records, and amnesty and pardon records.

Civilian Records

Most military records of units will include records of persons who served or supported the unit in a civilian capacity. These records can be found in the correspondence records of the unit, which are often indexed. Again, some record of civilian participation or support for the war efforts may be found in the civil courts in the area where they lived. These records have such importance that the DAR, for example, uses this criteria as a measure of support for the revolution and allows membership into the Society on this basis alone. Key examples of people who may be in this category include ministers.

Census Records

The census is an often overlooked source of information on military service. A census of military service men exists in the 1840 Federal Census which includes the veteran’s name, age, and residence. And, while a 1921 fire mostly destroyed the 1890 census, it contained information about the person’s name, rank, company, regiment or vessel, length of service, and disabilities associated with the service. The listing of widows of Union veterans survived for some states.

For the 1910 census, enumerators asked every male over fifty years of age who were born or immigrated to the country before 1865 if they were a survivor of the Civil War.

The tremendous courage and discipline required of those who served in military actions often moves and inspires us. As a result, it is easy to forget the terrible sacrifice required by war: the hardships, the anxiety of separation, the fear of death and mutilation, the disruption to one’s life and family, and the emotional scars that may never heal. Researching the military records available will help us remember those times as well.

Roseann Reinemuth Hogan, Ph.D., has been researching her family history since 1978. Her special interests include oral histories and social history.

How To Use The Web To Research Your Family Tree

Genealogy article brought to you by Russel Clark, Posted on: 2006-04-16

You would like to learn more about your family's genealogy. Where do you go? After you take the time to learn all that you can from the people that are living in your family, you will want to take the time to gather the facts that may go further back. You may need to take the time to learn about them more so than what these people can tell you. To do this, you can turn to the internet for help. Believe it or not, there are many ways in which the web can help you to get the results that you are looking for. And, since they are right at your fingertips, there is no way that you have to stop your search for genealogy at what your family can tell you.

If you go back a little farther, you may get to see some very interesting things about your family. You may get to learn who they were and what happened to them a little farther into history. To do this, though, you should tap into the resources that are on the web. You can start by looking at the genealogy resources that are offered to you right on the web. This will include such things as religious organizations that have many databases of families that have been with them including their pasts. You may want to look at genealogical resources that are strictly offered to you through the web through organizations that actually make this part of their job. In fact, you may also want to use message boards, blogs and other website forums in which others gather to look for those that are in their lives and in their pasts.

Another option that you have on the web is that of using the professionals that offer their services on the web. There are many of these. You will likely pay for their service, but this will be a good way to tap into the resources that may be beyond your reach. Many people will take the time to use these services because they offer an extensive line of resources to tap into. These may include a wide range of things that will allow them to date back your family much farther then you would be able to do on your own. Because they do this professionally, they have resources in place to make the task easier to do. Using them or using your own skills, the goal is to secure the history that your family has. You can do it and you will be rewarded for doing so.


This Genealogy article is provided by Articleteller - The Free Article Directory http://www.articleteller.com
Russel Clark is the webmaster for the popular familytreebuilder.net website.

Genealogy

Organizing Family Discoveries

Genealogy article brought to you by William Teleo, Posted on: 2006-06-05

It's great when the family gets together, but you know that it'll be much greater if all family members can get to know each other and share the family history. Much interest had been given to genealogic researches in the past years, but still, the most common form of genealogic research remains to be the family tree and its branching out. A family tree is a cinch to make if you intend to include only members of your immediate family (parents, sibling, grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins) but what if you aim to include the three generations before you? Or what if you intend to find out who your ancestors are? This entails a much larger scope and therefore a more thorough research. This also means more extensive notes, files, pictures, interview transcripts, and other documents. To save you from disorganization and make your research easier, Carolyn Billingsley and Desmond Allen have devised an efficient filing system specifically for genealogic research.

The materials they prescribed are easy enough to procure such as a filing cabinet (boxes will do), data records, pens with black ink, file folders, notebook (loose leaf), and notebook dividers. They recommend that you start by making nuclear family records. Printed forms are available to make it easier. Record information by family. Separate your own family record from that of your parents. Use marriages as guide, as each marriage requires a separate data sheet. Fill out forms backward, starting from the present and to the past. Make all information on each family uniform, leave spaces for unknown data and fill them out later when you got the missing links. It is also important to indicate sources of the information. Include birth certificates, death certificates, and marriage certificates with the members' personal information but remember to use only photocopied records. Label sheets with family surnames and put them in file folders duly labeled. Collect and store these nuclear family sheets to larger family groups. To do these use bigger filing folders. Label these folders by the family patriarch's name, for example, your grandfather's name. Include in this folder all files of your uncles, aunts, parent, married siblings, married cousins, etc. An optional step is to add a contents page to give you a clue about what is inside the folders. These will make it easier for you to fill out your family tree and its branches. An organized research will save you the trouble of diving into heaps of paper searching for documents that you think are there but have no idea where to find.

This Genealogy article is provided by Articleteller - The Free Article Directory http://www.articleteller.com