Genealogy and Family History

How to Begin

Organizing Information

• Making Copies, Using Tools
• Computer Methods
• Manual Methods
• Preserving Artifacts
• Cite Your Sources!

Cite Your Sources!

Citing your sources is one of the most important things you must do as a genealogist. Citing your sources accurately will let you do the following:

• return to the source from which you got the information;
• preserve the details of what you used, when you cannot return to the source;
• avoid checking the same source twice for the same information;
• assess conflicting data by weighing the surety of different sources; and
• provide accurate information about your sources when you share information.

Evidence!: Citation & Analysis for the Family Historian by Elizabeth Shown Mills (Baltimore: Genealogical Pub. Co., 1997) is the best single manual on modern citation practices in English for genealogists.

Although there is no similar book written in French specifically for genealogists, any French-language guide or manual on genealogical research and methodology will describe this important practice.