I am the historian for my family - the one who has assumed the responsibility for writing a genealogical history for all of my ancestors and all of my extended family's descendants. This is a pretty awesome responsibility. I need to make sure that all of my facts are correct before I pass them on to all of my family members - and to other researchers for other, affiliated, families. I learned early in my genealogical research days that you can find almost everything on the internet, and that the resources on the internet are getting bigger and better every day. Unfortunately, I also found that some of the data found on the internet is wrong or inaccurate. Too many researchers accept other people's work as gospel without checking it out themselves.

As family historians we have the responsibility to be as accurate as we can be with facts we publish in our genealogies. We can only do that by providing quality citations for the sources that we use in our research. If accurate citations are provided in our genealogies - then other researchers can 1) see that we have cited a quality source and accept them, or 2) decide that the source is questionable and needs more investigation or reject it entirely. Citing the source also helps us when we revisit our documentation to update it or publish it.

In general, sources take four forms:

1. Source Documents or Data: These would be original courthouse records of marriages, births, deaths, etc. They can also be letters or other original documents, headstones of graves, and other non-paper sources.

2. Transcriptions of Source Data: As indicated by the name, these would be transcriptions of documents into paper or digital format. Examples are transcriptions of cemetery lists, census lists, will books, etc. Some of these can be found online or in commercially available CD-ROM's.

3. Genealogy or County/City History Books: These are written documents that reflect the information gathered by another genealogist or historian from original sources. Some of them cite sources, others do not. Many genealogy books and county or city history books can be found in digital format on CD-ROM. A few can be found on the internet.

4. Verbal History: The most valuable source of genealogical information about your family is the older members of the family. Talk to them now about the family history. Do it before they die and their memories are lost forever.

Citing these sources in your genealogy documents should take similar form to citations used in other non-fiction works. The following are a few examples that will help you cite the source so that it can be found again by you, and bu others.

1. Citing an internet source (web page): Much data can be found on web sites like Ancestry.com, Gencircles.com, ans so forth. Here is a suggested form for citing a web page fact:

Sullivan County, Indiana Index of Wills 1820 - 1956, Sullivan County Home Page, <web URL here>, Smith Data, downloaded on 25 December 2006.

Note: This is a ficticious web URL.

It is suggested that you include the title of the data set (Sullivan Co., Indiana Index of Wills 1820-1956), home page name (Sullivan County Home Page), internet URL (the web address), the data you extracted & are citing (Smith Data), and the date it was accessed (25 Dec 06). The reason you should include the date is because web sites change quite often and you should indicate when you accessed the specific site you are citing.

2. Citing an Original Source is straight forward. Here are two examples:

Greene County, Indiana Courthouse, County Clerk's Records, Will Book #12, Page 234b, "Will of Simon Smith," 12 January 2007.

Mountainview Cemetery, Sonoma, California. Headstone of Caleb Smith. Visited 5 March 2008.

The idea in the citation is to explain whare the information came from, what the information is, and when it was researched by you. Provide enough data for someone else to find it if they want to go there in person.

3. Citing a genealogy or history book or book on CD-ROM is easy: Here is an example of both.

"Annals of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania in the Olden Time; being a Collections of Memoirs, Anecdotes, and Incidents of the City and its Inhabitants," John F. Watson, C. W. Murray Publishers, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1850. Volume 1, Page 235.

"Annals of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania in the Olden Time; being a Collections of Memoirs, Anecdotes, and Incidents of the City and its Inhabitants," John F. Watson, C. W. Murray Publishers, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1850. Volume 1, Page 235. Digital scan of the original book on CD-ROM.

You need to provide the title of the book (or document), the author, the publisher, the city it was published in, the date of publication, the page in which the data was found.

4. Citing a verbal or personal source like a letter or email:

Interview with Rebecca M. Smith about the early Smith's of Houston, Texas; on 10 February 2000.

Letter from Rebecca M. Smith to George W. Smith dated 12 June 1985 concerning the early Smith Family of Houston, Texas.

Description of the early Smith family of Houston, Texas; email message from <email address here> to the author, 2 August 2001.

When citing personal data like family interviews or letters that others may not have access to, you should provide the name of the source, the date the information was provided, and the type of information provided.

Just remember that if you cannot cite a source, the data is not 'real.' Try to cite your sources so that others can find the data themselves. It will not only make your material look more professional and reliable, but will purge your data of inaccurate data over time.