My original genealogy database started in the mid-1980s when I began using Personal Ancestral File. I did not include sources in those early days. I’m not even sure that one could really cite sources back then, but I was careful to obtain information from “somewhere.”<\/p>\n
“Somewhere” was defined rather loosely, but it was made clear to me early in my research that I needed to have a source for information as I entered it on my family group charts (which I used and filled out with a manual typewriter before I got a computer in 1985). For much of my maternal side those sources initially were compiled family histories. Probably the biggest problem I later discovered with my research on those families was that I or someone had totally butchered the name. I later migrated to a variety of local records (which involved name butchering by clerks and census takers). I was always reliant on local records for my paternal families as there were no published family histories.<\/p>\n
I had it drilled in me that I needed to find actual “record” sources for information and that “tradition” and “what aunt so-and-so” needed to be backed up. I also tend to be somewhat cynical and doubtful of information by nature and that helped a great deal. I also learned a lesson early on in “grabbing” a random Mr. Miller to be the father of my Miller ancestor because he was the closest one I could find and the easiest to research. I’ve cut myself some slack for that since I was 14 at the time. Because I tried to have some source when entering information, most of the time (with some exceptions), when I’ve gone back and tried to documented something already in my database, what I have is fairly accurate. The problem is that sometimes it is difficult to document your research twenty or thirty year after the fact. Your memory of how you found it the first time fades.<\/p>\n
And sometimes when it is clearly wrong, you wonder if you actually dreamed it. That’s why we cite sources.<\/p>\n
I still have a great deal of “unsourced” data in my database. \u00a0A great deal. Going through all of it and sourcing it will take some time. I may never get through it all as sourcing adequately and completely is a much slower process than simply entering in what one locates.<\/p>\n
I’ve taken to using my “old” database as a stepping stone to reworking specific families. I’m not doing the research over from scratch as that is a waste of time. I try and remember that any of my conclusions from the old days could be wrong and I also try not to invest any emotional attachment to my old conclusions. One doesn’t want to hold unsourced conclusions too closely.<\/p>\n
The only time I “start from scratch” is if I realize that I really don’t have much information in the first place or if it appears that what I have is somehow fundamentally flawed. Once in a while a clean slate is good.<\/p>\n
Going through and getting the sources on a family that I thought I had done years ago (but unsourced) sometimes leads to the best discoveries. We tend to overlook things when we think we are done.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My original genealogy database started in the mid-1980s when I began using Personal Ancestral File. I did not include sources in those early days. I’m not even sure that one could really cite sources back then, but I was careful to obtain information from “somewhere.” “Somewhere” was defined rather loosely, but it was made clear […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3734\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}