Different sources are cited differently, and that is not the subject of this post.
Citations themselves can be written differently, and that also is not the subject of this post.
This post offers a sidebar on how to record, as you are researching, what information a document, a narrative, a newspaper article, includes for later quick reference. From around 1910 until now, birth information is most often found in a birth certificate, death in a death certificate, and marriage in a marriage certificate. Line up a row of birth, marriage, and death certificates, and your family is laddered into a huge tree.
Earlier, not so much. And the earlier the time, the fewer records. Marriage records go back decades, and sometimes there are christening records. Before that…again, not so much.
So where do the facts come from? From tax records, from deeds, and from newspapers. (and that’s another huge set of blogs.)
[I am a convert to “write/cite” and offer many bows and thank yous to the inventors, teachers and discussers of this technique who have taught me and shared wisdom informally; it’s a very long list.
This post offers a sidebar on how to record, as you are researching, what information a document, a narrative, a newspaper article, includes for later quick reference. From around 1910 until now, birth information is most often found in a birth certificate, death in a death certificate, and marriage in a marriage certificate. Line up a row of birth, marriage, and death certificates, and your family is laddered into a huge tree.
Earlier, not so much. And the earlier the time, the fewer records. Marriage records go back decades, and sometimes there are christening records. Before that…again, not so much.
So where do the facts come from? From tax records, from deeds, and from newspapers. (and that’s another huge set of blogs.)
[I am a convert to “write/cite” and offer many bows and thank yous to the inventors, teachers and discussers of this technique who have taught me and shared wisdom informally; it’s a very long list.
However, that technique does not speak directly to the case of re-finding, quickly and easily, which article of the 157+ saved holds the information on birthday, residence or relationship. Hence, a new wrinkle.]
Many sources include useful information which is often not reflected in the title of the article. How could the relevant facts be tracked, especially when the number of sources numbered in the hundreds; memory is good, but has its limits.
Once the following solution presented itself, it was however, a “duh,” and an “of course.”
I put each source on its own page. Paper is cheap; electronic paper is even cheaper.
- The page is topped by the citation – or all the info that will become the citation.
- Next comes a snip of the source – or the whole source if it is small.
- Next, if the snip is handwritten, or difficult to read, a transcription.
4. Then – and this is the only new thought of the mix – a list, in whatever font size is very easy to read when glancing at that page, on screen or on paper, of those things in this source that speak to the question or situation being explored.
So… when the question is building the Ferguson tree (a personal project) a social tidbit about Mrs. Webb from Bryan, Texas visiting her father Eugene [Ferguson] in Bloomington is of GREAT interest. Published in June 4, 1934, this 4- line squib offers that Mrs. Webb is the daughter of Eugene, that she lives in Texas, he lives in Bloomington, Ill.
And the page after #3 would look like this (below):
- · June 4, 1934
- · Mrs. Webb daughter of Eugene (ferguson)
- · Mrs. Webb lives in Bryan, Texas --- [look into her marriage]
- · Eugene lives in Bloomington, Illinois.
If you find this useful, wonderful. If not, of course keep doing what you have been doing.
Peace.
TA
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Since last time: Writing up a storm and using #4 (above) to
keep straight all the bits and pieces.
Looking forward to SLIG in a week, and enjoying the posts from this week
of SLIG.