Alan E. Mann, AG

alan.familyhistory@gmail.com                                                                                                     Accredited Genealogist

Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy                                                                               January 2006

Power Tools for Internet Genealogy

 

Documenting Your Internet Findings

 

It has always been important to document your research findings and cite your sources. Genealogy continues to improve the methods for documentation and to encourage all to cite their sources. In the past five years, it has become commonplace to find information on the Internet. This has brought a new light on an old concern—how do I document what I find on the Internet? How do I cite the source?

 

Documentation and citation of sources go hand in hand. Documentation is recording how conclusions were reached and showing evidence to support those conclusions. Citation is recording the specific sources and showing how, if possible, to get back to the source. Information on the web is constantly expanding, changing, and even disappearing. How can one cite an Internet source?

 

It is important to review existing guidelines which introduce many of the basic issues and give a framework for the discussion of documentation and citation.  First, take a look at the National Genealogical Society standards page at www.ngsgenealogy.org/comstandards.cfm. There are links to several separate sets of standards on specific topics. In this case, several apply.

 

Once the pertinent details are obtained from the NGS web pages, you should obtain and read Elizabeth Shown Mills’  Evidence! Citation and Analysis for the Family Historian.  There, she presents and discusses 13 Guidelines for Documentation, followed by 13 Guidelines for Analyzing Evidence. Elizabeth’s book goes on to give suggested examples of formats for citations in hundreds of different situations. Another list of examples is available at www.progenealogists.com/citationguide.htm.

 

Guidelines for Documentation

1.      Any statement of fact that is not common knowledge must carry its own individual statement of source.

  1. Source notes have two purposes:

a.      to record the specific loca­tion of each piece of data, and

b.      to record details that affect the use or evaluation of that data.

  1. Sources are tracked in two basic ways: by generic lists (bibliographies) and by source notes keyed to specific facts.
  2. Source notes have two basic formats: full citations and short citations.
  3. Source notes for narrative accounts can be presented in four ways: footnotes, endnotes, parenthetical citations, and hypertext.
  4. Source notes keyed to narrative text should be numbered consecutively; the corresponding numbers should appear in correct sequence within the text.

7.      Explicit source notes should also appear on ancestor charts and family group sheets.

  1. Full citations should be affixed to the front side of every pho­tocopied document and should appear on every page of a research report.

9.      We should not cite sources we have not used; it is both risky and unethical to "borrow notes" from other writers.

10.  Even a full citation of source may not be sufficient, legally or ethically, when copying from another work.

  1. Microforms and electronic materials need extra treatment.
  2. Clear citations require attention to many details.
  3. Citing a source is not an end to itself; our real goal is to have the best possible source to cite.

 

Source of 13 Guidelines for Documentation:

Mills, Elizabeth Shown. Evidence! Citation and Analysis for the Family Historian. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1997, p. 18

 

Guidelines for Analyzing Evidence

1.      Direct evidence is easier to understand, but indirect evidence can carry equal weight.

2.      Reliable genealogical conclusions are based on the weight—not quantity—of the evidence found.

3.      Evidence should be drawn from a variety of independently created sources.

4.      Original source material generally is more reliable than de­rivative material.

5.      The reliability of a derivative work is influenced by the de­gree of processing it has undergone.

6.      The purpose of a record and the motivation of its creators frequently affect its truthfulness.

7.      The most reliable informants have firsthand knowledge of the events to which they testify.

8.      The veracity and skill of a record's creator will have shaped its content.

9.      Timeliness generally adds to a document's credibility.

10.  Penmanship can establish identity, date, and authenticity.

11.  A record's custodial history affects its trustworthiness.

12.  All known records should be used and a thorough effort made to identify unknown materials.

13.  The case is never closed on a genealogical conclusion.

 

Source of 13 Guidelines for Analyzing Evidence:

Mills, Elizabeth Shown. Evidence! Citation and Analysis for the Family Historian. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1997, p. 44.

 

Documentation and Citation Principles

It is important to record reasoning along with sources. It is not necessary to record all sources if one single source is conclusive, but it may be desirable to cite additional sources to account for the absence of contradiction or to deal with any contradiction other records might present. You may want to cite/document derivative works (compiled sources) which reached invalid conclusions or relied on inaccurate data.

 

It is critical to record the progress of research, sources consulted, reasoning considered, conclusions reached, and specific findings. A research log or another method which accomplishes these purposes should be used.

 

A good way to document is to include an image or copy of the original. It does NOT replace the need to cite the source nor for any subsequent researcher to consult the source, but lends credibility and often alleviates concerns over misinterpretation.

 

When citing something found on the Internet, it is a good idea to document the creator (author) of the web site as well as the URL. Use home page, site searching, root checking, email, or familiarity with page/site structure to determine its origin. I recommend saving a copy of the page since web pages are not usually stable (File-Save as web page). This requires consideration of a naming and filing system for web pages. Refer to the file name and location in your documentation!  Use copy and paste.

 

Sample research log (form is usually two sided).

 

©Copyright 2006 by Alan E. Mann, AG.  All rights reserved.  Written permission to reproduce all or part of this syllabus material in any format, including photocopying, data retrieval or the Internet, must be secured in advance from the copyright holder. Lists of 13 guidelines used by permission.