Record Keepers

Family historians and genealogists are the record keepers of our generation. It is our responsibility to gather, organize and accurately record our family history. What does this mean? It means that as we gather and record our family's history it is of prime importance to document our facts and conclusions. At the risk of repeating myself, I will say again that every fact on a family group record or every fact in our genealogical database must be attached to a complete source citation.

It is not enough to simply state that the information came from grandma. Every citation must be complete with meaningful details. A simple test of completeness is to ask yourself this question: "If I show someone this citation, will they be able to get back to the record or person from which the original information was recorded?".

Basic citations include a title, author, publisher and location, date of publication, page number. I would also suggest that you add where you examined the record, or the location of the repository (The repository is where the record resides).

What if your source is a person? How is that information recorded? Follow the same outline and make sure to include the title, which may be a phone interview. The person giving the information, full name. Include the date of the conversation. Contact information for the interviewee. You may also want to include your relationship and other pertinent information such as age or condition of the interviewee.

Adding Sources to your PAF data

Sources are an important part of good record keeping. A general rule that should be applied is: Enter at least one source for every fact. Entering sources for every fact will help you evaluate evidence as you research. I know that entering sources for every fact may seem time consuming, however your work will be credible to others if you have sources listed.

Open your PAF file and look at each individual you have entered. Open the "Edit Individual" box by double clicking on a name. Once the box is open, look at the facts you have entered. Next to the birth date and place line you will notice a small letter "s". This is where a source is entered for the birth date and birth place fact. Double click on the small "s". You will be brought to the "Select Source" box. Since you are just beginning this box will be empty. To enter a new source click the "New" button found in the lower portion of the select source box. Another box will open, this is the "Edit Source" box. There are spaces to enter a title, author and publication information. There are more spaces but we will only use the 3 above mentioned at this point. You may easily enter the title, author and publication of your source and then click "OK". This will save the source. You will then be brought again to the "Select Source" box. The entry you just entered will be highlighted. Click the "Select" button and the "Sources" box will open. At this point you may add the citation detail such as page number. Click "OK" to save your additions and your source will be attached to the birth date and birth place fact. You will notice that when a source is added that an "*" appears next to the small "s" to notify you that a source is connected to a particular fact. Repeat this process for all the facts you have entered in PAF.