Software Feature - Sources
How Valuable is Your Source?
Before considering documentation of sources it is important for you to know how reliable a source is in your research. Often you may be misled by the information you find if the record being used was recorded "after the fact." The most reliable records are called "Primary Sources" and everything else are "Secondary Sources." Some records can be both as I will explain later.
Primary Sources
A Primary source record is one which was recorded at or very near the time of the event with information provided by one (or more) of the parties involved. A good example is a marriage record. Both the bride and groom supplied the information on it.
The purest Primary Source records are:
If you have used the facilities at a LDS Family History Center (FHC) you are probably familiar with the computer database called the International Genealogical Index (IGI), 50% of the records extracted for inclusion in this database came from Civil Birth and Marriage records and Church Christening and marriage records. Death records are not a pure primary source so those were not used in the extraction program.
- Civil Birth Records
- Civil Marriage Records
- Church Christening records
- Church Marriage Records (banns are not verification of marriage)
Secondary Sources
A Secondary source record is one made after the event or by someone else and can often lead us astray. For example: Death records are Primary in that they provide the date and place of death of the individual. BUT they are secondary for birth and birth place information and information about the parents of the deceased, as the person giving that information may be only guessing or not really know these facts.
Ordinarily, you should have more than one secondary source to verify an event if no primary source is available.
Primary / Secondary Source Records
These are the best records to use even though some may be combinations of primary and secondary sources. Just be aware of which part of the record is which:
- Census - primary because it tells you where the person was on that date and with whom he/she was living. Anything else is secondary
- Military records - primary for military service, secondary for anything else.
The worst records for reliability are:
- Vital Records - Birth, Death and Marriage
- Church Records - christenings, burials, marriage (not necessarily banns as the marriage may not have taken place), church minutes.
- Probate records - wills, distribution of estates, inventories and sales or quit claim deeds of estates.
- Land records - both grantor and grantee
- Court records - Orphan's court, divorce court, court of common pleas, minutes etc.
- Military records - enlistments, pensions, bounty lands
- Miscellaneous records where the individual applied for something - life insurance, fraternal order membership, guild/apprenticeship, draft registration, Social Security.
Sources to view with caution are family traditions. One family tradition in my family was that my ggrandmother was a Huron Indian. I have since proved that to be false and she is actually descended from early New England immigrants.
- Family Bibles - check the publication date of the bible. If it was published several years after the records found in it, be cautious.
- Personal Knowledge - always try to verify the information
- Naturalization papers - especially if the person arrived at an early age. Need verification.
- Newspapers - misspellings often occur and pictures may have the wrong captions.; These sources are often "after the fact."
- Large compendiums and family histories, CDs containing submitted family genealogies, these are all rife with errors so you need to verify, verify, verify.
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