Sometimes you encounter a webpage that you absolutely have to bookmark. The Cite Your Sources article on the FamilySearch Wiki is one of those pages.
Recreational web browsers and genealogy researchers won’t tumble to the importance of this page, but any serious researcher will.
Without sources, all your research proves is just that you have a good imagination. With sources from primary and reputable secondary sources, you’ve captured history.
When do you add sources to your data? Constantly. As soon as you find relevant information, make a habit of adding the source citation to it, be it in your database, on hardcopy or on a digital image.
New researchers don’t realize that sources should be recorded using specific patterns. They need to read and follow the citation examples found in a style guide. Two of the most popular were written by Elizabeth Shown Mills. Another is the time honored and broadly used Chicago Manual of Style while two others are more contemporary to the age of the Internet.
What do correct citations look like? This is a major reason to bookmark the wiki page. It gives numerous examples that site a variety of sources. Put the bookmark at or near the top your bookmark list. You’ll be visiting this page to review them over and over no that you are properly capturing and recording them.
Sources. Capture them initially. Capture them constantly. Record them correctly.
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