Citing your sources in genealogy research is of vital importance when doing your Mexican family genealogy research. It is very important that you learn to cite your genealogy sources and here is why.
The exciting sensation you get when you find a new record on your ancestors can be rewarding, but there is a great need for caution.
Citing your sources will help you know the exact place that you found your information. Beginner family historians and Genealogists alike may make the mistake of not citing the source of their research, thinking they would always remember. However, that is far from true, because as time goes by the ability to remember might become more difficult leaving the genealogist confused.
By citing sources for genealogical research, you can compare the past research of others with new ones and accurately make your deductions from them. Gathering information to build your family tree or for your genealogy research is one part of the process. The other part is to provide proof of where you got your information in order to analyze its veracity accurately.
For example, when tracing your Mexican genealogy, make sure to jot down the day, month, or year and place. Mexico has hundreds of years of record-keeping and offers a great wealth of church and civil records, citing will greatly help the genealogical and historical researcher to find information among this wealth of records.
Learn to Cite Your Genealogy Sources
This is a very simple citation:
Check out the End of Post for Link to more Examples
As you gather your sources for genealogy research make sure you do an adequate effort to ensure a record of where they are from is stated. Since a reference of origin needs to be appended to each document and each fact on the handwritten family group sheets or family tree software. A reference to sources allows for an excellent analysis of information.
Proof evaluation is more than appraising facts on a record. The document or group of documents requires that they are studied. Always keep in mind the purposes they were written for, and that the people who formulated them influenced content and precision. Other variables you need to evaluate include laws and practices like, how the record was stored, the kind of materials employed, and language and handwriting.
Some genealogists wrongly think it satisfactory to list a reference as explicitly “census” or “family member.” Those mere citations will raise inquiries later. So it is beneficial to source-cite correctly and completely early in a genealogical research project. In the long run, it will save you time, as a good citation will not require the genealogist to go back for additional citation information.
It is of paramount importance to cite your genealogy sources in your genealogical research as it provides future genealogists with a roadmap to your work. This map can be used to follow through on the steps you used for your research, possibly uncovering new information concerning your family tree. Helping them to come to a conclusive decision to approve or disprove your findings. You should not find any scrutiny from other family researchers and or genealogists to be offensive because you sourced your family tree. Instead, you should welcome any input as citing of many sources helps your family tree to be published without any objections.
Citation Examples on How to Cite Your Genealogy Sources
If you would like to know how to cite every possible document please check out these examples: APA Citation Examples
I hope that by this point I have convinced you of how important it is to cite your sources as you do your genealogy research.
Read More on How to Cite Your Genealogy Sources
In the following article, you can read further into properly citing your sources.
Genealogical Evidence, Is your Ancestor Really Your Ancestor?
To recap, citing your genealogical sources is not just important it is a must. If you are going to invest money and time into researching your ancestors you might as well do it right.
