June wrote: If you have many sources for something do you enter them all?
When my children were baptised there is information via personal knowledge because I was there, information from the register in the church and then information from the Baptismal I received. Do I enter them all? June, YES, you enter them all. Why? Source citation allows you to get to the most interesting part of genealogy -- EVALUATING THE EVIDENCE. Every event and relationship in a good family history is supported by a citation, and ideally, more than one citation from sources independently generated at or near time of the event by someone with little/no vested interest in the record. Picture future genealogists (who don't know you) reading your family history. They will assign much more credibility to your child's baptismal event (and date and place) if it is supported by all three sources because any single source, no matter how official or personal, can contain blatant errors. IN addition, other researchers may want to check your sources for themselves, and those sources can lead them to additional records unavailable to you. If you simply cite "personal knowledge" in your database, researchers who might take your family history a step further may never know about your family's connection to a specific church, which -- as I said -- may yield more information. It is seldom that I say about anything in my database, "My sources for that are PERFECT -- no need to enter more." All of this becomes MUCH more important when you have conflicting evidence. Right now I am working on family of 10 children. Those children's birth, marriage, and death records cite 3 different maiden names for what appears to be one mother. The mother's own records cite each of the names as maiden names. Without scrupulous source citation, I will never sort it all out. Cafi Cohen Arroyo Grande, CA Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyfamilytree.com/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
