Why is it important to source your information accurately?

Genealogical research requires you to consult numerous sources of information: official documents, civil status registers, parish registers, as well as data already collected by other amateur or professional genealogists.

So you spend many hours looking through these documents, and when you find something of interest, you make a note in your notebook (or directly in your computer) of the information that seems relevant to you.

But are you sure you’re not making any mistakes or omissions?

Accuracy of information

It’s not uncommon to make a mistake when copying a date or a name. Since you don’t necessarily have the means to check the information, you’ll be working on the rest of your research based on erroneous information.

Completeness of information

It’s not uncommon to overlook information that doesn’t seem significant at the time of reading, such as a person’s occupation. This can lead to the loss of an important source of information, as certain professions have organizations that keep up-to-date and highly instructive registers on a person’s life, such as sailors’ enlistment logs.

How to reduce the risk of error or omission?

Noting down and checking everything takes a lot of time, and you may not be able to make the right checks at the time you read a document – and if you do so later, you’ll have to consult it again.

Yes, but are you sure you’ll be able to do it a few weeks or months later? Have you kept its references? Will the document still be available for consultation?

How can you avoid these mistakes?

We’ve come up with a method that will reduce almost all these risks. As soon as you find something you think is interesting in a document :

1. Make a copy of the whole document (not just the part containing the information).

• • On the Internet, you can often download the document (or scan it) or make a copy of the screen.
  • In an archive reading room, it is possible to photograph the document. If the document is consulted from microfilm, it is possible to request a printout of the plate concerned.

1. Please note :
   • The name of the entity holding the document, e.g. “Archive Départementale XX”.
   • the title of the document, e.g. “Ville de Table décennale des naissance [date début – date fin]”
   • the document’s classification reference (or “call number”), e.g. “E Mi TD 25”.
2. Please also note
   • The purpose of the document,
   • The names of the people mentioned,
   • Date and place.

If you wish to obtain a digital copy of the document, the most efficient way is :

• name the copy of the document with the name of the place where you found it, its call number and its title;
• write a quick note in a “txt” file given the same name.

Since computers allow you to find files by name or by the information they contain, it will be easy to find them again even if your filing system isn’t perfect!