Lessons Along The Source Road

All this year I've been working to source my family tree. Progress is slow due to insufficient time, but I'm happy to report that adding source citations is now second nature so I'm no longer intimidated by the process. However, I'll admit I am still intimidated by the size of the remaining task. I'll just take it in baby steps and not worry about how long it takes.

At this point I have added source citations for all of the easy sources (vitals, census and a few others depending on the person) for my direct ancestors. Whenever there was a record I hadn't tracked down, I looked again at Family Search to see if I might get lucky. In three cases, I did find old Ohio marriages that must have been added recently, because I know I've looked for them before. That made my day and just goes to show that sometimes it does pay to look again. I still have sources to add, such as plat maps, city directories (which will be a big project in itself) and less common items, but I want to continue with the low hanging fruit for some of the extended family members. Now I am branching out to the siblings of my ancestors. I know it will take a while, but I suspect I'll find something I hadn't notice before.

Another good thing about systematically going through my records is that I am actually using the “To Do” function in Roots Magic to add things I want to look for. This has already proved useful. A few months ago I had to make an unexpected trip to Kalamazoo and had the presence of mind to print my Kazoo list before I left, “just in case.” As it turned out, I had most of a day free and was able to look for some obituaries at the new WMU Archives. If I hadn't been using the To Do function there is no way I could have come up with so much on such short notice.

Although I know it will take me a really long time to finish (if I actually ever will finish, because there is always some obscure source to add for somebody) I feel better about the whole process. I have learned 1) adding sources is not so hard after all, 2) it gives me the opportunity to look for missing records again (and with Family Search adding more records all the time, you never know when you'll get lucky), 3) I can work on the To Do list so I can hunt for more things to source and 4) I no longer feel guilty that I don't have proper sources.