Tag: citations

Maintenance, Sources and resources

Fix missing or inadequate family history source citations

generationsgenealogyaus

Have you ever looked at your family tree and thought, “Where did that information come from?”

Or looked at a name, date or place in your family tree and wondered whether the information is correct?

Family history source citations are crucial in developing an accurate family history. And yet, missing or incomplete family history source citations are one of the most common problems we all face.

Those missing or incomplete source citations matter. Here’s why—and how you can start fixing them.

Why genealogy source citations matter

The main danger of failing to cite your sources is that you won’t be able to verify the accuracy of the data you entered. It may be supported by credible evidence, or it may have been a guess, an assumption, or a copy from an uncited tree.

Without good source citations:

  • You can’t tell how reliable the information is
  • You won’t know how to find the sources again
  • You won’t know how accurate your family history is.

Fixing missing citations isn’t just about good habits—it’s about improving the quality of your family history.

How to fix missing family history source citations

You don’t need to fix everything at once. Start with a manageable plan and a systematic approach. Here’s one way to approach it:

1. Choose your focus

It’s a good idea to improve source citations as you work, but you should also implement a systematic review. I suggest working along one grandparent line at a time. That makes it easier to keep track of where you are up to.

2. Review what you’ve got

Look at the information listed for each person and check:

Which information has:

  • no sources cited, or
  • just one source citation.

For information that does have citations:

  • Do they contain all the necessary information to help you find the source again? For example, a citation like “birth certificate” or “ancestry.com” does not contain all the necessary elements – see my Six Question Model, below.
  • Are they in the correct format?
  • Does the source actually contain the information that the citation is attached to?

If the answer is no, mark it for action. Make use of the tagging functions in your family tree software or online tree programs.

If you’re using Legacy Family Tree software, the program makes it easy to find people who are missing source citations.

  • Open the Search tab.
  • Click on the Missing Sources tab.
  • Use the checkboxes to define your search – for example, you can search for individuals who have no sources at all, or you can search for those who are missing sources for their birth, death and marriage information.
  • Click on the Create List button.
  • You can save a copy of your search list by clicking on the Options button, then Print, and save as CSV file or a PDF file. I prefer the CSV format because you can open it in Excel and mark off the individuals as you fix the citations.

From here, you can begin reviewing these individuals and fixing the source citations.

3. Add or revise your source citations

If you have a copy of the source:

  • examine the source
  • generate a source citation and
  • attach it to the information.

If you do not have a copy, you will need to research the information again.

Don’t forget to update your tags, so that you know the problem has been fixed.

Once you’ve reviewed and begun correcting your citations, a few tools and strategies can make the process smoother and more sustainable over time.

Tips to make fixing genealogy citations easier

Use examples: Create a sample set of citations for sources that you use frequently, or keep a citation guide handy, such as Noeline Kyle’s book, Citing Historical Sources [1]. You can also use a citation generator, such as Cite-Builder.

Use software tools: Family tree programs let you search for people who are missing source citations. Use these tools to create a list or checklist. Ancestry Pro Tools, for example, has the Tree Checker.

Break it into manageable chunks: You might aim to review one ancestor per week or fix citations for a single surname line over a month.

Measure and celebrate your progress: Watching that long list getting shorter and shorter is a great motivator. Every citation you fix improves the quality of your family history.

Use the Six Question Model: To create a clear, useful source citation, use the Six Question Model from my book, The Good Genealogist.

The Six-Question Model list of question prompts to create family history source citations.
The Six Question Model for family history source citations from my book, The Good Genealogist (D. Lautrec, 2022)

Improve the quality of your family history with better source citations

It may seem overwhelming – fixing all those missing or incomplete family history source citations. But every time you fix one you improve the quality of your family history.

Taking time to fix source citations is a chance to correct errors, strengthen your evidence, and feel more confident about the accuracy of your family tree.

It also helps other researchers and family members, by sharing reliable and useful information.

More genealogy citation tips and resources

Learn more about writing good family history source citations from my other articles, listed on the Document Your Family History page. Or, come along to one of my lectures or courses at the Society of Australian Genealogists.

Learn more about maintaining your family history, with articles listed the Maintain Your Family History page.

[1] Kyle, Noeline, Citing historical sources: a manual for family historians, St Agnes, SA : Unlock the Past, 2013

Post last updated 17 May 2025

Sources and resources

3 tips for easy family history source citations

generationsgenealogyaus

A lot of people struggle with family history source citations. Here are three tips to make it easier, using my Six Question Model for citing sources.

Tip 1 for family history source citations

If you ever get stuck on what to include in family history source citations, think back to the purpose of citations. Then check whether your citation meets those objectives.

One of the key purposes of family history source citations is to help you find the source again. Why would you need to look it again? Perhaps you only took notes from it instead of taking a copy; or you did take a copy, but it was only an extract and now you need another part of that source.

The citation also helps another researcher find that source if they want to look at it themselves.

So, ask yourself: Does the citation provide sufficient information to find that source again? And by ‘that’ source, I do mean that particular version of the source – not another version that may be slightly different.

Example:

Poor citation:  Death notice, Ryerson Index

Better citation: Death notice, James Hend, Ryerson Index www.ryersonindex.org, citing Sydney Morning Herald 22 October 1975

Tip 2 for family history source citations

Many repositories provide suggestions for citing family history sources. Some provide a specific suggested citation. Others provide a guide to citing their sources.

In most cases, these suggestions will be adequate for your purposes. The exception might be if you were writing for a university course or a journal, as they may require a slightly different citation format.

Ancestry and FamilySearch, for example, provide suggested citations for each source on the ‘View Record’ screen. FamilySearch has the citation under the heading ‘Cite This Record’, while on Ancestry you need to click on the ‘Source’ tab above the index entry. You can also get a suggested citation after you attach an Ancestry source to your Ancestry tree by opening the record and clicking on ‘Citation Details’.

Archives generally have guides to citing the material in their collections, so look for them on their websites.

Examples:

  • National Archives of Australia, Citing Archival Records – Fact Sheet 7
  • NSW State Archives, Publishing and Citing State Archives
  • National Archives UK, Citing Records in The National Archives.

Tip 3 for family history source citations

There are some sources that we use over and over in our research – just the details change. You can save a lot of time, and be more consistent in your citations, if you list your frequently used sources and create a template citation for each of them. Next time you use that source, you just add the new details.

Here are some of the sources that I use most frequently:

  • NSW births deaths and marriages
  • English censuses
  • convict records
  • Australian electoral rolls
Six Question Model for family history source citations
To craft your own citation, you must ask a series of questions. Each of these questions generates information for the citation which meets the citation objectives. These questions work for all source types. (The Good Genealogist, Lautrec, 2022)

More information

For a comprehensive discussion about source citations, see my article Citing Family History Sources. For more of my articles about family history source citations and documenting family history, go to the Document page.

Sources and resources

Citing an archival source

generationsgenealogyaus

One of the challenges when using archives is how to cite their materials as the source of your information. Archival materials are unpublished and come in a wide range of formats. In addition, each archive organises their collections differently. Citing an archival source requires knowledge of the archive’s organisational system and the identifiers that they use in their catalogue.

Citation format

My usual method for citing sources is to use the following six questions. Place the answers in that general order in a citation. This puts the author in first place, which is useful in a bibliography that is sorted alphabetically.

My six question model for source citations:

  1. Whose work is it (author)?      
  2. What is it?                      
  3. Who created it (if not the author)?
  4. Where was it created?
  5. When was it created?
  6. Are there any additional details required to find it again?    

Examples

This method does work when citing an archival source, as shown by the following examples:

An unpublished diary held in the archives of the Society of Australian Genealogists:

John Augustus Milbourne Marsh, unpublished journal commences 1 September 1848 on ship from England to Australia, Item 2/301, Society of Australian Genealogists, Sydney Australia.

A photograph held in the archives of the Society of Australian Genealogists:

Anonymous, John Willoughby Bean (b1881 Bathurst NSW Australia), unpublished photograph in album of Edwin and Lucy Bean, Item 6/1165, Society of Australian Genealogists, Sydney Australia.

Other recommended formats

However, some archives suggest a different citation structure. They suggest that the name of the institution or repository be in first place in the citation, followed by descriptor information such as the record series and alphanumerical codes used in their catalogues.

Some, such as the NSW State Archives and the UK National Archives, omit the name of the creator of the source altogether or suggest that the information is optional in a citation. I do not agree with this. It is important in family history to understand who created a source and naming them in a citation should not be optional. It is also important to understand the nature of the source and a citation without the title of the item does not meet our needs.

Putting the repository in first place is not a problem if the creator of the source is clearly named, such as in this example from the NSW State Archives:

NSW State Archives: Supreme Court of NSW, Probate Division; NRS 13660, Probate packets. Series 4-152266 James Smith Hollisen – Date of Death 15/12/1927, Granted On 26/06/1928.

photograph of archival shelves

Further guidance

If you are using material from a family history archive, you may be able to gather information to help with your citation by examining other material that was donated with it, and looking for a record of who donated the material and whose family history it belongs to.

Some archives provide guidelines for citing their materials. You should use their guidelines, but bear in mind my suggestions in this article about providing more information about the creator of the materials and a clear description of the materials.

When creating a source citation for archival material, remember the reasons for source citations and include all the necessary information to achieve those purposes.

More information

For a comprehensive discussion about source citations, see my article Citing Family History Sources. For more of my articles on source citations and documenting your family history, go to the Document page.

National Archives of Australia Fact Sheet No. 7, Citing archival records.

NSW State Archives

UK National Archives

Post last updated 4 June 2024

Sources and resources

Family history source citations: Styles and format

generationsgenealogyaus

A lot of family historians feel ill-equipped to create good family history source citations. One of the aspects of source citations that can cause confusion is style and format – so let’s take a look at that today.

There are two things that make formatting family history source citations a bit tricky in family history. Firstly, there is no single standard format; and secondly, we use a lot of different types of sources.

Purpose of family history source citations

It is helpful to consider the purpose of family history source citations. We can use that purpose as a guide to the content that needs to be included and how that content might usefully be structured.

The purpose of family history source citations is to:

  • acknowledge the work of the creator of a source
  • locate the source, so that you can view it again, or another researcher can view it for the first time
  • help analyse the information obtained from the source.

I have blogged about this before. Read my articles: Four good reasons to cite your sources Part 1 and Four good reasons to cite your sources Part 2.

Citation style

The format of family history source citations is dictated by the citation style.

Different disciplines tend to stick with a particular citation style. Here are the most common:

  • APA (American Psychological Association) is used by the social sciences, such as Education, Psychology and Sciences
  • MLA (Modern Language Association) is used by the Humanities
  • Chicago is used by Business, History and the Fine Arts.

Since family history is a type of history, we use the Chicago style. The variation that we use is called Chicago A. It includes footnotes and a bibliography.

There is another version of the Chicago style called Chicago B, which uses author and date in brackets after the information instead of footnotes. Chicago B is not appropriate for family history because unpublished sources do not necessarily have an author.

Format of family history source citations

The format for family history source citations varies depending on the type of source. That is because there is different information needed to achieve our purpose – especially that purpose of locating the source.

A citation for a published book, for example, does not need information about the repository because there are multiple copies and you can find one by searching a library catalogue or bookshop website. However, a citation for an unpublished photograph needs information about the repository because it is a lot more challenging to find without that information. It also needs information about how the photograph is catalogued by that repository, such as a file number.

Example of a book citation in the Chicago style

Footnote: B.W. Higman, Slave Population and Economy in Jamaican 1807-1834, Kingston Jamaica,  1995, 81.

Bibliography: Higman, B.W., Slave Population and Economy in Jamaican 1807-1834, Kingston Jamaica, The Press University of the West Indies, 1995.

The main differences between the format for a footnote and the bibliography are:

  • the author’s surname is in first position in the bibliography, so that all publications by the one author are together when the list is arranged alphabetically
  • footnotes include a page number
  • footnotes generally include the location of publication but not the name of the publisher.

Some guides replace the commas with full stops.

Example of an unpublished source in the Chicago style

Footnote: John Willoughby Bean, unpublished photograph in album of Edwin and Lucy Bean, Item 6/1165, Society of Australian Genealogists, Sydney Australia.

Bibliography: Anonymous, John Willoughby Bean (b1881 Bathurst NSW Australia), unpublished photograph in album of Edwin and Lucy Bean, Item 6/1165, Society of Australian Genealogists, Sydney Australia.

The main differences between the format for a footnote and the bibliography for this source are that the bibliographic citation needs to include an author so that the list can be sorted alphabetically and it may contain additional identification details.

Final tips for family history source citations

I don’t want to get into the nitty gritty detail about constructing family history source citations in this post. However, here are a couple of final tips.

If your source has been published, you can use an online catalogue to help you create the source citation. Catalogues such as World Cat or your State library have a free citation generator built into the catalogue. Search the catalogue for your source, then click the button in the citation generator and it will create a citation that you can copy.

If the citation generator does not include Chicago style, then use Turabian. If the citation generator has both, you might find that the Chicago style places the year of publication after the author’s name and Turabian places it at the end of the citation.

There are a lot of citation guides for the Chicago style online. However, the problem is that they tend to focus on published material. If you need help creating a citation for unpublished material, it is best to use a guide developed by a genealogist.

More information

blog post: fixing family history source citations
I have many articles about source citations
blog post: 3 tips for family history source citations
Here are two examples

For a comprehensive discussion about source citations, see my article Citing Family History Sources. For more of my articles on source citations and documenting your family history, go to the Document page.

If you like this article, you will like my book, The Good Genealogist.

Post last updated 12 June 2024