Using Major Original Sources - International Institute: Difference between revisions

{{Infobox NIFGS|June 2012|{{Methodology, parts 1-6}}|Louise St Denis, Brenda Dougall Merriman and Dr. Penelope Christensen}}  

Good research requires more than one piece of evidence to prove each point, simply because no one source can be relied upon 100%. There is no magic number as a lot depends upon the credibility of each source and whether the sources are truly independent. Say, your Grandad provided the information for the census giving Brighton as his birthplace, and he also wrote this in a letter to your aunt, and told his son who told you—these are really only one source aren’t they! As a good starting point I suggest that you find three independent sources that give the same information. It is also unwise to rely on only one type of source, thus three census records are not as good as oral family information, a christening record and one census. Be aware that any source may have errors, sometimes several on one sheet!  

In our quest to find at least three pieces of evidence to prove each point, civil registration of birth, marriage and death is one of the five main original sources. What information do these registrations or certificates provide?  

One should never believe or expect that ''all'' information on marriages and death certificates is primary. The only primary information on a marriage certificate is the date and place of marriage, and the names of bride and groom, (although cases of marriage under false names are known!) The only primary information on a death certificate is the name, date and place of death and the information about the informant. All the other information—ages, names of parents, place of birth, etc. can be considered secondary (or questionable and needing supportive information from other sources). The ''primary'' and ''secondary'' labels are for guidance and can surely be questioned at times regarding the type of information a source provides. For more information about civil registration/vital statistics records, refer to the appropriate course for the country of interest.  

In our quest to find at least three pieces of evidence to prove each point, the census is one of the five main original sources. Censuses can provide:  

An understanding of how the census returns for your country are arranged on the films will assist you in making economies of time and money. Experienced genealogists know that families usually stayed fairly close together for mutual support. Reading censuses of nearby parishes is usually productive in finding relatives.

For England and Wales the parish register may be available in one or more of these forms, and similar situations occur in other countries.  

The FamilySearch Catalog is more up-to-date and gives a much fuller description of each film, including missing dates and all other items on the films such as banns, burials, vaccinations for smallpox, arrivals and departures from parish, clerical surveys, etc. as appropriate for your country.

So far, there is no way to assess whether items on the Internet version of the FamilySearch Catalog have been extracted, but this may be added later. However, there is another [http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~hughwallis/ website] that serves this purpose: There may be restrictions on reading registers containing material that falls within the privacy period for that jurisdiction. For example, say you wish to see christenings 1855-1880 and the christening register covers 1852-1924. There is a 100-year privacy rule so you are not allowed to view the whole book. There are at least three ways to overcome this:  

[[Image:How to Focus Your Research.jpg|center|How to Focus Your Research.jpg]]  

Probate records, especially wills, are one of the most reliable of the main original sources because they relate to the inheritance of property and have to be sworn to by the testator and the executor. When giving away his belongings, a man is going to accurately identify his property and his relatives and friends.  

Use our Probate Abstract form to assist you with extracting information from probate files.  

Land records are one of the most reliable of the main original sources because they relate to the legal disposition of land, its sale, mortgaging, leasing, inheritance and accompanying rights. There are many different kinds of land records in different countries, from manorial courts baron and leet in England, sasines in Scotland to homestead and bounty lands records in North America.  

It is wise to consult a good reference book for your area of interest in order to be able to interpret these materials and any indexes to them. In North America, at least, it is essential to have the legal description of the property in order to locate its records. For further information regarding land records refer to the appropriate course The National Institute offers about the country of interest.  

Generally speaking libraries contain derivative sources such as family history books, transcripts and indexes. Original sources, such as civil registration, parish registers, probate and censuses, will first be found in the government departments or churches which created them. Later, when they have been declared historic, they are passed to the appropriate archives (national, provincial, state, county or town). However some places called ‘libraries’ contain both original and derivative sources, often where the former are microform copies.  

In this section reference is frequently made to films obtainable through the Family History Library or some [https://www.familysearch.org/locations family history centers].

The most productive method is to make an appointment to visit your relative, alerting them to get out the documents and photographs from the attic or basement beforehand. Make arrangements for audio taping of your complete conversation, for photocopying documents, photographing people and archaeological items, and for making copy negatives and prints of treasured photographs. Sometimes relatives are only too pleased to find someone who actually wants ‘all that old junk’ and you will go home heavily laden and joyful.  

Use your best diplomatic manner when approaching elderly or distant family members. Not everyone will warmly greet your personal questions. It may take time to establish trust and reassure them that information about living family will not be published and that you will treat sensitive issues discreetly.  

Records of Births, Marriages and Deaths are created by an agency of government; national, or provincial/state/county or city/town depending on the country in question. These modern records may have publicly-available indexes, but in some jurisdictions do not.  

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Most censuses available to the genealogist are from the 19th century, although there are earlier ones for certain countries e.g. Norway 1664, Iceland 1703 and later ones e.g. England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland and Canada 1911, USA 1940 (in April 2012). For later ones still held under Rights of Privacy Legislation there is occasionally limited access.  

[http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/ The National Archives of Ireland - Census of Ireland 1901/1911]  

Church registers are kept by the church whilst still useful for the living. After this they may be passed to the diocese or other regional church authority. Eventually most will be housed in appropriate conditions for preservation at a designated archives where they may be viewed.  

Indexes are available for individual parishes, county-wide christenings, marriages, and burials, as well as for wider areas for example there are 7 million entries in Boyd’s Marriage Index for England 1500-1837. The researcher should read books and journals to find what is available for the location of interest. Generally speaking, local indexes will be found most readily at the relevant archives and Family History or Genealogy Society (FHS), but many are also available elsewhere, in particular on microfilm at at the Family History Library or some [https://www.familysearch.org/locations family history centers].

First a caveat: many wills have been written but never probated; unless you find them in family sources nobody will ever know they exist. In North America many non-probated wills are tied to land ownership, when a will is used to convey a property to heirs or beneficiaries. Once a will has been probated then it is a public document. This means that it is available to view and that photocopies may be made inexpensively. Most wills are probated within three years of death, but it is quite common for probate to take place after the death of the last surviving spouse. If you don’t find it within three years after the deaths—keep looking.  

Indexes to wills, admons, and other probate materials will be with the administering authority and can be consulted through them. Most are also microfilmed for use at the Family History Library or some [https://www.familysearch.org/locations family history centers].

Generally, land records can be found with the authority which created them, and in most cases this was a department of a governmental jurisdiction. Older ones pass on to the appropriate archives as they are deemed historic. Some smaller jurisdictions, such as English manorial court records, can even be privately owned and can be much harder to trace as after several hundred years the records could end up outside their place of provenance. Some British and European land records have a very scattered distribution, although there are bodies, such as the Historic Manuscripts Commission (now part of the National Archives) in Britain, who keep a master list of known extant materials.  

That said, I’ll now console you with the fact that since land records are another of the LDS church’s priorities for filming you will probably find most of what you need through your local FSC. Anything is easy to find on the FamilySearch Catalog as items are catalogued by the place they refer to, and you don’t have to first determine which archive or even private attic it currently resides in.  

There is a wide range of other original and derivative sources which will not be discussed here. Smart family historians learn to ask themselves, ''“What did my ancestor do that would have caused a record to be made?”''