Proving a Pedigree in England: Difference between revisions

All written sources depend in the first instance on the original writer’s prejudices, interests, experience and motives as well as on their proximity in space and time to the events that they record. <br>Such written sources then further depend on the expertise and accuracy of the copier and indexer. In addition, if the sources have been microfilmed, microfiched or scanned then pages may have been accidentally omitted.

Because so much compiled ‘instant ancestry’, particularly on the internet, is now sadly discredited, the National Genealogical Society (USA) recommends: ‘Seek original records, or reproduced images of them where there is reasonable assurance they have not been altered, as the basis for the research conclusions. Use compilations, communications, and published works, whether paper or electronic, primarily for their value as guides to locating the original records’<ref>'Standards for sound genealogical research' in National Genealogical Society Quarterly, vol. 86, no. 1 (March 1998) page 50.</ref>&nbsp;.