Step-by-Step Source Citations for Your Family Tree

Any genealogy task is less daunting when you break down the steps.

You know more about genealogy research now than when you started. If you were finding your first census records today, you'd handle them better than you did way back when.

Why not double back and improve your early source citations? If that seems overwhelming, break it into logical chunks. Divide up the work by:

• Document type. Handle all your census records a year at a time. Or your ship manifests, a decade at a time.
• Family group. Who is your first-born immigrant ancestor? Work your way down their direct-line descendants.
• Direct lineage. Forget all the cousins for the moment. Climb your tree one direct ancestor at a time, improving their source citations as you go.

I used to recommend a very simple source citation method. But when my Family Tree Maker file got corrupted, it was an opportunity to do a much better job with my sources. I learned about a feature I hadn't understood before, and I wanted to use it.

My favorite source citations to do are for my thousands of Italian vital records. It's an easy process, and I can complete a lot of them in one sitting.

Develop and stick to a thorough routine when you add a new document image to your family tree.

Document-Handling Process

To make citing your source easier, stick to a multi-step process each time you find a new document. Here's my process:

1. Download the document to your computer and name it according to your style. My style is LastnameFirstnameTypeYear.jpg. My great grandfather's birth record is IamarinoFrancescoBirth1878.jpg. For a marriage record, I include both names: IamarinoFrancescoPillaLiberaMarriage1901.jpg.
2. Crop and enhance the image. If there is more than one document in the image, crop out the ones that aren't your family member. And I'll bet the document could use more contrast. I leave census sheets and ship manifests as is. But I enhanced and crop every vital record.
3. Add a title and comments to the image's file properties. This step is the key to making your source citations easy to create. If the title begins with a year, all document images appear in chronological order in your tree. "1878 birth record for Francesco Iamarino." The comments field includes the source of the image and its URL. My format is "From the [Italian Province] State Archives: [URL]."
4. Place the processed document image in your family tree, attached to the person(s) in the document.
5. File the image in the proper folder. I file documents by their type. Some of you may file by family name.
6. Make note of the image in a document tracker. This gives you a quick view of what you have and what you need for any given person.

When it comes to U.S. census sheets or ship manifests, I add quite a bit more to the image file's comments field. Most of my U.S. records come from Ancestry.com. I click the title of the document in the search results so I can copy the source citation and details from that page. Then I continue to the image for more details to record.

The source citation details you need are available when you find that document online.

Here's the comments field from my grandfather's 1920 ship manifest:

line 10; New York, Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957; Roll - T715, 1897-1957 - 2001-3000 - Roll 2883; S.S. Lapland; image 308 of 627

https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/7488/NYT715_2883-0308?pid=4016695711

Source Citation:
Year: 1920; Arrival: New York, New York; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Microfilm Roll: Roll 2883; Line: 10; Page Number: 161

Source Information:
Ancestry.com. New York, Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.

And here's Grandpa's 1930 census:

lines 88-90; 1930 United States Federal Census; Ohio - Trumbull - Girard - District 0045; supervisor's district 8, enumeration district 78-45, ward of city 3, sheet 16B; image 32 of 36

https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/6224/4661200_00206?pid=68966506

Source Citation:
Year: 1930; Census Place: Girard, Trumbull, Ohio; Page: 16B; Enumeration District: 0045; FHL microfilm: 2341618

Source Information:
Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002.

Source Citation Creation

Since my images have all this wonderful info attached to them, it's easy to build the source citation. Let's take Grandpa's 1920 ship manifest as an example. I'm using Family Tree Maker as my software.

1. Copy the document image's entire comments field to a temporary text file.
2. Click to add a new source citation for the immigration fact.
3. Select the document collection title from your list of existing sources. This one is "New York, Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957." (If it isn't in your list, you'll need to create it now.)
4. Remember that temporary text file you created? Paste the Source Citation and Source Information text into the appropriate fields in the source template. Paste the URL in the Web address field.
5. Before saving your citation, you can add the document image to the citation itself. This was the feature I learned only recently that I like so much. Click the Media tab in the source template. Link to the document image you've already placed in your family tree.
6. Save and close your source template.

Did you record more than one fact from the same document? I have the date Grandpa's ship left Naples and the date it arrived in New York City as 2 facts. You can copy the source citation you created and paste it as a source for all the related facts.

Your family tree software does all it can to simplify the creation of source citations.

It's a big job, I know. A really big job. But here's how I see it. I do some genealogy work every single day. Sometimes I'm not in the mood for that whole process of finding and processing a document. That's when I'll choose an easier task. Like renaming the files in my huge collection of Italian vital records. Or improving some sub-set of source citations. I like having tasks to choose from that need different levels of effort.

Choose how you'd like to divide and conquer this big task: by family group, by document type, by direct lineage. Then do it, because the benefits are worth it. Your well-sourced family tree is far more reliable than an unsourced tree. People "borrowing" relatives from other trees will choose your sourced facts every time. DNA matches who view your tree will see that your family tree is correct, and has the receipts to prove it.

I'll bet your well-crafted source citations will inspire you to push on and get the job done.

Overwhelming Clean-up Task? Start With Direct Ancestors

This source citation clean-up task is so rewarding, it won't bog you down.

You may remember I recently had a disaster with my family tree software. While synchronizing my Family Tree Maker file with my Ancestry.com tree, the file got corrupted. The only cure was to download my Ancestry tree as a new FTM file.

That blew up my "simple sources" system. Ancestry stores the source information differently than Family Tree Maker. It fed my sources back in a most un-simple way. That forced me to rethink my sourcing process. I had to step up and commit to improving my method.

And I'm glad I did. The bulk of my tree consists of 17th and 18th century Italians. I'm very lucky to have access to high-quality images of many of their vital records. Cleaning up how I cite these sources means I can do the following.

Copy the Source Wherever it Applies

Say I'm working on my 6th great grandfather, Giuseppe Iamarino. His son's 1815 marriage documents included Giuseppe's 1792 death record. I can create a source citation for Giuseppe's death that:

• provides a link to his death record
• says where to find the original (in his town's 1815 marriage records)
• includes the image itself in the citation

Plus, his death record is my only source for the names of his parents, my 7th great grandparents. So I can copy the source for Giuseppe's death date and use it as the source for each of his parents' names.

It's all a simple copy-and-paste job.

That's a big improvement over what I was doing. My "simple source" system meant a lot of sharing. For example, everyone with a fact from the 1930 U.S. Federal Census shared the same source. In my family tree, you had to view the notes on a document image to see exactly where it came from.

Last night I found a new document for my grandfather, Pietro Iamarino. It's his World War II draft registration card that was not online before. So I made a new source citation for this card and used it for:

• Grandpa's 15 Feb 1942 home address
• Grandpa's work address in 1942 (I knew he was working for a costume jewelry company, but now I know where!)
• Grandma's shared 15 Feb 1942 home address (Her name is on the card.)

Now anyone viewing my family tree online can see the:

• title
• citation detail
• document image, and
• the exact link to the document online.

It works for any document you found online.

An Efficient Shortcut

Here's a new tip I want to share with you today. I've got more than 23,000 people in my tree. Fixing all the citations is a monumental task. So I want to take care of my direct ancestors first. All 293 of them.

Here's how I'll get that done efficiently. While making my Elder Scroll, I created a filter in Family Tree Maker. The filter lets me display only my direct ancestors in the index of people. (See how I used Ahnentafel numbers to show only my direct ancestors.)

It's easy to work my way down that alphabetical list, caring for each person's source citations one at a time. I don't have to worry about missing someone.

If I can get through all my direct ancestors in a few sessions, it'll all be worthwhile.

And it's really satisfying. There are lots of cases where I only know someone died "Bef. 10 Aug 1812" because his grandson's 1812 birth record says that his father's father is dead. That connection (fact to source) was getting lost. But now I can go to the grandson, create his birth source citation, and make it the source for his grandfather's death.

Now, I'm not recommending you have a family tree software catastrophe. But I am encouraging you to think about how to make your sources better. Think about the day when your grandchild inherits all your research. Or about the DNA match who's looking at your tree to figure out your connection. How believable will your facts be?

The more traceable your facts are, the more professional your family tree is. And that's been my mission for 3 years. I want you to fortify your family tree—and have fun while you're doing it.

Make Smarter Progress on Your Family Tree

If you don't stop and look around, you may never complete that family.

You know the old phrase for when you can't make any progress? It's "1 step forward, 2 steps back." You never seem to get anywhere.

To make progress in your genealogy research, I recommend the opposite: "2 steps forward 1 step back." That's right! This more measured approach has you looking around instead of blindly forging ahead.

Here's how it works. Let's say a cousin sent you a digitized photo of your shared ancestor. It's brand new to you, and you're eager to place it in your family tree. That'd definitely be 1 step forward.

But while you're there in your ancestor's profile, take a step back. Look around. I'm sure you can find something else in her profile that needs your attention.

• Does each fact in her profile have a well-formed citation? My citations were all broken recently. So I'm eager to improve the citations for each ancestor whose profile I visit.
• Is every one of her document images annotated? I add the specifics to the image's notes. Say it's a ship manifest. I add the title of the collection (like "New York, Passenger and Crew Lists"), the line number where you'll find my ancestor, the image number in the collection (like "250 of 478"), a link to the document on Ancestry, and Ancestry's source citation.
• Does her timeline of facts have a gap? For instance, are you missing her 1930 census? Take the time to search for whatever is missing. You're here now. Don't miss this chance to get it done.

Once you make this a habit, you'll make more progress than if you added the new photo and moved on to something else.

Each time you add something to a person in your tree, take a moment to improve all their sources and search for what's missing. Fix up their immediate family, too.

Over the weekend I kept this idea in mind. I wanted to fix the citations for my direct ancestors. But it didn't make sense to fix my great grandfather's citations and ignore his siblings. They were a click away. Before moving on to my great great grandfather, I fixed the citations for my 2nd great uncles. Now that nuclear family is solid.

Here's a quick example. I have 6 document images for my 3rd great grandmother Angela Maria Franza. I have her 1820 birth record and 5 pages from her 1846 marriage documents.

That adds up to 7 facts in her profile, each needing a source citation:

• her name
• her birth date
• her baptism date
• her 1st marriage banns
• her 2nd marriage banns
• her marriage license
• her actual marriage

I'll give each fact a solid citation by following these steps:

1. I'll look at my notes on her birth record image and copy the URL of its original location.

My practice of making note of the original image URL is a lifesaver while I'm fixing source citations.

2. I'll paste that URL into the citation for her birth fact. I've got 1,000s of Italian vital records in my tree, and I've decided to use a simple citation detail: "From the [year] [type of document] records for [town]." The exact phrase for this birth fact, then, is "From the 1820 birth records for Colle Sannita, Benevento, Campania, Italy."

Unlike my old method, this citation will be specific to the facts on this one document.

3. I'll add the document image to the citation.

You can add one or more document images to a specific citation.

4. I'll copy this citation to the related facts. Her birth record is my primary source for her name, birth date, and baptism date. So each fact can use the same exact citation.

Before I move on I'll (a) see if I can find her death record (I can't), and (b) follow these same steps for her 3 siblings. That way, when I'm ready to work on her father (my 4th great grandfather), his entire family will be complete.

Take 1 step back and handle the entire nuclear family in one sitting.

This whole idea boils down to "While you're here…". While you're here, fix the citation for your 2nd great uncle's birth fact. While you're here, download that marriage record that you never added to the tree.

Don't let your genealogy research be a hit-and-run operation. Add a new fact or document (that's 1 step forward). Take a look at what else this person needs (that's 1 step back). Make this person's profile as complete as you can (that's a 2nd step forward).

Taming a Tangle of Source Citations

Having to download my family tree for a do-over is forcing some changes.

Last time I wrote about my week-long struggle to overcome a corruption of my Family Tree Maker file. Now my file is healthy and synchronized with my tree on Ancestry.com. But there's a bunch of clean-up work to do.

The new file uses Ancestry's source citation format. It's more complicated than the simple source format I've always used. My method was to create one source with only one citation for each major document type. That's one source/citation for all 1930 U.S. Censuses. One source/citation for all New York Passenger Lists. And—here's where I got into trouble—one source/citation for my thousands of vital records from one Italian archive.

I was already worried that adding so many facts to one source was bogging down my file. TWICE I had an accident. A mysterious slip of the mouse somehow dragged an image file into that overused source. I didn't see it happen. Removing the image affected thousands of people in my tree. And then it happened again! Not with an image, but with some other random change to the citation.

This massive mistake choked the system when I tried to sync my tree. Was it my downfall? I needed to change how I handle the Italian vital records that are the bulk of my tree.

Today I'm working through the steps of creating a good source/citation so I can share them with you.

I'll use this new method for each new person I add, each new document I add, and on my closest ancestors. I'll start with my grandfather, Adamo Leone.

Work Through the Document Images

Adamo's documents include birth, marriage, and military records, 2 ship manifests, 4 census sheets, and a draft registration card.

I always add tons of details to the description field of each image. There's great value in that. But my tree on Ancestry.com looks like I don't have good sources. The details are hiding in the image.

Here are the steps to create more thorough sources and citations for each image in your family tree. I'll start with Adamo's 1940 census.

1. Re-locate the document online. Use whichever online source you prefer and search for your ancestor again. (These instructions are geared toward Ancestry.com.) Luckily, all 4 of Adamo's censuses are right on top in the search results.
2. Click the title link (not the image link) first, opening it in a new tab. (Right-click the link and choose to open it in a new tab.) This gives you important information about the image, including the source citation. Scroll down below the breakdown of the document's info to the Source Citation block.
3. In your family tree software, choose to add a new source/citation to an individual census fact.
4. The title of the source is something you'll reuse over and over. So, my simple source title of "1940 U.S. Federal Census" is what I'll select from the Source title pull-down list. It's the Citation detail, Citation text, Web address, and Media that will be new.
5. On Ancestry, copy the Source Citation text. Paste it into the Citation detail field in your software. (The wording and layout depend on your family tree software. I use Family Tree Maker.) In this case, I'll copy and paste "Year: 1940; Census Place: New York, Bronx, New York; Roll: m-t0627-02468; Page: 12A; Enumeration District: 3-315". Funny…that's the stuff I've been adding to the image's description, but not to the source citation. Always the rebel.
6. Copy the Source Information text from Ancestry. Paste it into the Citation text field in your software. In this case it's "Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1940. T627, 4,643 rolls."
7. On Ancestry, click to open the document image and copy the URL from your web browser's address field. It's a crazy-long URL, so I don't copy the whole thing. (If you use FamilySearch, the URL is shorter and you should copy the whole thing.) On Ancestry, I end the URL after the Person ID. You'll see that in the URL as ?pid= and a number. In this case the URL is https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/2442/m-t0627-02468-00876?pid=11686383. I used to stop before the ?pid=, but keeping it allows the page to display the name of the ancestor, as in "1940 United States Federal Census for Adam Leone." Better still, it highlights the lines that include your family! Paste that URL into the Web address field in your software.
8. In your software go to the citation's Media tab. Click to either Attach New Media (if it isn't already in your family tree) or Link To Existing Media (if it is in there).

Once you get into this habit, great sources/citations will be second nature.

When you're adding a new source, this isn't as bad as it looks. Click, click, copy, paste. Even when you're "fixing" an existing source, it isn't so bad. What's daunting is when your entire 23,137-person tree is calling for this kind of attention.

Work Through the Facts with No Image

Some of our favorite sources have no image. They're an index only. For example, I've discovered maiden names from the "U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007."

Most of the time it's a simple copy and paste job to make a great citation.

When I search for this record for Adamo, I see it's a good source for his birth and death dates. When I right-click the title's link to open it in a new tab, I discover something interesting. There is no citation detail for this source that's specific to the record. For the 1940 census, the citation detail included specifics like the page number and enumeration district. We don't have that for the U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007.

That means I could use one single source/citation for every fact I find in this resource. Unless, that is, I want to include the web address of this result page. Unfortunately for me, I do want that URL. Why? Because that URL includes all the facts:

Name: Adamo Leone
Gender: Male
Birth Date: 30 May 1891
Death Date: 5 Oct 1987
Claim Date: 26 Sep 1962 (did he get disability income for a while?)
SSN: 057207008
Death Certificate Number: 209851

Including that link makes this source reliable. Once you see I've got this plus his birth record and a photo of his grave marker, doubt me at your own peril.

So I'll give Adamo his own unique source/citation for his birth and death date facts from the SSA and Claims Index. This also has a crazy-long URL on Ancestry, but I'll end it after his person ID: https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=60901&h=800352538&tid=61818592&pid=34073303523

Family Tree Maker lets me copy this particular source/citation from Adamo's birth date and paste a link to it as the source for Adamo's death date. Now both facts share the same exact source.

Pull Off The Italian Job

I mentioned my problem with thousands of facts attached to one source I titled "Archivio di Stato di Benevento". About 90% of my ancestors are from the province of Benevento. So I'm going to ease the burden by splitting the source into towns.

So far I've created one town-specific source: "Archivio di Stato di Benevento, Comune di Baselice". That's Adamo's hometown—Baselice. I'm making each citation more specific than before. Adamo's birth date fact now has a source/citation with a URL that opens his birth record online.

I have the specific URL noted in the description field of each Italian vital record image in my family tree. Going forward, I'll add the URL to the fact-specific source/citation, too.

My mishaps forced me to rethink my Italian document citations, and I'm happy now.

It's all going to make my tree a better legacy. But…may I borrow a cup of decades from someone?

A Genealogy Catastrophe Made Me Mend My Ways

A corrupted family tree file has forced me into better genealogy habits.

I'm back from one solid week in genealogy HELL. When the problem was finally fixed, I had a real "come to Jesus" moment. And I've learned 2 important lessons. First let me tell you what happened.

We each have our own way of creating and sharing our family tree research. I've used Family Tree Maker (FTM) software on my desktop since 2003. And I love the Ancestry.com user interface for browsing and understanding a family tree. No other website can compare.

When Ancestry introduced synchronized FTM and online trees, that's what I did. I make all my changes in FTM and upload them to my tree on Ancestry. So, when something goes wrong, and I cannot for the life of me synchronize FTM to Ancestry, it is devastating!

After my 9 Jan 2020 synchronization, the next sync failed. I followed all the FTM recommendations:

1. I restored my tree to my 6 Jan 2020 backup version, giving it a different file name. The sync FAILED. To add insult to injury, each attempted sync took at least 12 hours to fail.
2. I restored my tree to my 1 Jan 2020 backup. This was the earliest backup I had saved. The sync FAILED.
3. I contacted FTM's live chat and sent them my latest Sync Failure Report. They isolated a corrupted spot in my database to one person: Maria Rosa Marucci.
4. I deleted evil wicked Maria Rosa from my Ancestry tree and my FTM tree and tried to sync using my original FTM file. The sync FAILED.
5. I had one last ace up my sleeve. FTM suggested downloading my Ancestry tree as a new FTM file. I did that and tried again to sync. The sync SUCCEEDED. But it needs a ton of work.

It was a brutal week where I couldn't make any progress on my family tree. But, as I said, I learned 2 important lessons.

Since my simple source citations are broken, I've decided to conform with the norms.

Lesson 1: Backup and Synchronize Much More Often

When I upgraded to the latest version of Family Tree Maker last November, I had a failed sync. Through an online chat, the company isolated the corrupted spot in the database to one person. I deleted her and everything was fine.

I got more careful about backup files. If I spend a whole Saturday working on my tree, I stop a bunch of times to make a backup. I used to over-write the file each time. Now I give them names like:

• Family_Tree_2020-01-20a.ftmb
• Family_Tree_2020-01-20b.ftmb
• Family_Tree_2020-01-20c.ftmb
• Family_Tree_2020-01-20d.ftmb

The files are very large, so I kept only 4 days' worth of backups. When I had this problem last week, I didn't have many choices for reverting to an earlier version. From now on I'll keep 10 days' worth.

In November I started something new. An FTM expert told me you can save a synchronization log when you sync. I do this every time now. Each file (saved in PDF format) shows exactly which changes are about to made to my online tree. The files are small, and I have almost 40 of them. When I hit 100 files I may delete the earliest one.

I also made myself a promise. I will never again make massive changes to my tree without frequent backups and syncs. Recently I was updating an obsolete source attached to thousands of facts. If you make massive changes in one sitting, your file sync is going to take forever. It may even fail. And wouldn't it be awful to have to do that all over again?

So it's bite-sized overhauls from now on.

Lesson 2: Completely Change How I Make Source Citations

As I said above, what fixed my family tree file was to download my Ancestry tree as a new FTM file. I didn't lose a single person (except that wicked witch Maria Rosa Marucci, who I added back later).

But 3 unpleasant things happened:

First, my 1,973 individual place names need attention. Town names are fine (e.g., Buffalo, Erie County, New York, USA). But street addresses are not (e.g., 10 Union Avenue, Peekskill, Westchester County, New York, USA). They show an "unresolved" icon. I could ignore this, but I'd rather resolve them. I'll be sure to stop and make several backups and synchronizations along the way.

I'm too much of a control freak not to correct all these unresolved addresses.

Second, my image files no longer have a category selected. Categories (Census, Photo, Vital Record) make it easier to work with your media. I'll have to take my time and fix them.

Third, my compact, one-size-fits-many source citations are destroyed.

I've written before about a simple way to cite your sources. Basically, you have one source, such as "1900 U.S. Federal Census." You attach that source to every fact you find on a 1900 U.S. census page. Simple! I add more specific details in the description of each document image file. The description explains exactly where I found that image.

These unwanted changes happened because Ancestry:

• doesn't have the "Resolve Place Names" feature
• doesn't use image categories, and
• doesn't subscribe to my simple sources theory.

I must say that I like it when a source is specific to the fact at hand and includes the image. You can click to enlarge the image. You can click to go right to its source location. This is the preferred way to cite your sources.

A corrupted database has dragged me kicking and screaming into a better way of citing sources.

I've got a ton of work ahead of me. I'm excited about creating a better product, but it's so much work that I may not get all the way there for ages.

Think about upgrading your backup habits and source citation style. You can do both right now and from now on. Don't worry about past mistakes. Work on your closest ancestors' sources first. Then continue on with your new, improved style.

That's what I'm going to do. I began with one of my grandfathers. I'll follow the new rules with each person I add or edit. I'll detail my new process for you in another article. Right now I'm so happy to be out of genealogy hell!

How to Set Unofficial, No-Deadline Genealogy Goals

What are your go-to genealogy tasks when you need to keep things simple?

Your unofficial genealogy goals may be unwritten and have no deadline. But you still want to get them done some day.

I can work on my unofficial goals without much concentration. I can work on them when I'm not feeling well or I'm half-heartedly watching TV.

Here are the 4 unofficial genealogy goals I turn to, depending on my mood. See if they make you think of something you'd like to work on.

1. Replace Certain Sources

I spent years visiting a Family History Center to view microfilmed vital records. I typed the facts from thousands of documents into a text file on my laptop computer. Then I entered them into a Family Tree Maker file.

I gave each fact a source based on the roll of microfilm. For instance:

Source title: 1848–1853 - Baselice, Italy, Births, Marriages, Deaths
Repository: www.familysearch.org
Citation detail: Nati, morti, notificazioni, processetti, matrimoni 1848-1853
Citation text: Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah. https://www.familysearch.org/search/film/007850709?cat=565057
Reference note: 1848–1853 - Baselice, Italy, Births, Marriages, Deaths

But you can't order microfilm anymore. And these records are not available on familysearch.org. They are available on the Italian genealogy site called Antenati. So now I want to change the source citation for thousands of facts.

I could leave them alone, but these obsolete sources are bugging me.

When I want to work on this goal, I:

• choose a person linked to the old source
• replace all the old microfilm sources with my preferred Antenati source citation.

I whittled one of the sources down from 1,300 facts to 800 facts on New Year's Eve. Remember: Citing your sources doesn't have to be hard.

2. Rename Vital Record Images

I want to make better use of the thousands of downloaded Italian vital records on my computer. In 2019 I renamed every single document image from one of my ancestral towns. Each file name now includes the name(s) of the subject(s) of the document. That makes everyone in the town searchable on my computer.

My unofficial goal #2 is to rename the files from my other towns. I'm gonna have the best genealogy resource ever!

3. Find Missing Dates

When I don't know someone's birth date, I follow these rules:

• If I know their spouse was born in 1900, I mark their birth as Abt. 1900.
• If I know their eldest child was born in 1900, I mark their birth as about 25 years earlier, so, Abt. 1875.
• If I know one of their parents was born in 1900, I mark their birth as 25 years later, so, Abt. 1925.

Following this practice, everyone in my tree has at least an estimated birth year. My unofficial goal #3 is to find a documented birth date to replace each estimate.

Sorting my people by birth date, I can search for missing birth records on my computer.

Thanks to unofficial goal #2 above, I can search my computer for any name from the town of Colle Sannita. The process is to:

• Sort the Family Tree Maker index by Birth.
• Focus on the years available in my document collection.
• Search my records for the name of everyone from Colle Sannita with an estimated birth year.

I'm up to people born "Abt. 1830." I can see that 2 people with an "Abt. 1830" birth date are husband and wife. I can search for their marriage record and find out everything I need to know about them.

It turns out they married in 1857, so I have the records! They include parents' and grandparents' death records. I discovered that the husband in this couple was already in my tree. I simply need to merge "Abt. 1830" Giovanni Iacobaccio with 20 Feb 1827 Giovannangelo Iacobaccio. And I'll add all the facts from the couple's marriage documents.

One good search and BOOM! Instant generations discovered.

Later I can sort the index of individuals by Death or Marriage and search for those missing dates.

4. Find a Home for Documents

I've been entering the facts from my collection of vital records into a spreadsheet. I can share that database with anyone who has roots in some of my towns.

Unofficially, I want to review what I've entered and see which documents fit into my family tree.

I've reviewed Colle Sannita birth records (1809–1812) and death records (1809–1810). At least half of the documents are now placed in my Family Tree Maker file. This process helps make my tree more solid and complete.

The whole process is very rewarding. So are all these tasks.

For my job as a website producer, I keep a digital notebook of HTML code snippets I need often. I keep it and a to-do list file open all day long. It works well for me, so I started a text file for genealogy notes. That's where I keep track of my genealogy tasks and their progress.

Do what works best for you. You may prefer to write in a paper notebook or print out your to-do lists. Not me. You can't copy and paste a handwritten note. And I hate to waste paper. So I keep my text files on my computer, open all day in different tabs of my preferred text editor. They're backed up to the OneDrive cloud, and I make a 2nd weekly backup to an external drive.

Get into the habit of leaving yourself notes about where you left off. Make a note of how you searched for a person's birth date, but you couldn't be sure which of 2 babies is the right one.

Pick away at these unofficial tasks when you're not in the mood for a full research session. Or work on them when you don't have a lot of time, but you want to get something done. If you chip away at these and all your other goals, imagine how much you can get done by 2021.

A Foundation for Your Genealogy Research Process

A new genealogist is born every day. Do they all know what to do? Not yet!

In the side panel of this blog there is a 3-question content survey. That's where I ask you what kinds of subject matter you'd like to find here. Some readers have asked for an all-in-one family tree tutorial.

At first I thought that wasn't possible. It's too vast. Many of my articles go in-depth on a specific part of genealogy, like:

• dealing with DNA matches
• cleaning up your filing system
• adding consistency to your facts
• finding and fixing errors
• sharing your research in interesting ways

Whether you're new to genealogy or dove into the deep end, a "start-to-finish genealogy process" would help.

So let's boil down the idea of family tree research to the basics.

Start With Yourself

Imagine a very old fence made of stones. You can't build the top row of stones without the foundation beneath it, right? Well, don't expect to find your 2nd great grandfather without the foundation of his descendants.

Building a family tree is a one-generation-at-a-time process.

Each time you add a generation you gain more facts. Those facts tell you where to look for more information.

As you add family members, think about all the types of documents you may find:

• census records (right now the most recent U.S. census available is from 1940)
• vital records (birth, marriage, death)
• church records (baptism and other sacraments)
• public records (street address, yearbooks, newspaper articles)
• military records (draft registrations and military service)
• citizenship records (immigration and naturalization)

Search for and gather every type of record you can.

Ready-made family trees are NOT what you want. You want the documents.

Keep Track of All Sources

As you gather each document, immediately capture its source information.

Let's say you're using Ancestry.com to find your father or grandfather in the 1940 U.S. census. You can click "View Image" to see the document. But in the search results you can also click the words "1940 United States Federal Census". Beneath the listing of facts you'll see "Source Citation" and "Source Information". Copy that text and store it as the citation for the census image.

If you find a document on FamilySearch.org, click the listing (not the camera). Look for "Document Information" in the right-hand column. You'll find a handy "Citing this Record" section to copy.

Be Logical

Imagine you've gathered every possible document for your grandfather's immediate family. Take a close look at the family grouping. Are there any facts that don't make sense?

• Do you have children born before their parents were old enough, or after a parent died? (Neat trick: a recently dead man can have a baby.)
• Was one child born in a different place even though there's no sign the family ever moved?

Be logical and avoid publishing bad information. If something is illogical, search for more evidence to prove it right or wrong.

Move Up One Generation at a Time

Say you found your grandparents' marriage certificate. It may tell you where they living at that time. It may have each of their parents' names and place of birth. Those names and birthplaces are the foundation you need to build the next course of your stone fence.

I have my maternal grandparents 1922 marriage certificate. It says my grandfather and my 4 maternal great grandparents were born in Italy.

Knowing that, I was ready to pinpoint their hometowns. When you reach a foreign-born generation, search for immigration and naturalization records.

The joy of a well-timed migration: tons of clues for your descendants.

Ship manifests for your immigrant ancestors—if they are from a certain range of years—are crucial. You may learn the foreign hometown of your ancestor. You may learn the name of that ancestor's relative: father, mother, spouse, or more. These are the clues you need to go back another generation.

Be Methodical and Thorough

Try to "close out" each family unit before moving on. Gather every possible document for them. Make note of what you haven't found yet (like that one elusive census year) so you can try again in the future.

Pay close attention to the evidence. My 3rd great grandfather from Italy was a problem for me. I knew which town the family came from. I found birth records for all his children. I found his wife's birth record and her parents' names.

But I couldn't find his birth record. I knew he was born in about 1813, but there was no record of his birth.

Then I found the clue I needed. In his 1840 marriage record it clearly says he was born in another town. The neighboring town. That's why I couldn't find him or his siblings. I was looking in the wrong town.

Each document you find may have the answer to a mystery. My 2nd great uncle's World War II draft registration card had a critical clue I needed. The name of the town where he was born. His parents and his siblings, it turns out, were not from that town. But by searching that town's vital records, I discovered where his parents came from. And that cracked open that branch of the family.

Those are the basics. As you progress I've got tons of advice for ways to get and stay organized. And only after you've gone pretty far with your tree will you be able to find the connection to your DNA matches. In most cases, they're the icing on your cake. But you have to bake that cake.

Please see the Genealogy Lessons link on my blog for lots more articles listed by topic.

7 Genealogy Projects We All Need to Do

Have you ever given someone genealogy advice, and not followed it yourself?

This is my 297th blog article in 2½ years. I publish twice a week. To keep up with that schedule, I spend time each day working on my family tree. Then I write about whatever I've been doing.

If I'm working to connect with a DNA match, I write about that. If I'm developing a system for naming and tracking my files, I write about that. If I discover a useful website, I write about that.

But with all the writing, I rarely get a chance to complete the projects I recommend for you. This is a recap of some of my favorite recommendations that I wish I had time to complete. Which ones appeal the most to you?

1. It's Time to Revisit and Improve Your Earliest Family Tree Research

We all need to take another look at our earliest genealogy work and make improvements. I still have some unofficial sources I want to replace with better sources and images. I have some facts that came from the family tree of a distant relative. That's not good enough. I need to find a reliable source.

I liked this idea enough to write about it again in Trade Up to Better Family History Sources.

Imagine the look on your future descendant's face when she finds your collection of family history books.

2. How to Share Your Family Tree Research with Relatives

One of my biggest desires as a genealogist is to find the best way to share what I've found with my relatives. This article describes how to create a family tree book you can share. Imagine presenting a book to everyone at a family reunion.

I covered this idea again in 5 Steps to Writing Your Ancestor's Life Story, and the very popular article, How to Create a 'Book of Life' for Your Relatives.

3. Add Proof and a Breadcrumb to Family Tree Documents

I've been really good about following this advice. But my older documents need my attention. If you add facts to the properties of your digital documents (like census sheets, ship manifest, etc.), you'll never wonder where they came from. And you'll be able to get right back to their source.

Annotate your image the moment you get it. You'll never forget where you found it.

4. How to Find Official Sources for Family Facts You Just Know

Yes, we need to replace unofficial sources with official ones. But we also need sources for the modern-day facts we just know. For example, I was baptized in a church in the Bronx, New York. The only source for that fact is my baptismal certificate. I could scan and add it to my family tree. I could add my birth certificate, too. But if you're adding documents for anyone who's living, make the images private. They're mainly there for you.

5. Closing the Book on One Family at a Time

One of the genealogy goals I set for 2019 (and completed) helped me close the book on some families. "Closing the book" means finding all the documents you're missing for a family. For example, think of your great uncle. Do you have every census record for him? Do you have all his immigration and naturalization papers? His birth, marriage and death records? What about documents for his children?

When you have all the documents, you can "close the book" on that family.

6. This Memento Provides Key Facts for Your Family Tree

When I wrote about the funeral cards I'd collected for some relatives, my cousin texted me photos of a ton more. Funeral cards serve as evidence for death dates. And sometimes they can say more—or have a photo. I still need to clean up the images my cousin sent me and place those funeral cards in my family tree.

A "Book of Life" isn't meant for celebrities only. Make them for your family.

7. It's Time to Tame Your Family Photos

I started dealing with my family photos, but I have a long way to go. They're stored in too many folders on my computer. That makes it hard to find the exact one I want. I've got to name and file them properly. Then I've got to double-check that I've scanned all the old photos my mother left with me when she moved. Finally, I have to make sure they get into my family tree.

How to Make Your Sources Clear and Accurate

NOTE: There is a way to make your sources indisputable. Please see "Taming a Tangle of Source Citations."

Don't practice smash-and-grab genealogy. Make this method an unbreakable habit.

Seventeen years ago. That's when I graduated from scribbling in a notebook to building a family tree on my computer. I've had Family Tree Maker and an Ancestry.com subscription since 2002.

From the start, I never liked the option of saving a fact or a document to my family tree on Ancestry.com. I hated the ridiculously long source citations it added to my tree. I wanted my sources to be clear and easy to understand.

Because I run a tight ship, I have 275 sources in my Family Tree Maker file. And I have 20,963 people at the moment.

Here's how I keep my sources neat but thorough and retraceable.

Once I found the citation detail and citation text on Ancestry.com, it became too easy. I had to do it.

One Name to Rule Them All

When I started building my family tree, most of my sources were census pages and ship manifests. I didn't know what other people were doing. I only knew I wanted clarity. So my census source titles are as simple as can be:

• 1900 U.S. Federal Census
• 1910 U.S. Federal Census
• 1920 U.S. Federal Census
• 1930 U.S. Federal Census
• 1940 U.S. Federal Census

If my tree has that the source of a person's address as the "1930 U.S. Federal Census," there's no mistaking where it came from. It doesn't need to say, "United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1930. T626, 2,667 rolls."

But a simple source title does not give us everything we need in our family tree. Behind the scenes, we need all the information. We need an absolute way to get back to the source. We need a link to the proof of each fact in our tree.

Fill in these details for the main source, not for each fact or document.

More Details Under the Hood

Family Tree Maker has a Sources tab where you can see and control all your sources. I've gone down the list of source titles looking for a few things:

• Are people attached to this source? If not, I can delete the source. Maybe it belonged to people I've removed from my family tree.
• Are there duplicate or very similar titles? If I decide to merge a couple of sources, I have to update each person with a fact linked to the source I want to merge.
• Does each source have a clear title, citation details, a web address, and a repository?

If a source needs more detail, I go look it up. For example, I'll look up the 1915 New York State Census on whichever website I prefer. It can be Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org, or any of the other official sites you may use. (Yes, it may be in a book, too.)

Instead of going to a particular document or record, go to the top-level page for that collection. On Ancestry.com, that page has the source citation detail and text, the exact name of the collection, and its URL.

These extra details make your family tree research more reliable.

Add enough details to each image to allow anyone to find it for themselves.

Specific Micro-Details Where They Count

I want each document image in my tree to show exactly where it came from. It should tell anyone who's looking at it how they can find the original.

On the image of a 1920 ship manifest, for example, I added a breadcrumb trail to the description.

If you view this immigration fact in my tree, you'll see only the source title: "New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957". But the image itself has a description. And that gives you everything you need to know to find the original image file:

• Line number(s). For a ship manifest or census form, I note which line number(s) to look at.
• Source title. This is the exact name of the collection as seen on Ancestry, FamilySearch, or wherever. This will match my source title mentioned above.
• Location of the film. Most of our genealogy documents exist on a roll of film somewhere. If I were trying to find that roll of film in a drawer at an archive, where would I look? This is always shown beneath the source title on Ancestry. For example, Roll > T715, 1897-1957 > 2001-3000 > Roll 2853. Or Wisconsin > Milwaukee City > 14 > Draft Card S.
• Image number. If I asked you to go to John Stefaniak on a roll of Milwaukee, Wisconsin draft registration cards, it'd still take you a while to find him. So I include the image number. For example, image 664 of 973.
• Web address. Sure, a URL may be different today than it was 5 years ago. But maybe it won't change for decades. And if it does, the film location and image number are even more important.

If you haven't been capturing these details for your documents, you may feel overwhelmed. Don't feel that way. Make it a habit going forward. Add a chunk of this annotation work to your annual genealogy goals. I finished all 630 of my census documents, but I have to go back and fix many of my 365 ship manifests.

The name of the game when it comes to your family tree's sources is usefulness. Each source should be useful in these 3 ways:

• Understandable. Anyone can see where your information came from in general.
• Retraceable. Anyone can follow your breadcrumbs to get to the original document collection.
• Specific. At the document image level, anyone should be able to see exactly where this one unique image came from.

Make this a mandatory part of your fact gathering from now on. Don't just get the image and put it in your family tree. Don't just add the facts and let the image serve as your source. Gather all the facts about your source and record them where they belong. Right away.

Doing it right, from the start, makes the whole process much easier.

And speaking of sources:

• Do These 3 Things Before You Add Another Name to Your Family Tree
• 3 Housekeeping Tasks for a Professional-Quality Family Tree
• 6 Easy Steps to Valuable Source Citations