How to Read an Italian Birth Record REVISED

In February 2017, I published an article called How to Read an Italian Birth Record. This update goes into far more detail.

The format of these birth records changed over time. This article divides Italian birth records into four phases, each spanning several years.

For each type of Italian birth record below, you'll find a simple version of the wording used. Then you'll see a more detailed version and an image highlighting certain key facts. This includes many Italian words and their English translations. The words in parentheses below are often handwritten while other phrases are pre-printed. The handwritten words are critical to your family tree. They include names, dates, places, ages, and professions.

Note that in some towns and in some years you may find a handwritten notation in the margin of a birth record. This may include the date of this child's marriage and the name of their spouse. Or it may state the date of the baby's baptism.

It's important to pay attention to who is presenting the baby. Who is coming to the town hall with a newborn? It's usually the father, but it may be a grandparent. Many times it's the midwife [levatrice] who delivered the baby.

Phase One Civil Birth Records, Circa 1809–1819

Simple version: On this date the following person appeared before the mayor to present a newborn baby. He states that the baby was born to his wife at this date and time, and they are giving this name to the baby. These people acted as witnesses.

Early Italian birth records, from about 1809 through 1819, include a bit less detail than in later years.

Detailed version: Today (day, month, year and hour) appearing before the mayor [Sindaco] of this town is (name, usually of the father of the newborn baby), of the profession (profession) of the age (number) living in this town at (place name).

This person presents a baby (bambino for a boy, bambina for a girl) who he declares to be his (son or daughter) by his legitimate wife [moglie] (baby's mother's name).

The baby was born on the day (day of the month) in the month of (month name) at the hour (hour of the day or night), and according to this person is named (baby's name).

What follows is a standard statement mentioning the names, ages, and professions of two witnesses. The mayor signs his name after a statement that he declares the above facts to be true. The father and the witnesses may be illiterate, so they will sign the document with a cross.

Sometimes these early birth records will include a small note in the margin with the date of the baby's baptism.

Phase Two Civil Birth Records, Circa 1820–1865

The next phase of birth records includes a second column to record the baptism of the baby. The main column now includes a bit more detail than before.

Simple version: On this date the following person appeared before the mayor to present a newborn baby. He states that the baby was born to his wife and to himself at this date and time. They are giving this name to the baby. These people acted as witnesses.

And in the second column (this will sound odd): On this date in this parish I declare that on this date I recorded the fact that on this date I baptized this baby.

Tip: If you see multiple dates in this column, the earliest one is the actual baptism date. A priest may be writing on the 5th that he recorded on the 4th that he baptized a baby on the 3rd!

From about 1820 through 1865, Italian birth records add more detail plus baptism information.

Detailed version: On this date (day, month, year and hour) appearing before the mayor [Sindaco] of (town name) is (name, usually of the father of the newborn baby), of the profession (profession) living in this town, and this person presents a baby (bambino for a boy, bambina for a girl) who he declares to be born to his legitimate wife [moglie] (her name) of the age (number) living in (usually "detto Comune" or "come sopra", both meaning "this town") and to himself of the age (either a number or "come sopra" meaning "as above"), of the profession (profession) living in (this town) on the day (number; this is the date of birth—often earlier than the date at the top of the document), at the hour (hour of the day of night) in the house (often it will say "di propia abitazione" meaning "his own house").

This same person states that he gives the baby the name of (baby's name).

What follows is a standard statement with the name, age, and profession of two witnesses. The mayor signs his name after a statement that he declares the above facts to be true. If the father or witnesses are illiterate, they will sign the document with a cross.

And in the second column: On this day and month in the parish of (church or town name) I state that on this day and month I made note that on this day and month of the current year I administered the sacrament of baptism to this child on this day and month.

I told you it was odd.

Phase Three Civil Birth Records, Circa 1866–1874

In this era, the birth records are completely handwritten. This is more of a challenge, but since you know the general format, you know which keywords to spot. You know where to look for the dates, names, ages, and professions.

These records offer one tremendous benefit. They tend to include the names of the baby's two grandfathers. That single fact can help you distinguish between people with the same name. Records after 1865 do not include baptism information.

Simple version: On this date and in this town the following person appeared before the mayor to present a newborn baby. He states that the baby was born at this date and time to himself and his wife in this town in this place. They are giving this name to the baby. These people acted as witnesses.

The handwritten documents from 1866 through 1874 are more challenging, but they have one advantage.

Detailed version: On this date in the city hall [Casa Comunale] there appeared before the mayor [Sindaco] (his name and sometimes the date he became mayor) this person (his name and his father's first name), of the age (number), profession (profession), living in this town, and he presented a baby of the sex ("maschile" for male or "femminile" for female) who he declared was born on this day, month, and hour to his wife [moglie] (her name, her father's first name, her age and sometimes her profession) in this town on (street or neighborhood name). To this child they give the name (baby's name).

This person made this declaration in the presence of these witnesses (their names, ages, and professions), and the mayor declares the information in this document to be true.

Phase Four Civil Birth Records, Circa 1875–1922

In all my ancestral hometowns, the available civil birth records end in 1915. There are a very small number of birth records on the Antenati website from as late as 1922.

Simple version: On this date the mayor of this town saw the following person. He declared that on this hour, day, and month, in his house to his wife a baby was born. They give this name to the baby. These people acted as witnesses.

The more modern Italian birth records, from about 1875 on, are the easiest to read.

Detailed version: On this date the mayor [Sindaco] (his name) of this town (town name) saw the following person (his name, age, and profession) living in (usually "questo Comune" meaning "this town"). He declared that on this hour, day, and month, in his house on (street name and house number) to his wife [moglie] (her name, age and possibly her profession) a baby was born of the sex ("maschile" for male or "femminile" for female). They give the baby this name (baby's name).

These people (their names, ages, professions) acted as witnesses to this presentation. The mayor declares the information in this document to be true.

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When you know what to expect to find on an Italian birth record, you'll know where to spot the details. These are the facts you need for your family tree.

3 Steps to Take When Your Source Links Break

When you can't get to your favorite resource for your family tree anymore, there are 3 steps you need to take.

Tragedy strikes! An important resource changed its website URL. They broke 328 of my valuable source citation links. I noticed it one day when I tried to go to my bookmark for one of the resource's databases. It immediately redirected from my saved link to their new homepage link.

I didn't panic. I figured they're doing a website redesign. I've lived through countless redesigns as a website manager. I know things can go wrong and take time to fix. I went back two days later and saw that they had indeed broken all my links and changed the whole interface.

Why is this a problem? Because we need to be able to prove our genealogy work. We need source citations so anyone (including us) can find the original for themselves, (as I did in Italy once). Seeing is believing.

We need to tell them where it's held, which book to open, which page to turn to, and even which lines to read.

But the archives in the province of Benevento, Italy, home of 90% of my ancestors, broke my citation links. What do I do?

If this happens to you with any online resource, take the following 3 steps:

1. See if there's a pattern to the URL change. You can use this new pattern to update your old, broken links. I noticed there was a unique 4- or 5-digit number in common between a record's old URL and new URL. A search-and-replace within Family Tree Maker didn't work, so I had to make the edits one at a time. That was a lot better than having to redo a search for each person on the new-styled website.

2. If there is no image, capture a screenshot of the facts, or copy the text, and paste it into your family tree. I can copy and paste each record's text and the new URL and update the source citation. I wasn't capturing all this detail in the past, including the volume and record numbers, but I will now.

When I save a document image from Ancestry, FamilySearch, etc., I add details about the image to:

• the image's properties
• the image's details within Family Tree Maker
• the source citation.

My census images, for example, tell you:

• which line numbers to look at
• the town, city, and state
• the enumeration district and supervisor's district
• which image it is (e.g. image 210 of 389)
• the link to the record
• the standard citation info provided by the website.

With that level of detail, even if the image goes offline, someone could access this census sheet. Note that I include document numbers or page numbers if they exist.

If you have to fix a bunch of broken source citations, seize the moment! Make them better and more useful. Make them hold their value.

3. Search for the bright side. While updating my broken bookmarks for this website, I discovered a new database. I captured details on men from my ancestral towns who were born as late as 1941. That's huge! Birth records after 1915 aren't online unless a person married between 1931 and 1942.

Yes, this is an inconvenience for me. But I can appreciate how they wanted to update the website and shorten their clunky URL. It's possible a new team runs the website and they wanted it to look more professional.

What lesson can you learn from my tragedy? Prepare yourself for future broken links by capturing all the information. Imagine it's way in the future, and a young genealogist finds your family tree online. Those ancient links don't work anymore. But you've given them so much detail that they can track down the original record for themselves.

They're grateful that you were such a thoughtful, professional family tree builder.

But wait a moment. Did you say you haven't been very good about source citations? Then these links are for you, STAT!

• How to Fix Bad or Missing Source Citations
• Choosing and Using the Most Reliable Sources
• Add Consistency to Your Source Citations

5 Types of Family Tree Photo Projects

Every family tree builder's photo collection needs some attention. These 5 types of projects do the job.

Let's take a look at several photo-related projects you need to consider for your family tree.

1. Organize your family photos

If you groaned when you read those words, you know you need to organize your family photos. In these two articles, I describe how I've improved the way I file, label, and store my collection of photos.

"It's Time to Organize All Your Family Photos" helps you assess your collection and set your goals. I share my photo-naming strategy and how I'm helping to keep my collection safe from harm.

"It's Time to Tame Your Family Photos" discusses bad practices that are all-too common. Take a look at how to pull yourself out of the quagmire and form new and better practices.

2. Use photo-editing tools for better results

Why would you scan a battered, creased, color-faded photo and put it in your family tree in that sorry state? "How to Improve Old Photos and Genealogy Documents" shows you how to color-correct, sharpen, and repair those old photos.

I spent time going through the document images in my family tree to improve them. Does the image you downloaded have a ton of black space around the edges? Crop it out. Was it digitized at an angle, forcing you to tilt your head to read it? Straighten it out. It's easy to do.

Why should you bother improving those tattered old photos? "Conjuring Up Memories of a Missing Relative" shows how restoring a photo can restore your treasured memories. I didn't have any photos of Grandpa's house in the Bronx that I'd visited for decades. Restoring a faded photo made me feel as if I were standing outside his front door once again.

Ancestry.com is offering photo-colorization after MyHeritage made a big splash with it. I tried the MyHeritage tool a while ago. In "Improving on the MyHeritage Photo Enhancer," I show you how to take colorized output and improve it with photo-editing software.

Don't settle for faded, creased, damage family photos. It doesn't take an expert to bring them back to life.

3. Use technology to figure out who's who in a photo

Can you imagine how thrilling it was when my first cousin sent me a carton of her late mother's photos? It was a dream come true. "My Aunt's Photos Tell the Other Side of the Story" discusses how you can use a gifted photo collection to learn more about the photos you already have. You may find, as I did, photographic proof of family lore you've been hearing all your life.

While going through my late aunt's photo collection, I found one photo that I thought was of Grandpa. But could I be sure? I went in search of online tools to help me feel more confident. In "2 Free Websites Compare Photos to See Who's Who," I give you the links to these tools and share my results in using them.

4. Use historical photos to add context

When thinking about my ancestors arriving in New York City from their rural Italian towns, I imagined the Bronx of the 1960s. But they arrived shortly before 1900. The Bronx was a dramatically different place in 1899 than it was when I visited them in the 1960s.

In "Picturing America Through Your Ancestors Eyes," we'll take a look at free, online collections from the Library of Congress that can help you visualize the "new country" as your ancestors saw it.

The Library of Congress isn't the only free, online resource. "Add Context to Your Family Tree With Historic Photos" explores a few other sites you can use to add more flavor to your family tree. I found photos that helped explain what I was looking at in some of my own family photos.

I love to use Google Street View to wander down the streets of my ancestors' hometowns. I've even revisited my favorite places in France, trying to pinpoint the sites we enjoyed. "Time-Travel With Vintage Landmark Photos" contains links showing you how famous places looked long ago. While European landmarks may look the same, the changes to a place like New York City are dramatic.

Which photos will you find that show you what your ancestors saw?

5. To share or not to share your family photos

As the family genealogist, I'll bet you want to share your findings with your cousins. "Finding the Best Family Photo Sharing Option" explores online platforms you can use to share and collaborate with your cousins on old family photos. I have lots of photos where I was too young to remember the details, but my older cousins can tell me what I don't know. And you can share your collection in complete privacy.

Speaking of privacy, I removed all photographs from my online tree due to an Ancestry policy change. The photos are all in my Family Tree Maker file, but marking them as private prevents them from appearing online. In "Which Part of Your Ancestry Needs to Be Private?" I discuss that policy and the reasons you may want to keep your family photos offline.

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I've given you a lot to think about today. I hope that some of these points resonate with you, and that they'll lead you to take action. Photos are some of our most precious genealogy keepsakes. Treat them like the treasures they are.

5 Common Mistakes on Vital Records

Is something wrong on that vital record? Don't turn the page. Know how to spot a simple mistake.

Vital records are crucial pieces of your family history. Without them, I would have no information at all about my ancestors from the old country.

But, is every vital record 100% correct? Of course not. Vital records have mistakes for many reasons, including:

• Clerical error. The town clerk recording the vital record may write something in error. They're only human and they can make mistakes.
• Lack of knowledge. Imagine a death record for someone born in another country. Their son is the informant. He provides the names of his grandparents, but he never met his grandparents. He may never have known his grandmother's maiden name.
• Misunderstanding. The person writing the information may not hear a name correctly. Or there may be some confusion about a particular detail.
• Local and cultural customs. Lots of people go by their middle name. When your daughters are Maria Rosa, Maria Teresa, and Maria Angela, they can't all go by Maria! And what happens to a family when they move to another country and try to fit in? Often they change their names.

If you know which types of mistakes you may find on a vital record, you can recognize and deal with them. Here are 5 common mistakes to look for on vital records.

1. Wrong Parent's Name on a Birth, Death, or Marriage Record

If 5 out of 6 names are correct on a vital record, that 6th name could be an error. Imagine a birth record where the baby's first and last names are what you expected. It's your grandmother's full name. And her father's first and last names are correct. But when you look at her mother, her first name is right and her last name is wrong. So, 5 out of 6 names are correct. Is it your grandmother's birth record?

Take a look at the rest of the details. Is the place correct? Is your great grandfather's occupation correct? Is there another couple in town with the names you see on this document?

Whenever I record a vital record in my family tree that has an error, I make note of it. In the birth date's description field, I add a standard phrase. For example, "Her mother's last name is Ferraro on her birth record". This tells me, and anyone who finds my tree online, that I'm aware of the discrepancy, but I've done my homework. (It's helpful to have standard phrases to use in your family tree.)

I learned a helpful fact about Italian vital records that can come into play with this type of error. Sometimes they can record a woman's name using her mother's maiden name. I don't know why—to distinguish her from another woman with her name? But I have seen it happen.

When you've researched the whole family, a name error on one vital record won't ruin your day.

2. Wrong Sibling's Birth Date on a Marriage Record

In some countries it was common to re-use a first name among your children. If your baby Giovanni died, you named your next baby boy Giovanni. When the second Giovanni grew up and married, what if a clerk found the first Giovanni's birth record? He'd enter that date into the marriage record.

I've seen this happen a lot. It's only because I've already documented the death of Giovanni #1 that I know this is an error. To keep from recording an error in your family tree, research the whole family.

3. Wrong Grandparent's Name on a Birth, Death, or Marriage Record

It's very common to see the wrong names on a U.S. death record of someone born overseas. My great grandmother's brother was born Giuseppe Antonio Caruso. On his 1949 U.S. death certificate, he is Joseph A. Caruso. The informant was one of his daughters, Rose. Rose never met her grandparents in Italy. She named them as Frank (he was Francesco) and Maria Gerard. Maria's last name had been a roadblock for me, but I knew Gerard was going to be a clue. Piecing together clues, I found it. Her name was Girardi! Rose seems to have used a more American version of the name.

When my 2nd great grandfather died in New York in 1925, his eldest son was the informant. He said my 3rd great grandmother was Mary Piseo. You know what Italian documents say her name was? Grazia Ucci. Talk about a red herring.

On many Italian vital records, they wrote a person's name and then their father's first name. (See "3. Grandfathers' Names".) This can be so helpful in telling same-named people apart. In particular, birth records in the 1860s–1870s include the two parents' fathers' names. But sometimes there's a mistake. The record may say Antonio is the son of Giovanni when he was the son of Giuseppe. As with error #1 above, you have to consider all the details on a document to see if this is nothing more than a mistake.

4. Person Goes By a Different Name

When my mother was born, they asked her immigrant father, "What is the baby's name?" He said Mariangela. My grandmother was out cold, so she couldn't speak up. Mariangela was not the plan. A clerk recorded the name as Marie Angela. The plan was to name her Maryann, and that's always been her name.

The story is that my grandfather wanted to name her after his mother, Mariangela. Then I came along and became a genealogist. You know what I found? My great grandmother's 1 Jan 1856 birth record says she is Marianna. (That's way closer to Maryann, by the way.) So who is Mariangela?

Researching her entire family, I found 7 siblings. The first child, born in 1843, was Mariangela. She died in 1847. The sixth child was Marianna…sometimes. When Marianna married in 1881, she was still Marianna. But when her first and fourth children were born, she was Mariangela. Her name kept going back and forth. I suspect she went my the name Mariangela within her family as a tribute to her dead sister. But on some official documents, she used her proper name of Marianna. My grandfather must have known her as Mariangela.

Follow their complete paper trail to figure out what's a mistake, what's a custom, and what's a matter of fitting in.

5. Complete Change of Name in a New Country

Some of our ancestors hung onto their ethnic identity more than others. I'm impressed that my grandfathers hung onto their Italian names for life. Some people called them Adam and Peter, but every document calls them Adamo and Pietro. Their American children change how they pronounced their last names. But Adamo and Pietro stuck to the origin pronunciation.

This is not the norm. I've documented so many distant relatives who came to America from Italy. Most Giuseppes became Joe. Most Giovannis became John, my great grandfather included. My grand aunt Assunta became Susie.

You may have family members who ditched their ethnic birth name for a more common name. In my family tree I have a Ross who was born Rosario, a Sam who was born Semplicio, and a Julia who was born Giovina.

You need to recognize and look past a name change when seeking vital records for your family member. A family from my great grandparents' town had the last name Muollo (my 2nd great grandmother's name). The family settled in Pennsylvania. Muollo is so hard for an American mouth to say (mwo-lo) that they changed it to Williams. Williams! If a member of that family hadn't told me this, I'd have lost track of the entire group.

If you're trying to follow a family that changed its last name, pay attention to the first names. Let's say I didn't know the Muollos became the Williamses, and I decided to look at the census records for their town. If I found a family that included Ernest, Michael, Teresa, Carl, and Mary Rose, I'd know this was the Muollo family.

Try to find documents to support that name change. Then change your search to include the new name.

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Mistakes can happen. They do happen. Know what to look for, do your research, and you can deal with the inevitable mistakes on vital records.

Have you missed any of these recent articles from Fortify Your Family Tree?

• My 5 Favorite Genealogy Tricks
• 10 Details Not to Miss on Italian Vital Records
• 5 Reasons to Search Beyond Your Direct Ancestors
• 5 Traits of an Exceptional Genealogist

7 Ways to Get the Most from Genealogy Documents (Part 2 of 2)

In this article and last week's, we look at 7 methods to help you get the most value from genealogy documents.

Last week's article began a discussion of 7 ways to squeeze the goods out of genealogy documents. That article covers the first 3 ways. Here are the other 4.

4. Translation Tools

One of my pet peeves is people who won't even try to figure out what a foreign-language vital record has to say. I guarantee you can stare at the document for a while and spot the names and numbers. As long as the foreign language uses the same letters as your alphabet, you can find names among the other words. It's just recognizing shapes.

FamilySearch.org has resources to help you with genealogy documents in another language. Go to their Wiki, choose the country you need, and find a list of genealogical words. Pay close attention to the words for numbers, as you may find them written in longhand, not numerals. Learn the word for each month. Browse the words for relationships, like father, mother, grandparent, and so on. The help you need is there.

I spend all my time up to my eyeballs in Italian vital records. When I first started viewing them, I didn't know how they worked. But there is always a format that they follow (see 5. Templates below). The more documents you view, the easier it gets.

I keep a bookmark for FamilySearch's Latin genealogical word list. While I've gotten comfortable with Latin numbers and months, I still need a little help now and then. It's good to be able to double-check yourself.

Google Translate is one of my most-used genealogy tools. Some documents may have an extra paragraph that doesn't fit the usual format. You can type the letters you think you see and find out what it means.

If you have a typewritten foreign document, use an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) tool. Clean up any obvious errors, then copy and paste the text into Google Translate. (I love to use OCR on obituaries so I can put the text right into my family tree.)

One free resource shows you the key genealogy words in another language. Another gives you a proper translation.

5. Templates

Different types of documents follow a specific pattern. That pattern can change over time, but there is a pattern. Understanding the layout of a document helps make sure that:

• you know where to look, and
• you don't overlook anything important.

For instance, each census record has a set format, and the exact questions vary from census to census. You can download blank, clean, easy-to-read forms from FamilySearch.org. Use them to make your research easier. Search for "Genealogy Research Forms" and see all that's there. These clean forms can show you exactly what information the form contains. They have blank ship manifests (which changed often), U.S. draft registration forms, Canadian and British census forms, and much more. Take advantage!

I've dissected Italian vital records in past articles. Maybe I'll create clean templates to help my fellow researchers understand what's where.

6. Safeguarding

Documents are beyond crucial to our family tree research. Anything that valuable deserves protection. Genealogy is a hobby we enjoy for years, so our findings move from computer to computer and house to house. We must take the necessary steps to safeguard our genealogy treasures. Make preservation a habit.

I work on my family tree every day. Here's my basic routine.

• Make a family tree file backup every few hours.
• At the end of the day, export a GEDCOM file and run a full backup.
• Store my final backup, GEDCOM, and a copy of the Family Tree Maker file in the cloud (OneDrive).
• Upload my GEDCOM to Geneanet.org. (This site can put your tree in front of a more international audience.)
• The next morning, sync my FTM file with my Ancestry.com tree.
• On Sunday morning, back up the week's files, including any new documents, to 2 external hard drives.

For more detail, and to figure out your own genealogy safeguarding plan, see:

• A Safety Net for Reckless Family Tree Building
• It's Time to Organize All Your Family Photos
• Quick and Easy Family Tree Backup Routine

7. Find Every Document

Isn't it great how new record collections come online all the time? When all my ancestors' Italian vital records came online on the Antenati site, it opened the floodgates. That's why my family tree has 81,601 people! And I couldn't be happier that the New York City Municipal Archives went online. Almost all my family lived there.

This year I'm filling in source citations in my family tree to make it valuable to other researchers. When I follow up on someone in the United States, I usually find more information than there was before. Now I can see their Pennsylvania birth and death records. I can download their New York City marriage record. Each new document can open the door to more relatives.

I love having a Newspapers.com subscription for obituaries and marriage announcements. These are a big help for people in my tree who were dead ends. Now I know who they married and which kids they had. And the grandchildren in the obit may be my DNA matches. The new information leads to more and more facts for my family tree.

Make it part of your research plan to revisit the dead ends in your family tree once in a while. You never know when a new document will come online and give you the answers you were missing. Keep trying to find every piece of the paper trail for each person.

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Genealogy documents are the cornerstone of our family tree research. My grandparents had so little to tell us about their parents. And they said nothing at all about their grandparents. So many details are lost in time. (Now I'm picturing Rutger Hauer in "Bladerunner" saying, "like tears in rain".) It's documents that let us capture the forgotten tidbits of our family history. Get all you can from them and preserve it all for future generations.

7 Ways to Get the Most from Genealogy Documents (Part 1 of 2)

Don't miss out on the full value of genealogy documents. Here are 7 ways to get the most from the documents you want for your family tree.

I'm still plugging away at my source citations project. Each day I add citations for 70–100 of the Italian nationals in my family tree. Working on source citations makes it obvious how important genealogy documents are to family tree research. I have so many people in my tree whose existence would be unknown if I didn't have this one document image.

Let me share with you 7 ways you can get the most value from each genealogy document you discover.

1. File Naming and Storage

If you're downloading document images you find online (I hope you are), you must make sure you can find them again. Everyone has their own preference about document file naming. Whatever you choose to do, do it with consistency. Then you'll have no doubt where to find a particular document.

I've detailed my file-naming and folder storage system in "3 Simple Rules for Managing Your Digital Genealogy Documents". I know lots of people have separate folders for individual families. For me, that'd be impossible. My family tree has 81,500 people and thousands of families. And what happens with Grandma? Is she stored under her father's last name and excluded from the folder for her husband's last name? Do I put a copy of her censuses under both names? It makes no sense to me.

The vast majority of my document image files are vital records. I name these for the person who is the primary subject. That's the baby on a birth record, the decedent on a death record, the groom and bride on a marriage record. I name the files last-name-first so they're easy to sort and find. When I name a file for a female, she always always always goes by her maiden name. The only time this is tricky is when a widowed woman is the head of household on a census form. In those cases, I'll use both last names, as in OrsariSarracinoGiuseppa1920. This is a 1920 census record for Giuseppa Orsari, widow, and her Sarracino children.

When you're choosing a file-naming/folder-naming process to follow, think it through. Let's say you don't name your files last-name-first. If you need John Taylor's documents, how many hundreds of John files will you have to pore over to find the right one? There are Johns, John Anthonys, John Peters, John Philips…that Taylor could be anywhere.

Find a solution that works best with the way you use your genealogy documents.

With a logical filing system in place, any genealogy document is easy to find for use in your family tree research.

2. Source Citations

Why create source citations? Imagine you're searching online for a distant cousin whose family tree might help you. You find one, and their tree has tons of details that are new to you. But not one fact has a source citation.

You're left to wonder, where did they get this date? Is that her maiden name? Did he die in another country? Without source citations, you have no solid reason to believe any detail is correct.

Recently, I heard from someone through Ancestry.com. It may be the first time I've ever heard from another Sarracino descendant. (That's my grandmother's maiden name.) Unfortunately, a lack of pre-1861 records from their town means I can't find our connection. But I'm happy to share what I do know.

He found his relatives in my family tree and asked me where those names and dates came from. Right away, I added the missing source citations for everyone in his branch. I synced my Family Tree Maker file with my Ancestry tree and pointed him to it. I told him he could view the profile page for any person and see a list of citations in the center column. For any citation, he would find a clickable link to the web page where he could see the vital record for himself.

That's exactly the type of proof someone needs to believe your genealogy work is valid. Plus, there will be times when you need to return to a document online. What if the version you downloaded got lost or corrupted? Say you found out that a cousin lived in your grandparents' apartment building. You'd need to return to the census to look for the cousin on the next page. If you didn't add a citation, how easily could you return to the source?

Source citations have tremendous value. For tips on following a source citation routine, see "These Steps Make Your Family Tree Much More Valuable".

3. Digitization

I've lived at a keyboard since I bought my genuine IBM PC in 1985. Of course all my stuff is digital! I'm not one of those genealogists with binders full of paper reproductions. I can't even imagine a binder for each family. (Again, I have thousands of families.) I have a few noteworthy paper-based family tree projects, but that's it:

• How to Create a 'Book of Life' for Your Relatives
• Make Your Own 'Elder Scroll'
• 5+ Ways to Share Your Tree with Family

I have only a small number of paper vital records that are not online. My grandfather's 1992 death certificate. My great grandfather's 1969 death certificate, and so on. These documents all fit in one folder. But of course I need to have an image of these documents in my family tree and as part of my computer backup.

That's why I digitized each paper-only document to make sure I never lose it. To see how simple this routine can be, read "How to Make Your Family Tree Fireproof!"

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Have you ever heard the phrase "Pix or it didn't happen"? When it comes to genealogy, it's "Documents or it didn't happen". Take the time to:

• follow a file-naming and file-storage routine
• prove your work by citing your sources
• safeguard your work for posterity.

More people than you will care about your family tree. Make it the best you can.

There's so much to say about genealogy documents that this article got quite long. Please come back next week and I'll wrap up the rest of the 7 Ways.