A Couple of weeks ago I was sitting in the Dairy Queen eating a Chicken Fried Steak and talking Genealogy with Elmer Joe Cox. Yes, THE Elmer Joe Cox of Wolfe City Texas.  For those of yall that don’t know him, Elmer Joe has been doing Genealogy for over 50 years, Is the founder of the Nomocotton Genealogy Society and is one of the experts I occasionally consult with.

EJ was trying (Again) to explain to me exactly why it is so important to find documentation and cite sources.  He explained to me that what we genealogists need to be is 50% Barnaby Jones and 50% Perry Mason.  After he stopped laughing at me, he explained that Barnaby Jones was a TV Detective durin the 70’s. (Did Yall know Uncle Jed got a job after he left Beverly Hills?)  I still looked confused so he explained himself.

The first thing you gotta do is go out and find the facts.  It don’t matter if you are going through Census Records, Cemeteries, Land Deeds, Family Bibles, Marriage Licenses or Birth Certificates you gotta find the facts before you can record them.    Now your sweet old Aunt Bertha may tell you she was born in Feb of 24 and you record that in your files.  Two years later while you are at the court house you find her birth certificate which says she was born in Feb of 23.  There are a couple of real good reasons she may have gotten the date wrong, Her Memory might be failing, She might wanna be younger than she is or she might be trying to hide the fact  that she was born 5 months after her parents married.  What ever the reason You need to put in the correct date and Cite the Source.  This is a case of going from clues you got (Aunt Bertha said she was born in Feb of 24 in Cooper Texas) to Facts you find (She was born in Feb of 23 in Cooper Texas). That’s where the Barnaby Jones part comes in, you gotta go out and investigate this stuff.

Then you gotta build an ironclad case.  Think of yourself as Perry Mason going into a court room.  You don’t wanna get up there and Say “Well Aunt Bertha told me she was born in 1924, and just look at that sweet face.  Everyone knows she wouldn’t Lie.”  Cause as shure as you do that some distant cousin that never met her is gonna come back and say “According to the Delta County Court House she was born in 1923, so either she is a liar or you just don’t know your stuff.”   Then that two bit turkey is gonna quit sharing info with you.  I tell you what somebody ought to drag that boy out and horsewhip him.  I mean after all -------------Huh-------- Oh yea the column.  Sorry about that got a little distracted there for a second.  You wanna be able to prove the material in your family history.   Collect those Birth Certs, Marriage Certs, Land Deeds, Mark down the Names, Pages, Authors, ISBN numbers, Pub Dates of those books you use.  Also tell where you found the book, in case you need to check back or someone else wants to double check your stuff.   (Its that Big Mouthed Distant Cousin again.)  When you use Micro Fiche markdown all the pertinent data off of it, the fiche number and where you found it.   When getting info of a census Fiche, mark down everything you can find, Enumeration Date, Enumerator, FicheNumber, Page, Line number and color of the Librarians Eyes.   (Ok, Maybe I got a little carried away there at the end.)  What it boils down to is that you wanna be able to prove in a court of law what you are saying is true.   Now don’t get me wrong you aint gonna have to go to court or anything, but that is the level of proof you should strive for. 

Of course you wont always be able to attain (That means get to) that level of proof, but site any source you use.  If the information comes from an interview with Aunt Bertha put that in as the source, with the date of the interview and her age at the time of the interview.  That way if five years down the road you find another source that isn’t exactly the same on dates and such you can weigh the evidence that 77 year old Aunt Bertha gave you against the new material to determine which is probably more accurate. Personally I use both sources and make a notation of the discrepancies.  

I guess that’s all for this week, Yall have fun but cite those sources.

Adios and Keep Smiling