Steve’s Genealogy Blog

Vital records, church records, census records, military records, and many others have become standard fare for genealogists. But, sometimes, finding records for ancestors requires searching for unusual records. Searching for heirs and descendants sometimes requires searching for even more unusual records.

Finding a Contractor’s License

Recently, while trying to locate a family in California, I came across an unexpected surprise while searching city directories. The person for whom I was searching was listed in an old city directory as a contractor. I immediately went to the phone directory for the same year as the city directory and found, in the yellow pages, a listing for this person’s company accompanied by his California Contractor’s License number.

I thought about contacting the state licensing board for more information and searched the world wide web for the address and phone number for the agency. I was hit with another surprise. Information on contractor’s licenses was available online!

The database provided the name of the company, the names of the principals (president, treasurer, etc.), information on when the various principals joined and left the company, information on violations, address of the business, and more.

Online information on State Contractor’s Licenses is available for all states in the United States. Some states only provide information on active licenses, but others provide information on active and expired licenses for the past several decades. Better yet, a single website, the Contractor’s License Reference Site, provides links to Contractor’s Licenses in all 50 states.

Other Business and Professional Licenses 

But that’s not all that’s available online. Information on Business Licenses and Professional Licenses is also available by searching for [name of state] business license, or [name of state] professional license.

For example, I used Google to search for New York State business license and found a website for the New York State Education Department’s Office of the Professions Online Verification Searches. For a state where 20th Century genealogical and family history information is difficult to access, this site is a gold mine. One can search for those in license professions such as Accounting, Acupuncture, Dentistry, Massage Therapy, Midwifery, Nursing, Social Work, Veterinary Medicine and many, many others.

I searched for the name Adele Smith under the profession of Dental Hygienist and was rewarded with the following results:

Name : SMITH ADELE L
Address : PULASKI NY
Profession : DENTAL HYGIENE
License No: 000844
Date of Licensure : 06/29/26
Additional Qualification :   Not applicable in this profession
Status : NOT REGISTERED
Registered through last day of :

The date of licensure was 06/29/26, indicating that the information in the New York State Online Verification Searches database goes way back in the 20th century.

Even better, the New York Online Verification Searches search engine will provide close matches in addition to exact matches, making it useful even if you don’t know the exact spelling of someone’s name.

Depending on the state, you may have to be more specific in your search in order to find licenses for a specific profession. A search for california state nursing license provided a searchable database for nursing licenses and a search for california state veterinary license provided a searchable database for veterinary licenses.

Searching for information on business and professional licenses can provide interesting details for your family history and assist in searches for heirs.

Copyright © 2007 by Stephen J. Danko

Today I received an email from Erik, who asked:

I saw while browsing Google for Powiat Ciechanowski I stumbled across your family history website and saw you have ancestors from there. Well, I do too, and I was wondering how you went about researching the people of that area. My great-grandfather and his family were all from a town called Szulmierz in that county and I really know nothing but his name, the year of his birth, and his father’s name. How do you recommend I go about researching his family? Are there any microfilmed records of the area? Since I see you’ve done Polish genealogy I was hoping you could provide me with some tips.

This is a great question, Erik.  When I first began to study my family history, I had no idea how to go about this, and for a while I thought this was an obstacle I would never get past.  You’re already part way to your goal, in that you know the name of your ancestors’ village.  Here’s a plan on how to proceed from here:

1.  The first thing to do is to find the name of the parish to which Szulmierz belonged by consulting a gazetteer.  I looked for Szulmierz in the Słownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i Innych Krajów Słowiańskich (The Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland and other Slavonic Countries):

Słownik Geograficzny Entry for Szulmierz

SOURCE:  Chlebowski, Bronisław, Filip Sulimierski, and Władysław Walewski, eds., Słownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i Innych Krajów Słowiańskich (Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland and other Slavonic Countries) - Warsaw 1892, Volume XII, page 70.

The entry, translated from the Polish, states:

Szulmierz, a village and grange [a grange is a large manorial farmstead], Ciechanów Powiat [District], it has 2068 mórgs [1 mórg in the Russian Partition = 1.388 acres] in the grange (720 mórgs of settled forest) and 287 mórgs in the manor.  Compare Sulmierz and Dunoch.

I then looked up the entry for Sulmierz:

Słownik Geograficzny Entry for Sulmierz

SOURCE:  Chlebowski, Bronisław, Władysław Walewski, and Filip Sulimierski, eds., Słownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i Innych Krajów Słowiańskich (Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland and other Slavonic Countries) - Warsaw 1890, Volume XI, page 575.

The entry for Sulmierz, translated from the Polish, states:

Sulmierz, a village and grange [a grange is a large manorial farmstead], Ciechanów Powiat [District], Regimin Gmina [municipality], Niedzborz parish.  Eight viersts [1 vierst = 1.0668 km] not far from Ciechanów, it has 25 homes, 317 inhabitants, 1924 mórgs [1 mórg in the Russian Partition = 1.388 acres].

Finally, I looked up the entry for Dunoch:

Słownik Geograficny Entry for Dunoch

SOURCE:  Sulimierski, Filip, Bronisław Chlebowski, and Władysław Walewski, eds., Słownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i Innych Krajów Słowiańskich (Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland and other Slavonic Countries) - Warsaw 1881, Volume II, page 227.

The entry for Dunoch, translated from the Polish, states:

Dunoch, a forest area in Ciechanów Powiat [District], Regimin Gmina [municipality], Koziczynek and Lekowo parishes, belonging to the property of:  Kosiczyn, Szulmierz, Włosty and others.  It consists predominantly of coniferous trees, although it is frequently possible to come across whole areas consisting of oak forests and birch groves.  Formerly, this forest was joined with the forests owned by the Opinogórski Manor in the village of Lekowo.

So, it appears that the Baptismal, Marriage, and Death Records for the Polish village of Szulmierz were probably maintained by the parish in Niedzborz.  However, since Szulmierz was part of the Dunoch forest area, it is possible that the records could have been maintained by the parishes of Koziczynek or Lekowo.

Click on the link for a PDF copy of the Słownik Geograficzny entries for Szulmierz, Sulmierz, and Dunoch, along with transcriptions and translations of those entries.

2.  The second thing to do is see if the records have been microfilmed at by the Family History Library.  Go to http://www.familysearch.org , click on the “Library” tab at the top of the page, then click on “Family History Library Catalog”.  Then click on “Place Search”, enter the name of the parish in the “Place” box, and click on the Search button.  I checked for Niedzborz, Koziczynek, and Lekowo.  I found that there were baptismal, marriage, and death records in Niedzborz from 1644-1900 (with some gaps), and there are baptismal, marriage, and death records in Lekowo from 1808-1903 (but the records for 1860 appear to be missing).  I could not find records for Koziczynek in the Family History Library Catalog, nor could I find Koziczynek on a map.

3.  The third thing to do is to go to your local Family History Center (you can find a list of Family History Centers at http://www.familysearch.org by entering the place where you live in the search box near the bottom of the main page).  Order the films you want, pay a small fee (usually about $5.50 - $6.50 US) and wait until the films arrive.  Then, you can search the films for the records of your family.  The FamilySearch website includes additional information about Family History Centers.

One difficulty is that records up through the early 19th Century are in Latin, from the early 19th Century to about 1865-1870 they’ll be in Polish, and after that they’ll be in Russian.  If you can’t read these languages you may have to find someone who can.

Usually (but not always), these church records will have an index at the end of each year and a cumulative index every ten years.  You can look up the name in the index and find the record.  For the Polish and Latin records, you shouldn’t have a problem finding the names in the indexes, but the Russian records usually only index the names in Russian using the Cyrillic alphabet.

Stephen Morse has a webpage at http://www.stephenmorse.com/russian/eng2rus.html that will transliterate English or Polish names to Russian.  The webpage will give you lots of possibilities, but sometimes doesn’t come up with the correct transliteration at all.  The webpage shows the transliteration in print form rather than handwritten form, so you still may need help in finding names handwritten in Russian in the church records.

Most of the Polish and Russian records will follow a consistent format.  I’ve shown some of these records, along with transcriptions and translations, on my website.  Additional help with translations can be found elsewhere on the web and in the excellent translation guides by Jonathan Shea and Fred Hoffman published by Language and Lineage Press:

Jonathan D. Shea and William F. Hoffman, In Their Words. A Genealogist’s Translation Guide to Polish, German, Latin, and Russian Documents. Volume I: Polish (New Britain, Connecticut: Language & Lineage Press, 2000).

Jonathan D. Shea and William F. Hoffman, In Their Words. A Genealogist’s Translation Guide to Polish, German, Latin, and Russian Documents. Volume II: Russian (New Britain, Connecticut: Language & Lineage Press, 2002).

Volume I: Polish is out of print, but should be back in print soon.  Volumes III and IV (German and Latin) have not yet been published.

Good Luck!

A Lesson on the Genealogical Proof Standard 

A couple of years ago, while searching for Polish parish records on microfilm at the Family History Library, I tried tracing the ancestry of my Niedziałkowski ancestors.

I knew my grandfather was from the Szwelice parish and I was able to find the Birth and Baptismal Record for my grandfather’s siblings Józef, Sabina, and Stanisław Niedziałkowski.  All of their records showed that their parents (my great grandparents) were Teofil Niedziałkowski and Ksawera Zygmuntowicz.

I also found the Birth and Baptismal Records for my great grandfather Teofil Niedziałkowski’s siblings, Karolina, Julianna, and Franciszek Niedzialkowski.  All their records showed that their parents (my great-great grandparents) were Wojciech Niedziałkowski and Julianna Gutowska.

I wasn’t able to find the Birth and Baptismal record for either my grandfather or my great grandfather, but I knew I was following the correct family because the information in the Polish parish records agreed with information I already had obtained from family records and Massachusetts vital records.

With certainty I was on the right track, I looked for the Birth and Baptismal Record for my great-great grandmother, Julianna Gutowska, born in about 1836.  I searched the Szwelice parish records and found a Birth and Baptismal Record for Julianna Gutowska.  Translated from the Polish, the record states:

94 Głodki

This happened in the church-owned village of Szwelice on the 17th / 29th day of December 1836 at one o’clock in the afternoon.  Mikołaj Gutowski presented himself, age 27, from Głodki, in the presence of Maciej Chrzanowski, age 40, and Kasper Trościński, age 60, from Głodki, and he showed us a female child born in Głodki yesterday at four o’clock in the morning, born to his wife Rosalia née Biedrzycka, age 18.  At Holy Baptism performed this day, the child was given the name Julianna, and her Godparents were Stanisław and Maryanna Trościński.  This document was read aloud to the declarants and witnesses and signed only by us, because those appearing and the witnesses mentioned in this document cannot write.

Rev. Ignatius Kołakowski, Pastor of Szwelice

Well, it looked like I found the Birth and Baptismal Record for my great-great grandmother!  She was born in the right year in the same parish as my Niedziałkowski ancestors.  I merrily researched the families of Mikołaj Gutowski and Rozalia Biedrzycka without much difficulty since this line was well documented in the Szwelice records.

Then I found another record - the Death Record for my grandmother, Julianna née Gutowska Niedziałkowska.  Translated from the Russian, this record reads:

№ 38.  Pomoski

This happened in the village of Szwelice on April 13th / 26th 1900 at 12 Noon.  Wojciech Niedziałkowski, the husband of the deceased, age 65, and Piotr Napierkowski, age 60, farmers living in Pomaski, appeared and stated that on April 12th / 25th of this year at 4 o’clock in the morning in Pomaski, Julianna Niedziałkowska died, age 67, born in Warsaw, Holy Cross parish, and living with her husband as a farmer woman in Pomaski, the daughter of the deceased Wojciech and Anna née Jabłonowski Gutowski.  She is survived by her husband, the widower Wojciech Niedziałkowski.  After eyewitness testimony on the death of Julianna Niedziałkowska, this document was read to the declarant, who is illiterate, and was signed by us alone.  Id. Administrator of the parish of Szwelice, Assistant Pastor, Keeper of the Documents of the Civil State -.

Father [Sędzicki]

At this point, everything fell apart.  I was certain this was the Death Record for my great-great grandmother.  However, it states that Julianna’s parents were Wojciech Gutowski and Anna Jabłonowski and that Julianna was born in Warsaw, Holy Cross Parish.  I had been researching the wrong family!

I have not yet found the Birth and Baptismal Record for Julianna Gutowska.  Like many of my other ancestors, her records have eluded me.  I searched the Baptismal Records for Holy Cross Parish in Warsaw, but that parish is extremely large, performing thousands of baptisms a year - and the records aren’t indexed - and the records are in Russian.

The lesson here is don’t assume someone is your ancestor just because they have the right name and were born at what you think was the right time and place.  I have since learned that the Genealogical Proof Standard requires much more.

A Polish proverb says:

“Nauka nie poszła w las.”

Literally, this is translated as “The lesson didn’t go into the forest”.  It means “The lesson has not been forgotten”.

On Tuesday, during one of the online chat sessions I attend as part of the classes I’m taking through the National Institute of Genealogical Studies, I learned that the Canadian television program Ancestors in the Attic is premiering this week.  I searched the program schedule for Dish Network to see if, by chance, the program would be available here in San Francisco.  It is not.

I did, however, find a listing for a genealogical television program that I hadn’t heard of before - Questions and Ancestors.  This program airs on BYUTV and I tuned in on Tuesday evening to a half-hour of How To Do British Research.  The show is the televised version of a radio program that answers genealogical questions submitted by listeners/viewers and is actually part of the Ancestors series that ran on PBS a few years back.

Episodes in the series include:

• How To Get Started
• How To Use the Internet In Your Research
• Preserving Family Heritage
• How To Do African American Genealogy (The Freedman Bank Records)
• How To Do British Research
• Daughters of the American Revolution
• How To Do Oral History
• Using Cemetery Records
• Coats of Arms In Family History
• Using Military Records In Family History
• Native American Genealogy
• Tracing LDS Families
• Asian Genealogical Research
• Early American Immigration
• British Military Records
• Hispanic Research
• Basic Scandinavian Family History Research

The Questions and Ancestors website provides a form to submit your questions, an episode guide with air dates for future programs, and links to downloadable podcasts of the episodes that can be played on your computer, downloaded to an iPod, or burned to a CD.

Tune in and watch, or download and listen!

After coming to a decision about how to define Original Source, Derivative Source, Primary Information, Secondary Information, Exact Image, and Original Record, it’s time to decide how some of the records I’ve collected on my Great Aunt Mary stack up.

Birth and Baptismal Record

Marianna’s Birth and Baptismal Record is an Exact Image of an Original Source.  The record contains Primary Information on the dates and places of birth and baptism, the names and occupations of her parents, the names of her godparents, her sex, religion, and the fact she was legitimately born, the name of the midwife, and the name of the priest who performed the baptism.  The record includes Secondary Information on the names and occupations of Mary’s grandparents.

SOURCE:  Book of Births and Baptisms, 1884: entry 5, Church of the Immaculate Heart of the Most Holy Virgin Mary, Dubiecko, Poland.

Hamburg Emigration Record

Marjanna’s Hamburg Emigration Record is an Exact Image of an Original Source.  The record includes Primary Information on the ship and date on which she emigrated, her sex and marital status, her former place of residence, her nationality, and her former occupation and position.  Unless Marjanna provided some official proof of her age, the record includes Secondary Information on her age.  While she was certainly present at her own birth, she certainly would not have remembered the event itself.  Moreover, the emigration record was not generated at or near the time of her birth.

SOURCE:  Marjanna Danko entry; SS Kaiserin Auguste Victoria, June 16, 1909, line 830; in Hamburg Emigration Lists 1850-1934, Volumes 209-211, Direct Lists, microfilm 473,001, Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Passenger Arrival List

Marianna’s Passenger Arrival List is an Exact Image of an Original Source.  Most of the information in this record is Primary Information, including the name of the ship, the ports and dates of departure and arrival, Marianna’s former occupation, her nationality, her former place of residence, her intended destination, and her height, weight, complexion, hair color, and eye color.  Marianna’s age and place of birth are Secondary Information, unless she provided this information in some official record.

SOURCE:  Marianna Danko entry; SS Kaiserin Auguste Victoria Passenger Manifest, June 26, 1909, page 36, line 4; Micropublication T715 (Washington: National Archives), roll 1293, frames 513-514.

The 1910, 1920, and 1930 Census

The 1910, 1920, and 1930 Census Records are Exact Images of Original Sources.  Much of the information in this record is Primary Information, including address, inhabitants of the household, language spoken, occupation, and ownership of home.  Secondary Information includes ages at the time of the census, ages at marriage, places of birth, year of immigration, and naturalization information.

SOURCE:  Samuel Carsenberg household, 1910 U.S. census, Worcester county, Massachusetts, population schedule, city of Worcester, enumeration district 1880, supervisor’s district 119, sheet 6B, dwelling 39, family 98; National Archives micropublication T624, roll 632.

SOURCE:  Paul Golinski household, 1920 U.S. census, Worcester county, Massachusetts, population schedule, city of Worcester, enumeration district 193, supervisor’s district 3, sheet 22A, dwelling 194, family 470; National Archives micropublication T625, roll 749.

SOURCE:  Paul Golinski household, 1930 U.S. census, Worcester county, Massachusetts, population schedule, city of Worcester, enumeration district 14-23, supervisor’s district 8, sheet 1A, dwelling 3, family 3; National Archives micropublication T626, roll 968.

The Copy of Record of Marriage

Circumstances involved in preparing the Copy of Record of Marriage resulted in a complex situation.  The original record was made at the time of the event, but was not transcribed into the ledger books in Barre, Massachusetts until sometime later.  When the Copy of Record of Marriage was prepared, the information was once again transcribed onto the certified document.

The certified document is an Original Document, but is a Secondary Source.  Much of the information in the record is Primary Information, since it originally was recorded at about the time of the event by someone in an official capacity.  The information was transcribed twice, but when the information was transcribed, someone in an official capacity performed the task.

Thus, the names of the bride and groom, the occupations, the date and place of marriage, the number of marriage, the name of the officiant, and the date of the original record are probably Primary Information.  The ages, places of birth, and the names of the parents of the bride and groom are Secondary Information.

Given that this record was transcribed twice, the Secondary Information and even the Primary Information is somewhat suspect.  I know from other records that the names of the groom’s parents and the name of the bride’s mother are misspelled in this record.  The name of the bride’s father is written as Joseph Jacob Danko, indicating that the recorder incorrectly transcribed the father’s first name, immediately recognized the error, and then just crossed out the error and continued.  This is a certified marriage record?

SOURCE:  Copy of Record of Marriage, October 4, 1915, Barre, Massachusetts, register no. 23, vol. 633, page 358, Massachusetts Registry of Vital Records and Statistics, Dorchester, Massachusetts.

The information contained within a source, whether the source is original or derivative, may be Primary Information or Secondary Information.

PRIMARY INFORMATION:  details originally recorded at the time or close to the time of an event by a participant, eyewitness, or official recorder of the event.

Even if details in a record qualify as Primary Information, Primary Information does not guarantee that the information is accurate.  Errors might have made when the details were recorded.  Nonetheless, Primary Information is usually the most accurate information available, as long as the details are recorded by someone capable of understanding the significance of the information and does so without bias.  Frequently, the recorder is someone acting in an official capacity, such as a Registrar, Clerk, Secretary, Minister of the Peace, or Priest.

SECONDARY INFORMATION:  details originally recorded at a time or place distant from the original event or by a person who was not either a participant, eyewitness, or official recorder of the event.

Secondary Information, since it is generally recorded at a much later time than the actual event or by someone who does not have first-hand knowledge of the event, may be less reliable than Primary Information.  As with Primary Information, the quality of Secondary Information is subject to the qualifications of the person who recorded it.

I have placed one qualifier in the definitions of Primary and Secondary Information that most genealogical references do not, in that I have defined Primary and Secondary Information in terms of when the details were originally recorded.  Thus, a transcript may be a Derivative Source, but the transcript may include Primary Information if the source from which it was transcribed contains Primary Information.  Primary Information in a Derivative Source is, however, subject to the potential flaws of the source itself.

A source often contains both primary and secondary information.  For example, a Death Certificate usually contains Primary Information about the death itself, but may also include Secondary Information about the birth of the decedent.

Bibliography:

Devine, Donn. “Reliable Information- Whatever the Source: The Key to Sound Research.” Ancestry Magazine 19 (January/February 2001).  Online <http://www.ancestry.com/learn/library/article.aspx?article=3657>. 19 August 2006.

Leary, Helen F. M. “Part 1: Definitions” Evidence Analysis, A Workshop, 1999 NGS Conference in the States, National Genealogical Society (Arlington, Virginia: NGS, 1999).

The Board for Certification of Genealogists, The BCC Genealogical Standards Manual. Orem, Utah: Ancestry Publishing, 2000.

The definitions for Original Source and Derivative Source provided in the literature sometimes don’t seem to fit the needs of genealogists.  In particular, the literature places exact images such as photocopies and microfilm images in the category of Derivative Sources.  If so, Original Sources are rare!

What do we end up with if we consider what Original Sources we have in our possession?  Perhaps we have a Certificate of Naturalization or a family bible, or a sampler with the name and date of birth of a child.  Beyond that, we might have photocopies of Vital Records, or electronic images of Passenger Manifests or Census Records.  By definition, then, some of the most useful records genealogists have in their possession are Derivative Sources. 

Recently, some genealogy authorities have classified exact images as Original Sources and, perhaps, the definitions of Original Source and Derivative Source should be modified to reflect this line of thought.  Otherwise, the differentiation between Original Source and Derivative Source is almost meaningless; almost all of our sources are Derivative Sources.  Most Original Sources have either been archived or destroyed.

Consider the following definitions as an attempt to take into account the records actually available and to allow genealogists to evaluate the quality of sources more precisely.

ORIGINAL SOURCE:  a record that provides information not obtained or derived from another record.  An Original Source can be an Original Record or and Exact Image.

This definition of Original Source takes into account that the information on an Exact Image, if it faithfully preserves the appearance and information in the Original Record, can substitute for the Original Record.

ORIGINAL RECORD:  the first record in which information is captured in a fixed form, whether on paper, in stone, in electronic form, or in some other medium.  An Original Record can be either an Original Source or a Derivative Source, but there can exist only one Original Record.

This definition of Original Record takes into account that paper documents are not the only Original Records.  Inclusion of media other than paper is increasing important in a digital world.  This definition also considers that an Original Record can be either an Original Source or a Derivative Source.  An Original Record is an Original Source only if the information in that record was not obtained or derived from some other record.

EXACT IMAGE:  a reproduction of an Original Record in a photograph, photocopy, microform, digital form, or other media that preserves both the appearance of and information in the Original Record.

The quality of the image is an important characteristic to consider when deciding if an image qualifies as an Exact Image.  Severe distortion of the image or alteration of the image (such as when a vital records office obscures the cause of death in a death certificate) may disqualify an image from being an Exact Image.

DERIVATIVE SOURCE:  a record which is generated based on information in an Original Record and is not an Exact Image of the Original Record.  Derivative Sources include Transcriptions, Abstracts, and Compiled Sources.

This definition of a Derivative Source considers Duplicate Originals and Official Copies to be Derivative Sources, unless those sources are Exact Images.  Some Derivative Sources are also Original Records.  For example, a certified vital record that is a transcript rather than an Exact Image is an Original Record, but is also a Derivative Source.

These definitions are proposed here to try to clarify some ambiguities in the existing literature and to generate discussion.  Please post a comment or send me an email (click the “E-mail Steve” link on the right-hand side of the page to find my email address).

A few days ago, I wrote about using A Preponderance of Evidence to come to a conclusion in genealogical studies, and in that article I provided the definition of Original Source as published in The BCG Genealogical Standards Manual:

“original source:  the person or record whose information did not come from data already spoken or written.  The original is the most authoritative source.  Often, however, it no longer survives or its preservation dictates that it be examined only as an image copy (microfilm, digitized image, and so on).”

The Board for Certification of Genealogists, The BCC Genealogical Standards Manual (Orem, Utah: Ancestry Publishing, 2000), 8-9.

According to The BCC Genealogical Standards Manual, the definition of Derivative Source is:

“derivative source:  a person or record that supplies information that is repeated, reproduced, transcribed, abstracted, or summarized from something already spoken or written.  Because every repetition or recopying of data is an opportunity for error, the closer the derivative is to the original the more reliable the data are likely to be.”

The Board for Certification of Genealogists, The BCC Genealogical Standards Manual (Orem, Utah: Ancestry Publishing, 2000), 9.

In 1999, a workshop on Evidence Analysis was held at the NGS Conference in the States where Helen F. M. Leary, CG, CGL, FASG, FNGS, the President of the Board for Certification of Genealogists, elaborated on these definitions.  She defined Original Source as:

“ORIGINAL SOURCE:  one that contributes written, oral, or visual information not derived from a prior written record or oral communication.  “Original” in this sense refers to the form in which the information is found or was created - not to its quality, reliability, or other characteristics.”

Helen F. M. Leary, “Part 1: Definitions” Evidence Analysis, A Workshop, 1999 NGS Conference in the States, National Genealogical Society (Arlington, Virginia: NGS, 1999).

She also defined Derivative Source as:

“DERIVATIVE SOURCE:  one that contributes information copied, transcribed, abstracted, summarized, or repeated from information in a previously existing source.  Derivatives may be created (a) contemporaneously with the source (e.g., index entries made when the deed were transcribed into the official record book) or years or centuries later (e.g., a person’s “record set: in a genealogical data base); (b) by officials in the course of performing their duties or by private parties pursuing their own interests (e.g., describing the results of a genealogical investigation); and (c) in handwritten, typed, electronically recorded, computer-generated, or exact-image form.”

Helen F. M. Leary, “Part 1: Definitions” Evidence Analysis, A Workshop, 1999 NGS Conference in the States, National Genealogical Society (Arlington, Virginia: NGS, 1999).

One other useful definition that Ms. Leary provided was for Exact Image:

“EXACT IMAGE:  the form of any record that captures its appearance and all the information it carries - as by microfilm, photograph, photocopy, or computer-scanned image.  An exact image is a DERIVATIVE SOURCE whose value depends on its technological quality (e.g., a clear, complete, unaltered reproduction of the ORIGINAL RECORD, in photocopy or microform, carries the same information).  With the same appearance, the image can stand in place of the original.”

Helen F. M. Leary, “Part 1: Definitions” Evidence Analysis, A Workshop, 1999 NGS Conference in the States, National Genealogical Society (Arlington, Virginia: NGS, 1999).

From these definitions, Original Sources are rare, indeed.  In fact, I don’t think I have any source documents that can be considered Original Sources if Exact Images are Derivative Sources.

George Morgan and Drew Smith discussed Original Sources and Derivative Sources on the June 1, 2006 edition of the Genealogy Guys Podcast.  In that podcast, the Genealogy Guys indicated that a reproduction of an Original Source could also be considered an Original Source.

Today, in an online chat with Brenda Dougal Merriman, CG, CGL of the National Institute for Genealogical Studies, I asked the Brenda whether exact images were Original Sources or Derivative Sources.  Brenda answered that exact images could be considered Original Sources, especially these days when so many Original Sources are available as digitized images.

At this point, one more definition may be useful - Original Record:

“ORIGINAL RECORD:  the first paper writing created in response to a specific event or situation.  An ORIGINAL SOURCE can be an ORIGINAL RECORD if written or electronically recorded.  An original record is unique - the can be only one “first” - and therefore irreplaceable.  The original record should not be confused with a DUPLICATE ORIGINAL or an OFFICIAL COPY.  Although “original” is sometimes used to refer to any record of which a copy has been made or from which information has been taken, a more-appropriate term in those case in simply SOURCE”

Helen F. M. Leary, “Part 1: Definitions” Evidence Analysis, A Workshop, 1999 NGS Conference in the States, National Genealogical Society (Arlington, Virginia: NGS, 1999).

There are some conflicting views here.  Is an Exact Image an Original Source or a Derivative Source?

Tomorrow:  New Definitions of Original Source and Derivative Source (A Proposal)

The Genealogical Proof Standard requires a complete, accurate citation of sources.  While finding the sources in the first place may be a more difficult task than citing the sources, even the most skilled genealogists get stumped from time-to-time on how to format source citations.

Why should this task be so difficult?  Many publishers and professional organizations have style guides for publication that include proper citation of sources.  Different organizations have adopted different conventions and formats for citing sources and, in general, one format is not necessarily better than another format.

Genealogical sources suffer from the complication that, rather than simply being references to books and journals, these sources are incredibly varied and usually not cited as sources in fields other than genealogy.  Just as researchers in other fields have citation style guides for their particular professions, so do genealogists:

Mills, Elizabeth Shown. Evidence! Citation & Analysis for the Family Historian.  Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1997.

Mills, Elizabeth Shown. Quicksheet: Citing Online Historical Resources. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2005.

In Evidence!, Elizabeth Shown Mills mentions that the citation examples provided therein are based on The Chicago Manual of Style (The Chicago Manual of Style. 14th edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993).  Even with these resources, the best way to cite a genealogical source is not always straightforward.

To start with, Elizabeth Shown Mills provides examples for three different formats:  Primary Citation (Endnotes or Footnotes), Subsequent Citations (Endnotes or Footnotes) and Bibliographic Entry.  Which of these formats should be used depends on the context and intent. 

Whenever I make a copy of a document, I include source information directly on the copy.  But which format (Endnotes/Footnotes or Bibliography) is more suitable for this purpose, since the source citation is not for either of those purposes?

The citation formats for endnotes or footnotes generally include page numbers while the format for a bibliography does not.  For that reason alone, I would generally format the citation according to the Endnotes/Footnotes format.

Let’s look at some actual examples of source citations for the documents I used to evaluate Great Aunt Mary’s birthdate:

Birth and Baptismal Record

Book of Births and Baptisms, 1884: entry 5, Church of the Immaculate Heart of the Most Holy Virgin Mary, Dubiecko, Poland

Hamburg Emigration Record

Marjanna Danko entry; SS Kaiserin Auguste Victoria, June 16, 1909, line 830; in Hamburg Emigration Lists 1850-1934, Volumes 209-211, Direct Lists, microfilm 473,001, Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah

Passenger Arrival List

Marianna Danko entry; SS Kaiserin Auguste Victoria Passenger Manifest, June 26, 1909, page 36, line 4; Micropublication T715 (Washington: National Archives), roll 1293, frames 513-514.

The 1910 Census

Samuel Carsenberg household, 1910 U.S. census, Worcester county, Massachusetts, population schedule, city of Worcester, enumeration district 1880, supervisor’s district 119, sheet 6B, dwelling 39, family 98; National Archives micropublication T624, roll 632.

The 1920 Census

Paul Golinski household, 1920 U.S. census, Worcester county, Massachusetts, population schedule, city of Worcester, enumeration district 193, supervisor’s district 3, sheet 22A, dwelling 194, family 470; National Archives micropublication T625, roll 749.

The 1930 Census

Paul Golinski household, 1930 U.S. census, Worcester county, Massachusetts, population schedule, city of Worcester, enumeration district 14-23, supervisor’s district 8, sheet 1A, dwelling 3, family 3; National Archives micropublication T626, roll 968.

The Copy of Record of Marriage

Copy of Record of Marriage, October 4, 1915, Barre, Massachusetts, register no. 23, vol. 633, page 358, Massachusetts Registry of Vital Records and Statistics, Dorchester, Massachusetts.

The citations above are based on the examples in Elizabeth Shown Mills’ Evidence!, but the citations for the passenger lists and the census records don’t indicate that I actually found these documents online, not on microfilm.  Also, there are two confusing citations listed here:  the 1910 Census recordis cited as “Samuel Carsenberg household” not as “Mary Danko”, and the citation for the record of marriage doesn’t list the names of the bride and groom.

Perhaps these issues will be better resolved in Elizabeth Shown Mills’ Quicksheet or in the next edition of Evidence!

When evaluating the quality of genealogical information and the sources in which that information appears, genealogists are often confronted with conflicting data.  Thus, the concept of a preponderance of the evidence has been adopted from the legal profession and applied to genealogical analysis, whereby the accuracy of information and the reliability of the sources must be evaluated in order to come to a conclusion.

For genealogists, the evidence must be carefully evaluated and documented before coming to a conclusion about a genealogical fact or event.  The Board for Certification of Genealogists has established the Genealogical Proof Standard as a guideline for evaluating the credibility of genealogical data.

The Genealogical Proof Standard states that:

“(a)  We conduct a reasonably exhaustive search in reliable sources for all information that is or may be pertinent to the identity, relationship, event, or situation in question;

(b)  We collect and include in our compilation a complete, accurate citation to the source or sources of each item of information we use;

(c)  We analyze and correlate the collected information to assess its quality as evidence;

(d)  We resolve any conflicts caused by items of evidence that contradict each other or are contrary to a proposed (hypothetical) solution to the question; and

(e)  We arrive at a soundly reasoned, coherently written conclusion.”

The Board for Certification of Genealogists, The BCC Genealogical Standards Manual (Orem, Utah: Ancestry Publishing, 2000), 1-2.

So, what does all this mean?

In short, the Genealogical Proof Standard is a guideline for evaluating the preponderance of the evidence.  The five tenets of the Genealogical Proof Standard require that the genealogist find all relevant information, document the sources of that information, analyze the information and evaluate the quality of the information, resolve any conflicts between different sources of information, and come to a conclusion.

That’s quite a job!  Obtaining from reliable sources all information relevant to the genealogical question at hand is no small task.  Even assuming that one has obtained all relevant information, the next step is equally daunting:  properly citing the sources.

Tomorrow:  Citing the Sources of Information on Great Aunt Mary’s Birthdate