As I work on the family history, I am trying to get the most accurate information I can. So I want to find the source closest to the event.

Primary (or original) sources would be a birth certificate, marriage license, death certificate or something similar. A secondary (or derivative) source would be from a newspaper article, a book or even a transcription of a record.

In my post last week, I talked about the county marriage record. This was something that was filled out at a later time, not necessarily the same day as the wedding. A marriage certificate would be a primary source. In this case, I can look at the date and see that the information was received by the county clerk on February 21, 1912, so just the day after. This means that the information was recorded very soon after the event so it is likely to be accurate.

Also in last week’s post, I mentioned the Margaret’s death certificate gave her mother’s name as Elizabeth Betty. The information was given by Mildred, one of her daughters, and may have been written down in error. I haven’t found Margaret’s birth certificate, so I will have to rely on what little information I have. While the death certificate is a primary source for the date and cause of death it may not be accurate for things like parents’ birth names.

Can a birth certificate not be a primary source?

By contrast, in this post about Nina Warren Durfee, I wrote about her delayed certificate of birth. She was born on December 19, 1898 and the certificate was issued June 13, 1942. While the information may be accurate, it would not be considered to be as accurate as one issued at birth.

Tracking your sources

Much of my early work on my tree was based on notes from family, starting with Georgina, Walt’s mom. So I noted in my software that source. Now that I am much further into my research, I am working to clean up the sources and attach documents to the people as I have them. I am currently researching the standards of sources and citations for genealogy, so once I have that down, I can get organized in another way.

This post is a good place to start on your own family tree.