Genealogical Record Sources 'Evaluating Primary & Secondary Sources'

Group member Chris Bailey kindly agreed to speak at our August meeting and share his 52 years of genealogy research experience. The following is the handout that Chris wrote and shared:

               Genealogical Record Sources
            EVALUATING PRIMARY & SECONDARY SOURCES

Some Tips & Oddities I’ve Found in 52 Years of Research

By Chris Bailey

        
Primary sources or data is information which was given by the person himself, or herself or a patent and near the time of an event. A good example is the name of parents as recorded when a person applied for a marriage license.

         
Secondary sources are those of a second or third-hand nature or given by the person in question at a time far removed from the event. Old handwritten family histories are usually secondary sources.

         Note: Family traditions rarely have more than a fragment of truth, if any. Some records contain both primary and secondary information. For example, a death certification has primary data for the death date, death place, burial place and cause of death, but the birth date, birthplace, names of parents of the deceased is secondary and may be inaccurate, depending on the informant's knowledge. Following are the types of records one will encounter in searching their ancestors:

         Census records – Census records are extremely important to trace the movements, occupations, names and nativity of individuals, but they must be used with some caution. Their accuracy depends on who gave the information, how accurate their knowledge was, and how carefully the census taker recorded the data on his worksheets and transcribed it onto his final record. Also realize that some census takers were poor spellers and may have recorded names as he heard them. Be aware that some people never had an accurate record of their birth or birth place and never knew exactly how old they were. For this reason you will often find inconsistencies in birth dates given in census and death records. Also, if a family was not at home when the census taker arrived, the data on the family may have been given by a neighbor. How accurately could you give the names, ages and birth places of your neighbors and their children? Census records have limited value from the first federal census in 1790 to 1840 as only the head of household was named and other household residents were unnamed and indicated only by sex and age group.

         Census records 1850 and after became more valuable that those taken 1790-1840 in tracing ancestors, as all household residents were listed, however, from 1850 to 1870 no actual relationships were noted, so relatives and non-relatives may be living in a household. Finally the 1880 census added relationships to the head of the household as well as the birth place of the parents of each individual.

                        The 1900 census is particularly important as it gave not only the age, but also the month and year the person was born. However, this compiler has found that people’s year of birth was often incorrect by one or more years. In most instances when comparing several census enumerations, the earliest one often is the more accurate. If a child was enumerated as two years of age when the census was taken on June 1, 1850, but claims in the 1900 census that he or she was age 50 and born in November, 1849, one can be certain that child was in fact born in November, 1847, not November, 1849. The 1900 census is also important as it asks for the number of years a couple had been married and the number of children a woman has had and how many of those were still living – often indicating unknown children who had died young and not recorded in other records. The 1910 census asks this same important data, but additionally tells how many marriages the husband and the wife have had, often indicating unknown previous marriages. Of course, keep in mind that people are not always honest about this, particularly if they were divorced and wanted to forget about an unhappy marriage or had not told their later spouse. The 1930 census has an oddity in that it asks the person’s age the first time they were married. This can also indicate an earlier marriage.

         Birth Certificates – Data on birth certificates is usually accurate as to birth date, birth place and the names of parents as a parent, grandparent or close relative usually supplied the data. However, doctors often recorded this data on forms they eventually registered at a vital records office, so errors or omissions can be made. Birth certificates may also tell the number of birth of the mother and how many are still living. Except in New England, birth records do not start to be kept, or kept consistently, until the latter part of the 19^th century.

         Marriage Certificates, Licenses or Bonds – The data on these are usually correct as to date and place. If the names of parents are given it is usually reliable as the parties being married normally supplied the data. Be aware that dates given in marriage licenses or bonds are usually not the actual date of marriage. Marriages often occurred the same day, but may be days or weeks after a bond or license was issued. Sometimes the certificates asked if the parties have been married before and are widowed or divorced. Again, divorces are not always admitted to. Marrying parties under age, usually 21 for men and 18 for women, were generally required to have consent of a parent to obtain a license. Ages were often recorded on the marriage license and sometimes the actual date and place, but it will be found that some parties lied about their ages when one or both were under age. In most states marriages were kept by a county recorder and began to be recorded about the time a county was formed. Sadly, in Pennsylvania, New York and some other states, marriage records were not commenced until the latter part of the 19^th century making maiden names of wives difficult to prove.

         Tombstones – The accuracy of these depends on whether or not the stone was erected near the time of death (many were not) and the correct knowledge of the person giving the data to the stone cutter. Birth dates or ages on tombstones are often hearsay and less likely to be accurate. Errors are occasionally made by the stone cutter and may not have been corrected because of cost. Often when a husband or wife died, a tombstone was erected, but the surviving spouse lived a number of years longer and perhaps with children. By the time the remaining spouse died, there was no money left for a tombstone and none was erected. Children may have intended to erect a stone, but it never got done. In some instances a tombstone was erected long after the party or parties were dead. In those instances one must verify even the death dates for correctness. Another great problem with tombstones is that the elements (particularly acid rain) wear the inscriptions or they have been damaged, sometimes to the point of being illegible. Errors can be easily made in transcribing them and printed books of tombstone inscriptions and even data on findagrave.com often contains errors.

         Probate, Estate, Guardianship, Court records – These legal records are extremely important and are usually accurate for relationships and the other data they may contain. Many of these records, if extant, are available only in court houses although some are now being digitized and available on Ancestry.com or the LDS Family Search websites.

         Land Records – Records of the transfer of land from one party to another can give proof, clues, or evidence to relationships, particularly when there is no will and the deceased owned property which must be either passed to, or sold, for the benefit of heirs. In some instances land may be passed to children without deeds and can pass by inheritance for several generations, but when finally sold outside of the family, land transfer deeds are required. If your ancestor sold land and there is no record of him buying the land or acquiring it from the government, he probably received it by inheritance.

         Church records – Church records are usually accurate if events (christening, marriage, burial) were recorded. Church records were kept well by some denominations (Catholics, Quakers) and poorly by others (Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians), though there are exceptions. Many denominations do not have centralized repositories for their records, so are often difficult to find, if they survive or were ever kept.

         Military records – Military draft registrations, service records and pension records often contain valuable primary data about an ancestor. U. S. Pension records, in particular, may contain detailed family data and personal information not found elsewhere. Abstracts of Revolutionary War and War of 1812 pensions are available in book form. Unfortunately, because of the volume of Civil War pensions, these are not available except at the National Archives. You go to Washington, DC and search the original records or order copies through the mail. Sadly, the price has gone from $7 a record when I was first doing research to $75 a record now.

         Bible records – Unless births, marriages and deaths were recorded in a bible near to the time of the event, they are a secondary source. Many bible records were recorded years after the events when memories had faded. However, prior to 1900 a bible was often the only record persons had of their birth date. Bibles may also be the only record of complete births, marriages and deaths of early family members. However, since bible records may have been recorded from memory years after an event, if dates in a bible conflict with dates from primary sources, the latter should be used.

Newspaper obituaries – Though valuable and informative, data in them must be used carefully and are only as accurate as the knowledge of the person who related and recorded the data. Death and burial information is usually accurate, but birth data and listings of relatives may contain errors or omissions.

         Printed genealogies – Compiled genealogies vary greatly in value and correctness. If they are not well documented, which is often the case with many poorly researched genealogies of the early 20th century, they should be used with caution and considered secondary sources. Data taken from compiled genealogies usually need to be verified with primary sources.

         Internet Sources – In recent years many of the above sources have become available on internet sites. Here are some of the popular sites:

Family Search – www.familysearch.org. This important site is the Latter-day Saint’s Family History site and particularly valuable for their historical records collection. You have to register and chose a password, but this site is FREE! Worldwide records are available. The U. S. section of this collection is arranged by states and birth, marriage and death records are often given for certain time periods for most states. Although many records are abstracted from records by volunteers (thus errors do occur), in many cases the original record has been digitized and one can view the document for additional data and accuracy. Other areas of this site have family group records compiled by individuals and should be used with caution. This site also has the card catalog of items in the LDS genealogical library in Salt Lake City. Their microfilms have many original records and some have been digitized and available on the site or at an LDS branch library.

Ancestry – www.Ancestry.com is a very important site for U. S. and worldwide records. This site is not free and subscriptions can get costly. One does not have to purchase a worldwide subscription if you are interested only in U. S. records. Monthly or annual subscriptions are available. In spite of cost, it is much less expensive than traveling to record repositories. For U. S. records many state birth, baptism, marriage, divorce and death records have been indexed. In some instances the original record can be viewed. Some newspaper obituaries have been abstracted and digital images can be seen for some, but often the websites which originally posted them no longer have them available. Some land, court, probate, and tax records, and city directories, are available. Important collections include all indexed U. S. census records, military draft, enlistment and service records, and immigration records. One plus of this site is that their computers search many indexed records and try to match up records of persons. However, one must be very cautious as it may match a person with a same or similar name and birth date and place, but they may not be the same person. A plus and negative of this site is the many family trees that are listed. They can be very helpful if the researcher who compiled the records was careful and correct – and many are not. They should be used as a guide to be confirmed by more research. Often few sources are listed and it is obvious that many people copy other’s research with no checking of original sources, thus erroneous data is often copied over and over.

Find A Grave - www.findagrave.com has become a very important site for U. S. and some foreign tombstones and burial records. This site is being added onto daily and many monuments have photographs. Often newspaper obituaries or other family data has been added to the site, but remember these are secondary sources and should be double-checked. Death dates on tombstones are usually correct, but birth dates and ages may be in error as those who erected the stones (sometimes years later) may not have known the correct data. If the tombstone is pictured on the site, check it to make sure it was copied correctly as copying errors are found. It is my personal belief that a person should not be entered on this website if there is no tombstone or burial record, but occasionally data has been entered when someone who thinks their ancestor was buried there, but probably has no proof. Note: Many cemeteries were not located within town boundaries, but in rural areas. Locations listed for rural cemeteries found on www.findagrave.com five the a close town near the cemetery, but not rural or township location. Exact locations can often be found on the internet. It is also noted that many burying grounds have changed their name in recent years from “Cemetery” to a more flowery name – “Memorial Park”. 

Historical Newspapers – There are a few sites for historical U. S. newspapers are available, but almost all charge a fee. There are few 18^th century newspapers and many are late 19^th or 20^th century papers. Some of these newspapers are indexed by optical scanning which is sometimes very poor. However, if you want to pay the price of subscription you may find an obituary or some other information about an ancestor. Some newspapers have been digitized and indexed, such as the Brooklyn Eagle or a series of Western New York newspapers, so it is good to check the internet.

Other Websites - There are other websites that can be found on the internet. Some have data submitted by individuals and may not have been well researched. These have little value. Others offer you a free searches, but then try to charge you for copies of birth, marriage, death certificates or other data. Your research may incur some costs, but try to use your funds wisely.  

SOME ADDITIONAL ITEMS

GIVEN NAMES & SURNAMES

         Surnames: Keep in mind that the general population adopted surnames in the 15^th century. Except for ancient some Royal lineages (many of which are probably phony), you are not likely to trace an ancestral surname earlier than the late 1400s or early 1500s, at best.

         Given names: You will find instances during your research when persons switched their given and middle names if they preferred the latter. In some instances they even adopted a different name or nickname. Generally the earliest record of a name was the name the person was originally given by the parents. People often switch their given and middle names or adopt nicknames during their lives.

INFANT CHILDREN & YOUNG MOTHERS

         In the 19^th century and earlier, infant mortality was a serious issue and as many as 20% of infants died at birth or in their very early years. The mortality of young mothers was also very high, explaining why you will find some of your ancestors had multiple wives. Occasionally an indication can be for young, named or unnamed, children before the days of birth registrations through census or other records such as a bible record or tombstone inscription. In many instances, however, there is no existing record for infant children. Children are often born about two years apart, so if one finds family with children whose births are widely spread apart, there were likely infant children who were born and died between them.

         Widowed husbands often remarried very quickly if they he very small children as it was extremely difficult to be a single parent and take care of young children. Widows often remarried and occasionally the later husband would refuse to support another man’s child. In both cases some or all of the children might be relatives of adopted out.

         Due to a high percentage of infant deaths and deaths of wives in childbirth before the 20^th century, statistics claiming the average age of our ancestors was only in the 40s are misleading. If a woman survived child bearing years and a man did not die of a vocational accident, they often lived into their 60s, 70s or older.

CALCULATING BIRTH DATES

         Some birth dates are calculated from tombstones which do not give the birth date, but do give the death date and the age of the deceased in years, months and days. If you don’t want to struggle calculating the birth date yourself, put “calculate birth from age at death” in Google and a program will appear which will calculate it for you. In some instances the day of death was counted as a day, in other instances the day of death was not counted. Since we cannot know which method was used, presuming the age was correct, a calculated birth date may be off by one day. Calculate birth dates only when no better record of birth can be found for an individual as many older people did not know their exact age and birth date. Also note that some tombstones were erected many years after a person died, so the birth dates, ages (and even, occasionally, the death dates) given on tombstones may be incorrect.

RECORDING BIRTH, MARRIAGE & DEATH PLACES

                        Birth places: Prior to the 20^th century, many people did not know their actual birth place. Often they claimed a place of birth where they remembered living as a child, but it may not have been where they were born. Many families lived on farms, not in towns and may claim (as some do today) their birth place was a town or city close to their actual rural birth place. Be specific - list actual birth places, including township and county, if they were not born in a village or city.

         Marriage places: Towns, counties and states are listed for marriage places when records were found. If the marriage record did not state the actual town of marriage, only the county and state should be recorded.

         Death places: Some people incorrectly assume that a person died in the town in which they lived, but this is not often the case. Many people died in the homes of one of their children or siblings or in a hospital or nursing home in another town other than their home town. A record, such as a death certificate will probably indicate the actual death place. Some statewide death indexes, such as those for California and Oregon, list the county of death, but rarely the actual town.

         Note: The Social Security Index does NOT list actual death places, but instead lists the last town in which a deceased resided, which may or may not be the death place, and also lists the place the Social Security death benefit was sent which may be that of a surviving spouse, a child or a relative.

DIVORCES & REMARRIAGES

         Not unlike today, many of our ancestors and relatives had multiple marriages during their lives. In some instances there are available divorce records or a record, such as a census, which indicated an individual was divorced. One will find that some divorcees, even living persons, try to disclaim an unhappy marriage.

         In instances where a person remarried and records were found indicating an earlier spouse later remarried or was not deceased, a divorce was assumed. In some states, if a spouse abandoned a partner, after a certain period of time (often 8 years), the marriage was considered null even if no legal divorce was ever filed and granted. Those persons were legally allowed to remarry.

        

FOOTNOTES & REFERENCES

         Footnotes should be used for two main purposes - (1) comments, cautions or explanations by the compiler about the person or data, and (2) detailed references and information about your sources.

         We probably all wish our relatives were prominent, wealthy or even Royalty, but in reality most were poor tenant farmers who may not have even owned land. If so, they may have left meager records of their existence and often no estate and no probate documents.

        

MODERN DAY FAMILIES

         Data on living families can be included in your research if: (1) information was sent by a close family member, or (2) data was found in public records posted on the internet, thus is public domain.

         Finding information on modern families is often more difficult than finding data on 19^th century families. Many post-1940 records are not publicly available, so in many instances marriages, divorces, re-marriages, as well as births, or deaths, of your family members that have taken place in the last 50 to 75 years may need to be updated and verified by YOU.