Proper documentation will pay off

Back to the subject of sources from a few weeks ago: Janice Bueckers of Loon Lake, Wash., read the two-part series about this confusing subject of proper documentation and has a few questions. So, expert that I am not, I'll still try to help:

* In the source space of her genealogy software, Janice writes that the date of her grandparents' marriage was taken from a marriage certificate. "Should I also give the registration number on the document?"

In a word, absolutely.

The sources we record are actually for other genealogists who are searching the same line, and maybe for your descendants a few generations down the road, who want to re-prove the evidence. We need to record everything we possibly can.

* "I am assuming that if I say that I have a birth certificate and that the person was born in Spokane, Spokane, Washington, that anyone would know to go to the Department of Records for the state or county to get an official copy."

We can't assume anything. It's proper to say precisely where you found it: Spokane Regional Health District, 1101 W. College, Spokane, WA 99201. And if you find it on a microfilm, note the library, the film number, page number, etc.

"With an obituary I will say that is my source and then in the notes section will type in a copy of the obituary and say where it is from," Janice wrote. "Is this enough or do I need to do more? To obtain copies of actual documents would run into many hundreds or thousands of dollars, and let's face it, most of us don't have the money to purchase an official copy of the certificate."

The same is true for death certificates, but it's also nice to include the exact wording found on a tombstone which can be considered primary evidence. Especially if it's the only record of an ancestor's death date.

You're right about the money part and it seems the cost of copies is only going up. Don't tell anyone, but I have been known to fudge and use only the headstone info. But, the problem with that is, you don't know what you're missing by not having a copy of the original information.

In my Smith notebook, I have a picture of my dad, with three obits from the newspapers, the "In Memory Of" card from the funeral home and the death certificate. That's how I learned he was a "Junior" (I wasn't into genealogy when he died). The death certificate also says my father died of cerebral artery thrombosis, which was also the cause of his mother's death. That's a helpful health thing for their descendants to know. I don't have a certificate of his father's death, but I think I'll send for it.

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