Genealogy Online for Beginners 101 - Lesson 2: Sources

Genealogy Online for Beginners 101 - Lesson 2

Sources:

Primary sources are documents, oral accounts (if they are made soon after the actual event and witnessed the event), photographs, or any other items created at the time of a certain event.

Birth certificates - typically prepared within a few days of the event & is signed by witnesses to the birth.

Of course typographical errors  do happen and many times are not caught when the paperwork is completed as parents are typically busy & not all that concerned with government paperwork. This is where knowing multiple possible spelling of your surname that you are searching can be helpful.

Secondary sources are oral accounts (memories) documents that were created some time after the event occured (family bible, journal, church record).

Some documents are primary & secondary sources...like a death certificate. Some of the info is primary such as the time & date of death, cause of death. Secondary would be information provided by family members, such as mother's maiden name, date of birth, place of birth

Here is a list of Primary Source documents that can help your search:

Birth records

Marriage certificates

Deeds

Lease's

Military Records

Tax Records

A good idea is to save some of these records of your own, for future generations. It's always a great find to see an ancestor's W-2, High School report card, or even their review form from work.

If you can request copies of these types of records from living family members, this can greatly assist your genealogical search.