The proper use of sources is crucial to good genealogy.  If all you want to do is make a "big" family tree (the bigger the better!), then you can go to any of a number of web sites, download huge GEDCOM files, and integrate them into your PAF database (how to do this is next month's topic).  You don't need to know anything about sources to do that, but you'll be wasting your time.  If you are LDS, you want to "make covenants on behalf of [your] ancestors", not someone else's ancestors, and as FamilySearch points out, "In order to make covenants in behalf of their ancestors, members [of the Mormon Church] must first identify them."  For this, you must have sources!  Even if you're not LDS, if you're anything like me, you don't have the time to research other people's families, so sources are critical to knowing that you are "barking up the right family tree", to coin a phrase.

So much for my "sermon to the choir" -- at least I hope that you know the value of using sources in genealogy research.  If not, or if you just want to learn more about sources, I can recommend several books.

TK (books to come later)

The question of the hour, then, now that we understand the importance of proper sources and proper evaluation of evidence, is how best to record our source information in PAF.  I've subtitled this workshop "Start Correctly from the Beginning" because I think that's one of the keys to being successful -- and I learned this by being a little sloppy about sources when I first started entering family tree "facts" into my database.  My strict rule now is that everything I enter into PAF must be sourced!  This takes a little bit of extra time, but saves me lots of time in the long run, and helps ensure that I am researching my family tree, not someone else's.

You can easily tell how "healthy" your PAF database is by going to the "File" menu and selecting "Properties".  This brings up a window that shows you a number of important numbers about your database:

The bigger your "Sources", "Citations", and "Notes" values are with respect to your "Individuals" and "Marriages", the better!  On any "Edit Individual" or "Marriage" screen, you can instantly tell whether a datum is sourced by looking at the lower-case "s" in certain rows.  If there is an asterisk next to it, then it has at least one source -- if not, you don't really know what you claim to know!

This one looks pretty good, with "*s" for each fact listed.  Double-clicking on an "s" opens up a "Sources for..." window, but it's easier to move to the "s" with the Tab key (or Shift Tab) and then open the window with the Enter key.  Remember, too, that once you are on the "Sources for..." window, you can ALT keyboard shortcuts for almost everything.  (The two things that can't be done are switch to another citation or memorize a citation.  And yes, this drives me crazy.)

The first thing you must do to use sources efficiently and effectively in PAF is to pick up a copy of Family History Documentation Guidelines (as I've already pointed out several times on this web site).  You can purchase the book from the Boise PAF Users Group, from the Silicon Valley PAF Users Group (the authors), or from Amazon.  This book includes a chapter on how to create sources, another with guidelines for using PAF source templates, and best of all, 41 different examples of various source entries and citations.  In order not to duplicate information (and to save myself a lot of typing), I'm trying not to repeat what they say, but to add some tips and tricks that will speed up the process and make using sources easier.

And here are the tips and tricks (more to come later):

Federal Censuses: (can copy “Indiana, Union County: 1850 U.S. Federal Census” to fill in most information)

Source Title: State, Some County: year U.S. Federal Census
Author: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
Call Number: National Archives micropublication M432, roll 176
Comments: Scanned images of the actual census at http://www.ancestry.com

Citation Detail
Film/Volume/Page Number: Post Office, Township, p. #
Date of Entry: enumeration date
Actual Text: dwelling #, family #, name, age, sex, occupation, value real $#, value personal $#, born: place, father born: place, mother born: place, school; etc.