8. OK, so you’ve written your own info, and the kids and their families, and safely tucked away a couple of certificates. You discovered the amazing information found on the census, and want to know, “What Now?”. Well, first before you get in too deep, we need to talk about those sources again, this time in regards to documenting your work properly. It is so very easy to get all excited and copy information and write down things and keep going and going and going and then…. Then someone will ask, “I have a different date for when Uncle Harry died—what do you have that shows that date?” In other words, what source did you use? Believe me, whether you use a computer or an old spiral notebook to keep track of your work, after several generations of names, dates, and places, you will forget exactly where you got that one piece of data. But if you wrote it down, “Harry died July 3, 1956-source: picture taken at Maple Grove Cemetery” then you’ll have it when you need it. So when you first start, please write a source down for every date and place you enter, even if you have to write “personal knowledge of researcher” because you know when your brother was born but you don’t have his birth certificate.
This is even more critical now than when I wrote this several years ago. My own database, after almost 20 years of research has about 12,000 individuals, which may seem like a lot but I am unique in that I research a surname (CASTO) and not just my own line. Other people will have less names and many will have more. Some people are what I call, "gatherers" - they surf the net and just keep adding other researcher's information to their own database without sourcing or verifying any of it so they have no idea if the names and dates are wrong but it looks impressive to have 300,000 names! Since you are doing this for yourself and your family, it pays to take the time and start out doing it the proper way so you'll have something you can really be proud of and stand behind!
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