Sourcing Genealogy

In this context, 'Sourcing" means using historical records to document genealogy.

A common phrase is "Genealogy without sources is actually mythology." Of course, the further you go back in time, the fewer contemporary records exist.

While I strongly endorse sourcing, I have a few personal reservations about the saying "Sources prove your pedigree." life is not always that simple. (My great aunt Maggie's parents, as listed on her marriage record, never existed, but she was marrying a cousin and didn't want too many questions asked.) 

A more common problem is sources being attached to the wrong people, But usually this is easily determined. Of course,, if you have seven brothers who settle in the same area, and who name their sons after their brothers, it does get a little complicated. (e.g. "Old Andy's Young Andy's Wee Andy" and other Buchanans in Donegal, Ontario, after 1847)

Still, I spend a lot of very rewarding time sourcing my genealogy. I try to be extra careful when I know that there are other people in the community with the same names.

I try to live up to the standard required to make the saying true: "Sources prove your pedigree."

I wish you success in using sources.

Easy Sourcing
If you have a family tree on FamilySearch or Ancestry, I am happy to see that RecordSeek is working again. This is the free web app that I find so handy for creating sources for these sites from other websites. It works slightly differently than before, but it works. Thank you for your work RecordSeek.  https://recordseek.com/ 

My Early Family HIstory Efforts

 I received an email from a friend asking if I knew of an Isabella Buchanan who had married a Walter Hunter.

This brought back some memories.

I remembered visiting "Watt" and "Bella" Hunter in 1962.I had asked my relatives in Alberta for all the family information they had, then I hitch-hiked to Neepawa, Manitoba looking for more relatives. I was helped and blessed all the way. 

Someone at the newspaper told me "You should talk to Merv Buchanan who manages the Windsor Salt plant, He is interested in Buchanan family history."

Merv immediately invited me to stay with his family. and after supper each day we would drive off to visit out-of-town relatives that he thought might be able to help. While he was at work, I would visit relatives in town.

One of these was Bella Hunter, one of Dad's first cousins. When she answered her door, I explained that I was Bill Buchanan, son of William George Buchanan, son of Willie the Blacksmith.(There were so many with the same name that they used nicknames to tell them apart.) 
I mentioned that my dad was born in 1906 in Riding Mountain.

She said "No, your Daddy wasn't born in Riding Mountain, he was born on my parents' farm here at Neepawa, I know, because I was there when he was born. Aunt Lizzie stayed with my parents for a few days before the baby was due"

Wow. What amazing people. I returned home to Calgary with a stack of completed family group- sheets.

Dad had been trying to get his birth registered so that he could eventually get the old age pension. He had been told that if he could get an affidavit from someone present at his birth, that would meet the requirements. Bella was glad to do that for him. (a fringe benefit of my family history efforts.)

I hope that you are all making a record of your own history and sharing it with your families.

Bill