A PRELIMINARY SURVEY

Some of you may have performed a Preliminary Survey. It is an overview of publications, manuscripts, online posting, and Web sites related to an individual or subject that is performed prior to original research being undertaken. Click on the word "glossary" on the bottom of this page and scroll down to the word "preliminary survey" and see what it says. Notice it will point you to the right chapter if you want to learn more.

Its purpose is to prevent duplication of research, and become a guide to what others have already done in order to save the researcher time and expense. The information collected during a preliminary survey also needs to be individually analyzed as far as how the type of evidence compares to the research objective. Therefore it is a good idea to apply the principle of research analysis with its attendant aspects of evidence as the preliminary survey is conducted.

It is relatively certain that an image on a microfilm at the Family History Library (FHL) has not been altered because there would be no reason to do so. When those records were microfilmed it was to copy as many as possible to prevent destruction of records. However, images, especially those online, should be accepted with care due to technology that can alter the record. If possible, a person should use the derivative (or copy) to lead to the original, unless a copy of the original, such as a FHL microfilm, is a reliable copy.

Please consider that when a record is copied (Xerox, digital, transcribed word for word, etc.), extracted or abstracted, there is a possibility that the original meaning of that document can change. Did you play �Gossip� as a child? A word or phrase is passed from person to person and ends up being different at the end. Words in documents can also be altered either intentionally or unintentionally.

For example: some marriage registers are extracted word-for-word, including the person performing the ceremony, witnesses, and parents, because the purpose of the extractor is to make a copy of an invaluable source that could in the future be lost. At the same time making available this information as an index to every name and associate known to the couple, is a helpful finding aid. Other authors who extract or abstract from the same source with the intent to be a finding aid to the original record may not include everything and may not be trained in reading the ancient handwriting; or they might be unfamiliar with the names in a particular locality and have a difficult time transcribing damaged records.

The result is that an online listing of records, word-for-word, can have accurate information, be slightly incorrect, or have significant errors. Even an image that is a reliable derivative of an original would be a closer and more reliable source than an incorrectly indexed Internet listing. However, the Internet index can lead a person to a microfilm from a repository or to the original records themselves in a courthouse, so they have their value. To professional genealogists, those selfless souls who have made derivatives of difficult-to-obtain and hard-to- read sources should receive some well-deserved rewards for the contributions they have made.These indexes continue to help the rest of us get closer to obtaining the answers we are seeking in a shorter amount of time.

These derivatives may be indexes, listings, extracts, abstracts, summaries, etc. The closer you can get to an original source, the better for your work. When we see an author who is only using printed sources, abstracts off the Internet, and compiled genealogies, we know this person needs someone to kindly address their shortcomings for they are building their genealogy on potential problems.

There are six terms we can learn related to evidence which help to describe the type of evidence used in a genealogy citation:

Original. In genealogy, an original source is the first or earliest source that provides particular items of information pertaining to person(s) and/or event(s). This information is most often provided by someone who was a first-hand witness of an event. An original document is usually defined as the first copy of a document from which other instruments may be transcribed, copied, or imitated. Original sources can be captured in some physical form such as a document, audiotape, picture, disc, etc. The physical source is called a record. The first one made is an original record. Birth, baptism, and marriage records are examples of original records.

Derivative. If it is not the original source, it is a derivative. The term derivative primarily refers to anything derived from a source and is not the original. If an item is derived, it is copied, compiled, abstracted, transcribed, Xeroxed, photographed, or scanned from another source. The Family History Library has many printed sources containing information that lead you to a copy of what is considered an original source. These printed sources are derivatives because though they contain information from the original source, they are not the original source. Often information is abstracted, not containing all information from the original source. Examples are cemetery tombstone inscriptions, marriage listings, transcripts of original records such as wills, abstracts of deeds, etc. The microfilm at the FHL is even considered a derivative.

Primary. This is information provided by someone with knowledge of the event, most often someone who observed the event first-hand. When a baby is born, the mother of the baby is a primary source. In early times, the midwife could be a primary source. A preacher or minister could be a primary source of a wedding, just as the bride and groom. A person who attended the wedding could be a primary source. A grandmother who was present at a birth of her grandchild is also a primary source.

Secondary. This is information provided by a person who does not have first-hand knowledge of an event. A child can know his parent�s wedding date because he was told by his parents, primary sources. The child would have to rely on what his parents told him.

One researcher had been told an ancestor died on a certain date in a certain place by her grand aunt. The great aunt had researched the family for fifty years. Up until that time, both the researcher and the great aunt had information that was secondary. The great aunt had not witnessed the ancestor�s death. But later, the researcher came across a court record stating that this ancestor was very ill and could not perform his commissioner functions. This was two days before the death date recorded in the family records. This was a primary source verifying a month and possible place of death that had come from a secondary source (the great aunt). This was as close to the death information as the researcher could get because those persons who provided the exact death date were long deceased themselves. What wasn�t explained, however, was whether the researcher had looked for probate records of intestate proceedings.

Direct. Direct evidence is evidence that stands alone in answering the question. It doesn�t answer every question, but if the question was �When was John Smith born?� and the birth certificate indicated that John Smith was born 21 July 1854 then it answered that one question.

Indirect. Sources which fail in and of themselves to answer the question or which are drawn from circumstantial data are known as indirect sources. So using the same sample as given above, if the goal was to find the birth record for John Smith son of Mary Cooper who married prior to 1855, and the birth certificate listed John Smith born 21 July 1854 son of Thomas Smith and wife Mary, it is not direct evidence that she was Mary Cooper. More information is needed to prove the hypothesis.

The purpose of a deed is to explain land transfers between various people, but sometimes microfilmed deed records contain the exact date of death. This is direct evidence of a date of death from a derivative primary source.

It is not uncommon during a preliminary survey to find a published family history in which an item regarding an ancestral family is made up of direct evidence which conflicts with persuasive but indirect evidence, or a combination of several pieces of indirect evidence, put together by another researcher on a Web site. When this occurs, researchers should take the time to write an extended explanation of the evidence used and include their insights regarding the situation. Start practicing this by just recording what was found and why you indicated it was a specific type of evidence.

Summary

In this lesson, you have learned to organize your information onto family group records (FGR) and a pedigree chart. Take this week to complete this assignment. Try to go back as far as your grandparents, or great-grandparents, if possible. Talk to family members to fill in the blanks on your family group records. If you are single and appear with your parents and siblings, that is one FGR. Each of your parents would be on their own FGR as a child of their parents (your grandparents). And your grandparents would be on their own FGR with their siblings and their parents. You don't need to fill out a FGR for all your great-grandparents, but if you have the information, or if you are missing some of the information it is a good idea to obtain it from living people while it is available. Many people wait until their grandparents are deceased and it is harder to do then.

This lesson discussed the topic of genealogy and the Internet. You should have learned that there is only a small portion of information online today. But you should also know that some of the most fundamental items are available. This is good. Everyone has a good chance of making great progress this semester if you are just starting.

Finally we discussed the topic of six different types of evidence. There are others, but these are a great beginning. Learning these terms will help us in the future to communicate with one another on the topic of whether one source is better than another.

Computer Supplemental Information

The Computer Supplemental information which follows will help you learn to use the Personal Ancestral File (also called the PAF program).