The Greensboro Family History Center’s September Workshop featured Michele Doyle presenting the how and why of Citations.

The purpose of citations is to evaluate your evidence to justify the conclusions drawn, in other words, to ‘prove’ your genealogical findings.  Looking at where the information comes from, checking to make sure there are sources, being able to find that source again and evaluating conflicting information are several reasons for citing your work.

A notable concern for online records is the possibility that they will not always be available where they were originally found. FamilySearch does not own all the records found on the website, FamilySearch.com. Records are often used under contract for a designated period of time from another owner of the repository. As such the links may not always be active. To avoid this problem, copy the citation AND keep a copy of the record, at least a digital copy, if not also a paper copy.