Let me tell you a quick story. When I first began doing my family history it was much like many of you, I suppose. I saw an episode of “Who Do You Think You Are” and immediately thought that looks cool. I can do that. So, I signed up for ancestry.com and almost immediately had this huge tree of 8-10 generations. Isn’t this easy.

One of the items I found was a photo of a museum exhibit connected to the Van Alstyne Family. It depicted their living space. It was offered as a hint connected to my tree. I was so excited and attached it to my tree.

Since that time, I have used it as an example of why citing is so important. I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE IT CAME FROM OR WHERE IT IS CONNECTED. Every year I try and find it again. I can find only a bit of history of the couple attached to it, Dirckje and Jan Martine Van Alstyne from Holland about 1655. Their daughter married Albert Roeleffe VanDerwerker. You would think with names like that it wouldn’t be hard to find them. I have Van Alstynes and Reuffs (Roof) from 1700s. Only 50 more years back and maybe I will get connected.

If only I had taken the advice of so many of our speakers including Shelley this week. It is hard to put the research digging aside and take 1 or 2 minutes to put down the information you need isn’t it. Or maybe it is just me. If we take other advice we would write in our log where we are looking before we search and then take a moment afterwards to note what we were looking for, what we found, and what we didn’t find as well as any more specific location details that could help us find it again. If only!

Our speaker, Shelley Bishop, explained that we need to keep it simple. Here is my takeaway:

• Keep it simple
• “Cite exactly what you looked at
• Use the Who, What, When, Where, Where In elements for each component of the source: ex original source only location; original source + digital location; original source + microfilm location + digital location

Shelley Bishop, “Citing Your Sources: It’s Easier Than You Think!," Sept. 18, 2025. https://www.BuckeyeFamilyTrees.com: HQRL Class.

This is very over simplified but I think gets to the heart of it. It is intimidating to do a source citation for someone who presented on how to do source citations. Hopefully I got it right!

We have a beginning class in October and a class in November about getting  the Next Generation inspired. Sign up and join us for that one!

Heidi Geise, education@hqrl.com