Valid / Reliable Sources and Info

What constitutes valid and reliable info and research in genealogy?

This is where YOU have decisions to make.

For YOUR family tree, YOU have to prayerfully decide whether YOU consider a source of information reliable and valid based on what you have learned in your history in many instances and the Spirit can help you with this. 

So in terms of submitting ordinances for the temple, regardless of whether you submitted George Washington to be sealed to your mother and claimed George lived in our day, cool as that might be, even with the priesthood it wouldn't be a legitimate sealing.

However, given the importance of the temple ordinances and the given that not everything is documented and some things can be known from family histories and stories, the church doesn't require extensive documentation for an ordinance to make sure its valid. Yet.  

Regardless, your family tree wouldn't be very reliable nor would it be valid either.

So what does make info reliable and valid?

Usually with genealogy we are dealing with documents on paper (sometimes etched in stone, or worth a thousand words at a time in a photograph).  There usually is more than one piece of info we can obtain from an ancestor on a piece of paper and more than one should match other documents' info, or we should have verified more than one before we can look at a document and say "YUP! That's him!"

For example, lets say you're looking for Jim Jones in documentation and you know nothing else about Jim Jones other than his name.  Nothing.  If that's all you have, I would say you don't have enough info to do any research on the individual anyways - you've got a rumor if even that, not a person.

But you can't then pick up a census from any time period or location and find a Jim Jones and say "YUP! That's definitely him!"  Or find Jim Jones on forty censuses around the country and say "Man, Jim really got around!"

However, if you knew Jim Jones was

• born on July 7, 1957 
• in Portland, Multnomah, Oregon 
• as the adopted step-son 
• of  Tim and Fredricka Jones 
• and born at Emmanuel Hospital 
• and resides on Creekside Court in Milwaukie, Oregon 
• and graduated from Milwaukie High School in 1975 
• and did a stint in the US Navy as a Machinists Mate 
• on the USS Belleauwood from 1975-1979 
• and now works for Intel

and you found a photograph of a guy at a circus in black and white with the sole label on it of "Jim Jones" you still wouldn't say "YUP! That's him! Found a picture of my uncle!"

Or if you found a circus-ticket stub attached to a crayon colored drawing with "Jim Jones" scribbled at the top - similarly you wouldn't say "YUP! That's him! Found my uncle's art-work!"

Now if you found a photo with a caption, "Jim Jones with mother Fredricka and father Tim at Portland Circus, 1967, age 10" You might go, "ah....maybe we got something."

The example highlights a few things: the amount of info as well as the nature of the document itsself.  Not all documents are "equal"in this work.

And a few pieces of info should match up between what you know and what you're looking at/for.

If you know that Jim

•  was born in Oregon, 
•  and his mother was born in Germany in the 1930's 
• and his father in the Soviet Union in the 1930's, 

and you find a census for Oregon that lists him as

• a step-son 
• born in Oregon
• and his parents as Jones, T. and Jones F. 
• and his parents as being born in Germany and USSR, 
• and him being 2 years old on a 1960 census (even though those aren't released yet - humor me)

then I'd say you've possibly got the right person.  

If they were born in Indiana and Michigan and the census says Iowa and Michigan, I'd still say "close enough, I think this is it."

Now if you find an individual who matches all these details and you find something related to them being a paraplegic at the state mental hospital and you know they joined the Navy, despite those details adding up, the last three details are disqualifiers.

In short, you have to pay attention and slow down a bit and take your time.

• Also, are you looking at an original of the document or a transcription?  
• Are there sources to the transcription/document? 
• Sources to the story?

It takes some time to get used to working between ten documents and putting that kind of information together in your head, but you get used to it.

Speed will come in time as you come to know who you're working with and learn trends and nuances that are common to the work.  

In the end for your family tree - YOU have to prayerfully decide and consider and I testify, the spirit will help, can help and does help in this work as it is very important. This is by no means complete, but it gives you an idea and an overview of what to consider in this work.

Enjoy the journey and take in the scenery