Genealogy For Dummies. Helm April Leigh
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Название: Genealogy For Dummies
Автор: Helm April Leigh
Издательство: John Wiley & Sons Limited
Жанр: Зарубежная образовательная литература
isbn: 9781119411987
isbn:
2. Select Add Birth Weight from the Extra Information section.
The Extra Information section is located on the left side of the screen. A pop-up box with pounds and ounces fields appears. The birth certificate probably contains your birth weight, so feel free to enter it.
3. Enter your birth weight in the two fields and click on the green Save button.
The weight now appears in the Extra Information section.
4. If you have a baby picture of yourself that you want to include, click on the Photos button.
The Photos button appears on the right side of the screen under the title Add Something. After clicking on the Photos button, a dialog box appears.
5. Select a photo on your computer to upload and click the Open button.
When it has uploaded, the photo appears on the screen.
6. If you would like to add anecdotal information about your birth, click the Words button.
The Words button appears on the right side of the screen under the title Add Something. A pop-up box appears asking you to add a memory or comment. You might want to add a story your mother told you about the day you were born, or provide information on historical events from that day.
7. Enter a memory or comment and click the green Save button.
The memory or comment appears on the page.
8. Select the Document button.
To add a copy of the birth certificate as evidence of the event, click the Document button. A dialog box appears.
9. Select a document on your computer to upload and click the Open button.
When it has uploaded, the document appears on the screen.
10. Click the Add a Location button.
The Add a Location button appears on the right side of the screen under the Add Something box. After you click it, a pop-up box appears.
11. Type a location into the box and click on a location match.
As you begin typing, Twile tries to match a location to the text you’re typing. When a match appears, click on it. A map of the location then appears on the page. An example of a completed page appears in Figure 1-2.
FIGURE 1-2: A completed milestone information page.
You can choose to share milestones from Twile on Facebook. There are a lot of other features within Twile. We encourage you to experiment with adding and editing milestones to learn them.
Learning about Sources
As we just talked about using your birth certificate as evidence in the last section, now is a good time to talk about using sources in your family history research.
If you’re like most people, you think you know a lot about yourself. If we ask you what your birthday is, you can tell us without batting an eye. But how do you know the birth date? You were obviously there, but you weren’t in a condition to be a reliable witness, given that you were a newborn and most likely not fully aware of what was going on. This is where primary sources come in handy. Most likely, witnesses were present who helped create a record of the event.
Primary sources are documents, oral accounts – if the account is made soon after the actual event and witnessed by the person who created the account – photographs, or any other items created at the time of an event. Some primary sources include birth and marriage certificates, deeds, leases, diplomas or certificates of degree, military records, and tax records.
For example, a primary source for your birth date is your birth certificate. Typically, a birth certificate is prepared within a few days of the actual event and is signed by one or more witnesses to the birth.
The timeliness and involvement of direct witnesses makes the information contained on the record (such as the time, date, and parents’ names) a reliable firsthand account of the event. It’s important to recognize that just because a record was prepared near the time of an event doesn’t mean that every fact on the record is correct. Typographical errors can occur or incorrect information can be provided to the creator of the record. Often, these errors are not caught when the record is created. For example, in the case of a birth certificate, new parents are preoccupied with things other than government paperwork during their stay at the hospital. When our youngest child was born, the birth certificate application was created and presented to us for signature. After reading it, we discovered three pieces of incorrect data. Fortunately, we were able to correct the birth certificate before it was submitted to the county clerk – even though the hospital clerk wasn’t too happy about re-creating the document multiple times. So, it’s always a good idea to try to find other primary records that can corroborate the information found in any record.
Secondary sources are documents, oral accounts, and records that are created some length of time after the event or for which information is supplied by someone who wasn’t an eyewitness to the event. A secondary source can also be a person who was an eyewitness to the event but recalls it after significant time passes. You might encounter records such as a Delayed Report of Birth or an affidavit that contain a birth date that is based upon a person’s recollection of when a birth occurred. Some of these records may have a witness who testifies that a birth occurred thirty years earlier.
Some records may be considered both primary and secondary sources. For example, a death certificate contains both primary and secondary source information. The primary source information includes the death date and cause of death. These facts are primary because the certificate was prepared around the time of death, and the information is usually provided by the medical professional who pronounced the person dead. The secondary source includes the birth date and place of birth of the deceased individual. These details are secondary because the certificate was issued at a time significantly later than the birth (assuming that the birth and death dates are at least a few years apart).
Secondary sources don’t have the degree of reliability of primary sources. Often, secondary source information, such as birth data found on death certificates, is provided by an individual’s children or descendants who may or may not know the exact date or place of birth and who may be providing information during a stressful situation. Given the lesser reliability of secondary sources, we recommend corroborating your secondary sources with reliable primary sources whenever possible.
