Cite Sources
Rambo Family Tree
Do yourself a favor and keep track of Your Sources.
You wouldn't believe how much stress and distress can be prevented by keeping track of sources for every little bit of information you find. Every professional and every experienced genealogist will give you that advice.
Just suppose that you find a date of birth and the name of the wife for one of your ancestors. Suppose again that some months or years later you come across another record for a similarly named individual with the same date of birth, but a different wife and different date of death. Now puzzled, you dig more and find a slightly different name for the wife and slightly different date of birth. Are these typos or transcription errors or different people?
Wouldn't you like to see those first two records again? Were they in a published book? Were they a Bible record? Did someone send them to you in an e-mail? I'm still hunting for a book I saw somewhere 15 years ago.
Keep track of Your Sources to re-visit sources and resolve these conflicts, because the conflicts are inevitable.
Click here to return to the main page for Rambo genealogy. Click here to return to the main page for Camblin genealogy.
If you enjoy wasting money - you can ignore proof and primary sources, but the ancestors you find might not be yours.
Many, many people have wasted a lot of time and money tracking the wrong ancestors because they believed a fiction.
There is a lot of fiction on the web, and a lot of genealogical "fiction" has been published in print.
If you don't confirm your information with primary sources, you can waste a lot of time and money tracking the wrong people, tracking someone else's ancestors. If you cite no sources when you send information, you could be spreading rumors and fiction. If your correspondents don't cite sources, remain skeptical until you find proof in primary sources.
What is your response when a correspondent writes, "My information differs from yours. I show a different wife and different children. Where did you get your information?" (It happened to me.)
The sooner you learn to keep track of your sources, the less trouble you will have later.
I was guilty of neglecting source citations for some time. If you don't understand the reasons to cite sources, your are merely uninformed (naive). If you refuse to cite sources after understanding the situation, you are ignorant, lazy or stupid. (Yes, I am blunt. And, yes, I was stupid for a while. If the shoe fits, wear it until you get sick of wearing ugly shoes.)
Click here to return to the main page for Rambo genealogy. Click here to return to the main page for Camblin genealogy.
Every conscientious author, including every genealogist, should ALWAYS CITE SOURCES. When you send me your family group sheets, please tell me how to word the credit to you for your information. (Read my SUGGESTIONS about the content and form of footnotes, endnotes, and attributions.)
Cite Your Sources. Source citations for the Rambo website appear in the file ENDNOTES.TXT.(574),, i.e. endnote #574)
Click here to return to the main page for Rambo genealogy. Click here to return to the main page for Camblin genealogy.
Pages of personal interest: Eve's Garden Organic Bed and Breakfast, a wonderful, eclectic, artistic papercrete alternative living learning mecca in Marathon, Texas,
Rambo family genealogy, Bankston & Bankson family genealogy, the Camblin family genealogy, the Dorsey Overturff family, cousin Jean's Schenck and Hageman genealogy,