I just joined a new Facebook group called The Genealogy Squad whose focus is non-DNA related genealogy questions (as opposed to Genetic Genealogy Tips and Techniques, which is only DNA related). Someone posted something which spurred an interesting question about citations, plagiarism, copyright and terms of service. These are really important questions to ask even if we are not publishing our research (even if just on a blog) but collecting it as a hobby for our own enjoyment. I know this is something I can do better with, so I’m hoping that by writing about it here I can help clarify it for myself as well as for others so we can all do better.

The first question is, especially if this is a hobby, why cite sources? Even though we are “just” doing genealogy as a hobby, we still want to do a good job with our research. We can’t accept information like dates of life events at face value. For example, I received a copy of a book written by a distant cousin which gave a marriage date for our mutual ancestor. I emailed her to ask where this information came from, and she could not tell me. As far as I knew, these ancestors were married “a-la-façon-du-pays,” i.e., not legally or religiously because there was no one to do so for them where they lived. The date in question also happened to be 9 months before their first child was born, and I wondered whether the date was just a polite fiction. Eventually I was able to get a marriage record for them, proving that this was in fact the correct date. Even in cases where we have documentation, some sources are more likely to be accurate than others. A death certificate may be a good source for information on someone’s death, but might not have the correct information about their birth. When we come across conflicting information (i.e., a death certificate that has a different birth date than a birth certificate), we can evaluate all the sources to make a good judgment based on where the information comes from. We can’t do that if we don’t know where it came from.

The second part of the issue is plagiarism, copyright and terms of service. If we want to avoid plagiarism (claiming that the particular work in question is our own), citing our source is important. However, citing a source does not necessarily avoid the problem of copyright. Most people understand the idea of copyright as someone owning an idea or work. We might even know that for certains things, copyright no longer applies, perhaps because it is now in the public domain or might fall under “fair use.” It’s really important to have a clear understanding of these concepts and what they entail so we do not inadvertently violate copyright. Finally, even if the document in question might not violate copyright, sharing it may violate a particular website’s terms of service. Here’s a really great article by the The Legal Genealogist about the topic. While you’re at it, read everything they’ve written on the subject of copyright.

Lastly, how do we cite our sources? Evidence Explained is one of the bibles of genealogical citation. Their website has tons of examples and lessons to give you a start in how to do citations. Mastering Genealogical Proof is another good one. If you feel like the perfect would be the enemy of the good, though, just remember that a citation is a way to document where you found something, so that someone else would be able to reproduce your work.

While it make take a little more time in the moment, in the long run it will save us a lot of time figuring out where we got a certain piece of information from. Future generations will thank us for our hard work as they sort through it and are easily able to see where we got our information from.