Genealogical Research Guidelines

There are many websites where we can find guidance for producing good solid research through the course of our genealogical studies.  This guide is intended to help CBSI members to start with and continue to use genealogical best practices.

Why do we need to use genealogical best practices? 

There is a lot of work involved with genealogical research and if we don’t use best practices then our work won’t be considered to be valid by any accredited genealogist.  What difference does that make? 

Firstly, there is a huge time commitment to researching our family trees and we don’t want our time or effort to be wasted by incorrect information or faulty conclusions. 

Secondly, presumably we are handing our research down to our descendants, we want to make certain that what we are presenting is the best, most accurate work that it can be.  We don’t want our work to have to be redone and furthermore, if a certified genealogist is ever consulted we wouldn’t want them to look at our work and tell our descendants that it all needs to be done over for a lack of verifiable information.

“As researchers, probably the most important thing we can do is to be consistent.  ”

Dates

We must choose particular data entry formats and use them consistently throughout our work.  We need to enter all data the same way each time – for instance we should use a date format that is understandable by anyone around the world.  Here in the US, we use a month / day / year format, but it is more universal to use a two digit day / three letter month / four digit year. 

The date field should only have date information in it, it should not be used for notes.  Any notes that are necessary should be entered in a field for such information.

Locations

Locations should be entered as city or town, county, state, country. 

All locations should be complete, if a portion of a location is not shown in the record which is being reviewed, you should Google the complete location. 

If you still cannot determine what the complete location is, use commas and spaces as placeholders to indicate that some of the information is missing.  For instance, if I didn’t know what the county for Boston, MA was, I would write the location as Boston, , Massachusetts, USA – in this way I have indicated that I can’t determine what the county is. 

Also when writing locations, use either the full name of the country written out or the 3 letter country code – but be consistent, choose a format and stick to it. 

Please, please, please do not enter a partial location or a colloquial name, you can’t assume that your readers will understand what you mean. 

And note that England, Northern Ireland, Scotland & Wales are all part of the country United Kingdom.

Capitalization

Standard capitalization is always appropriate.  Surnames should not be written in all upper case; first letter capitalization is correct.  The same goes for locations and dates.

Online software

To record your tree you need online software - a large diary of handwritten research is no longer practical.

I prefer to use good quality genealogy software, my personal preference is Legacy Family Tree, but there are many different software packages out there.  The advantage of using software is that you can standardize the data entry within the context of the software and not have to remember how you entered data each time.  You begin typing and the appropriate designation appears after the first time you’ve entered the information.  You can download a gedcom file from the commercial websites into a genealogy software program and make the adjustments within the software as well.

Research sources

In many cases folks are pursuing genealogical research as a means of joining a lineage society, such as The Mayflower Society, the Daughters or Sons of the American Revolution, etc.  Although previous research can be referenced for this purpose, we should never accept someone else’s research without completing our own.  It is certainly possible that we may see something different from a previous researcher, we may discover previously unknown data.  Although it is perfectly acceptable to review and refer to someone else’s research, always try to locate the original document to see for yourself what it says.  Old handwriting can be difficult to read and the spoken word may have held different meaning at the time the document was written.

For the purpose of submitting to a lineage society, or to the Court of the Lord Lyon for the purpose of becoming an Armiger or obtaining arms, one must present a logical and verifiable progression to the ancestor in question. 

  • In any genealogy research we begin with ourselves, gathering all pertinent vital records – birth certificates, marriage licenses, wills, obituaries, etc. 

  • We need to write what are called source citations for these documents so that anyone following our research will be able to locate the same documents. 

  • Once we have everything that pertains to our own lives, we move back in time to our parents and repeat the process, gathering those same types of documents, then back to our great grandparents. 

  • Keep in mind that vital record keeping was not as well maintained in the past as it is now.  Many locations didn’t keep consistent (or any) records until near the 20th century.  If we don’t find “official” records we need to look in other places, churches, taxes, property and deeds, cemetery and funeral home records, court documents, military, emigration / immigration records, etc. 

  • You will present the evidence that you are the child of your parents, that they were the children of their parents, and so on.  You will present their movements in the country they lived, that they paid taxes on property, or worked in a trade or were a government official.

Elizabeth Shown Mills is an authority on genealogical research and she wrote the textbook which is used in most genealogical certification classes, Evidence Explained.  In her recent Legacy Family Tree webinar syllabus for, Trousers, Black Domestic, Tacks & Housekeeping Bills: Problem-Solving With “Trivial Details” she said the following:

“The records we use are filled with “trivia,” bits and pieces of information that seem to have no “genealogical” value — at least not until we become more creative in our research and analyses. Each piece of trivia in every document is an opportunity waiting to be connected to something else. Our ability to resolve problems depends upon our ability to make those connections.

… Four principles run throughout every discussion:

• A researcher is not just a collector of “facts.” A researcher is an analyst and an interpreter of information.

• A researcher is a nitpicker. Every detail matters.

• A researcher is an innovator, one who continuously strives for new ways to probe records, new ways to apply data, new ways to connect facts, and new patterns between people— patterns that differ, as well as patterns that match.

• A researcher will spend more time analyzing the problem, analyzing the records, and analyzing the results than the time spent on actual “searching” for names and facts.”

The Modern Detective

We are running an investigation for all intents and purposes and we are detectives trying to find out what the facts of the case are.  We must be careful not to let family lore compel us, it is often not true and we can’t be unwilling to change our opinion on such information.  We must allow the facts to lead us to the conclusion, not make our foregone conclusion fit the facts.

We also need to determine whether the information that we locate during our research is original, derivative or authored.  Is this information primary, secondary or unknown and is our evidence direct, indirect or negative?  Negative information is good to help us in our research also, it can rule out various conclusions.  As genealogists, we don’t have to be certified, but we should attempt to live up to the Genealogical Proof Standard.

That proof standard helps us to produce good quality research that is as free from errors as is possible.  It includes source citations that explicitly demonstrate where we found a particular piece of information and whether that source is credible, whether the conclusion can be reached by another individual reviewing the same source material.  I often find it helpful to talk out conflicting or unclear data – I will ask someone else what they think about something that isn’t making sense to me.

We should educate ourselves about how to accomplish our research, there are many sites online where we can read short articles or watch webinars.  Another good way to learn is to volunteer to help digitize various genealogical records.  There are many universities and the National Archives who are using citizen volunteers to bring more records online.

Submitting to Become an Armiger

What is an Armiger? 

An Armiger is a member of the Armorial Noblesse of Scotland, an embodiment of the living survival of the old medieval realm.  As such, Armigers are entitled to bear heraldic arms, either by hereditary right, grant, matriculation or assumption of arms.  Armigers are Chieftans of the Clan and help raise the Clan’s standing. Armigers are permitted to wear a single feather in their cap. Armigers may be any gender.

What is the Court of the Lord Lyon?  

The Court of the Lord Lyon is responsible for granting new Arms (AKA: Armiger status).

The Court of the Lord Lyon is a standing court of law, based in New Register House in Edinburg, which regulates heraldry in Scotland.  The Lyon Court maintains the register of grants of arms, known as the Public Register of All Arms and Bearings in Scotland, as well as records of genealogies. 

How are Arms granted, what is the process to become an Armiger? 

A Coat of Arms belongs to only one individual at a time, it can be passed from the owner to the eldest son and from the eldest son to his eldest son and so on. 

In order to be considered for Arms, one must present an application in the form of a Petition to the Lord Lyon. 

It is not generally possible for non-British citizens to be granted Scottish Arms.  A requirement to own property in Scotland must be fulfilled.  This must be an actual home and intent to live in said home. However, one can apply for a “matriculation” if they can trace their ancestry back to an ancestor who had the same name and who had a grant of Arms in Scotland, showing the applicant’s place in the family.  Matriculation of Arms does not have the requirement of owning property or being domiciled in Scotland.  The whole process takes between ten and twelve months from the date of lodging the Petition.

So, if you can trace your lineage to (say) a Chief of Clan Buchanan you can apply for your own Arms, and call yourserlf an Armiger of the Clan.

The documentation that will be required to submit an application for a lineage society membership can include the following:

  • Birth, marriage & death certifications

  • Headstone images

  • Newspaper obituaries, birth or marriage announcements

  • Wills (to prove relationships)

  • Baptismal records

  • Census records

  • Court records (such as probate records)

A note about DNA Testing

The Lord Lyon does not accept DNA results as evidence of ancestry.  DNA is the science behind our genealogical research, it supports our ethnicity estimates, however it does NOT prove our lineage.  Verifiable genealogical research and evidence is the only path to recognition with these organizations.

References 

Court of the Lord Lyon
www.courtofthelordlyon.scot/index.htm

Court of the Lord Lyon Filing Fee Schedule – 2019
www.courtofthelordlyon.scot/index_htm_files/LyonOfficeFeeSheet.pdf

Lord Lyon Society
www.lordlyonsociety.org.uk

National Records of Scotland
www.nrscotland.gov.uk

The Society of Scottish Armigers
www.scotarmigers.net

The Heraldry Society of Scotland
www.heraldry-scotland.uk

Armigers note on Electric Scotland
www.electricscotland.com/webclans/armingers