How to Cite Genealogy Sources

Citation has a reputation for being fussy academic bookkeeping, and that reputation is why so much genealogy is unusable. An unsourced tree is a set of assertions nobody can check — including you, in three years, when you can't remember whether a date came from a certificate or a stranger's online tree. The good news is that a workable citation is just five pieces of information, and you don't need a formal manual to produce one. This page covers what every citation needs, templates for the record types you'll actually meet, and how to handle online sources and DNA evidence. Recording it alongside the tree itself helps — the printable family tree gives you the structure.

What Does Every Citation Need?

Five elements. Get these down and the format barely matters.

• Who or what — the record type and the person it concerns
• Where it's held — the archive, registry, website or repository
• A reference — volume, page, piece number, certificate number, entry number
• When — the date of the record, and the date you accessed it if online
• What it says — or at least what you took from it

A citation's only job is to let someone find the same document again. If a stranger could follow your note back to the record, it's good enough. If they couldn't, it isn't, however elegantly formatted.

Consistency beats correctness. A simple format applied to everything is far more useful than a perfect format applied to a third of your tree. Pick a shape and stick to it.

You don't need a formal style manual. Professional genealogists use detailed standards, and they're worth reading if you're publishing seriously. For personal research, the five elements above do the work.

Record it at the moment you find it. Retrofitting sources months later is miserable, frequently impossible, and the main reason people end up with unsourced trees they no longer trust.

What Do Citations Look Like for Common Records?

Templates you can adapt. The bracketed parts are what changes.

Civil registration certificate

Birth certificate of [name], [date]; [registration district], [country]; [volume/page or certificate number]; issued by [registry], [date obtained].

Census entry

[Year] census of [country], [county], [parish/township]; [piece/folio/page or enumeration district and sheet]; household of [head of household]; [name] listed as [relationship, age, occupation].

Parish register

[Baptism/marriage/burial] of [name], [date]; [parish name] parish register, [volume or year range], [entry or page number]; held at [record office], [reference number].

Will or probate

Will of [name] of [place], written [date], proved [date]; [court or registry], [reference]; [where consulted].

Newspaper

"[Headline or description]", [newspaper name] ([place]), [date], page [n], column [n].

Gravestone or memorial

Gravestone of [name], [cemetery name], [town]; [plot/section reference]; personally examined [date] / photograph by [name], [date].

Interview

[Name], [relationship to you], interviewed by [your name], [date], [place]; [audio recording / notes] held by [you].

Book

[Author], [Title] ([place]: [publisher], [year]), page [n].

Online database record

"[Database name]", [website name] ([URL]), entry for [name], accessed [date]; citing [the original record it reproduces].

That last line matters most. A website is a means of access, not a source. The source is the parish register or census return; the website is where you saw an image or an index of it. Citing both is what makes the reference durable when websites change or disappear — and the underlying record types are covered in what are vital records.

How Do You Handle Online and Unreliable Sources?

Where most genealogical error enters.

Someone else's online tree is not a source. It's a lead. Note it as such — "per [username]'s tree on [site], accessed [date]; unverified" — and then go and find the record it claims. A vast amount of incorrect genealogy circulates because trees are copied between people without anyone checking the underlying document.

Indexes are not originals. An index entry is a transcription, and transcriptions contain errors. Cite the index if that's all you have, note that it's an index, and view the original image where one exists.

Distinguish original from derivative. An original record was created at or near the event by someone with direct knowledge. A derivative is any later copy, transcription, abstract or index. Both are usable; they carry different weight, and your citation should make clear which you saw.

Distinguish primary from secondary information. A death certificate is an original record, but the deceased's birth date on it is secondary information supplied by a grieving relative — frequently wrong. The same document can be strong evidence for one fact and weak for another.

Note when sources disagree. Two records giving different birth years is normal and worth recording explicitly rather than silently picking one. The disagreement is data.

Screenshot or save what you cite. Websites reorganise, subscriptions lapse, and records get withdrawn. A saved image of the record you used costs nothing and outlives the URL.

Record negative results too. "Searched [record set] for [name], [years], no entry found, [date]" prevents you repeating the search and tells the next researcher what's already been ruled out — genuinely useful when a line becomes a brick wall, as covered in how to break through a brick wall.

How Should You Cite DNA Evidence?

Newer territory, and the conventions are still settling — but the principle is the same: record enough that someone could check it.

What to include:

• The testing company and which kit — yours, or a relative's you manage
• The match's name or username as displayed
• Shared centimorgans and number of segments
• Segment details if you're using them — chromosome, start and end positions
• The date you recorded it
• The relationship you concluded, and on what basis

Example:

AncestryDNA match between [your kit] and [username], 187 cM across 9 segments, recorded [date]; shared matches include [names]; concluded second cousin once removed based on documented descent from [ancestral couple].

Why the date matters more than usual. Match lists change constantly as new people test and companies adjust their algorithms. A cM figure recorded today may differ next year, and a match may vanish entirely if someone deletes their kit.

Record the reasoning, not just the conclusion. DNA arguments are chains of inference, and six months later you won't remember why you ruled out the alternative relationship. Write down what you considered and rejected.

Be careful with privacy. Match usernames and shared amounts concern living people. Keep DNA citations in your private research file rather than in a tree published online or a family history circulated widely.

How Much Weight Does Each Source Type Carry?

Not all evidence is equal, and a citation that records the type tells you how much confidence a fact deserves.

Two facts on one document can differ in weight. A death certificate is strong evidence of the death and weak evidence of the birth date, because the informant was reporting something they didn't witness. Noting which fact you took from which document is what makes this distinction usable.

Where sources conflict, prefer the one closest to the event and created by someone with direct knowledge — and record both.

How Do You Keep This Manageable?

The honest problem is that citation feels like overhead until the moment it saves you, which may be years later.

Use a template. Set up one line in your notes or software for each record type and fill in the blanks. Copying and editing a template takes seconds; composing a citation from scratch takes minutes, which is why people stop.

Let your software do the work. Most genealogy programs generate citations from templates and attach them to individual facts rather than to a person. Attaching to facts is the more useful habit, because it tells you which specific claim rests on which document.

Keep a research log alongside — what you searched, where, when, and what you found or didn't. It's the companion to citation and stops repeated work.

Cite as you go, always. Ten seconds at the moment of discovery, against an hour of reconstruction later, or a fact you eventually have to discard because you can't remember where it came from.

Don't let perfect stop you. An imperfect note recording the archive, the reference and the date is enormously more valuable than no note. Improve the format later if you want; capture the information now.

Remember who it's for. Partly the next researcher — a cousin, a descendant, someone who finds your tree in forty years. Mostly it's for you, when you come back to a line you haven't touched since 2019 and need to know whether the birth date is documented or a guess. It's also what makes a written family history credible rather than merely readable, as in how to write a family history. If you're just starting out, genealogy for beginners covers the wider foundations, and occupation research in particular throws up unusual sources worth noting carefully — see how to find an ancestor's occupation.

Frequently Asked Questions

What information does a genealogy citation need?

Five things: what the record is and who it concerns, where it's held, a reference number or locator, the relevant dates, and what it says. If a stranger could use your note to find the same document, the citation works.

Do I need to follow a formal citation style?

Not for personal research. Professional standards exist and are worth reading if you're publishing, but a simple consistent format containing the five core elements is far more useful than a perfect format applied inconsistently.

Can I cite someone else's family tree as a source?

Only as a lead, clearly marked unverified. Online trees are frequently copied without checking, so note where the claim came from and then find the underlying record yourself. Treating trees as sources is how errors propagate.

Should I cite the website or the original record?

Both. Cite the original record — the census return, parish register or certificate — and note the website and database where you accessed it, with the access date. Websites reorganise and disappear; the underlying record doesn't.

How do I cite a DNA match?

Record the testing company, the kit, the match's name or username, shared centimorgans and segment count, any segment details you used, the date, and the relationship you concluded with your reasoning. The date matters because match lists change.

What's the difference between original and derivative sources?

An original was created at or near the event by someone with direct knowledge. A derivative is any later copy, transcript, abstract or index. Both are usable, but they carry different weight, so your citation should make clear which one you actually saw.

One last argument for bothering, aimed at anyone who finds this tedious. The trees that survive and get built on are the sourced ones. An unsourced tree gets copied a few times, accumulates errors, and eventually gets abandoned when someone can't verify it. A sourced tree can be checked, corrected and extended by people who never met you — which is, in the end, the whole point of doing the work.

Citation is less about scholarly form than about being able to trust your own work later. Five elements, one consistent template, recorded at the moment you find something. That habit is the difference between a tree that stands up and a collection of names nobody can verify — including you. Keep the structure straight as you build it with the printable family tree.