Skillbuilding: Using Indexes

From OnBoard - Newsletter of the BCG
Printer Friendly

Anita Anderson Lustenberger, "Using Indexes," OnBoard 3 (September 1997): 24.

Question: When is a source not a source? Answer: When it is an index.

In the last issue of OnBoard (May 1997) this column discussed analyzing and reviewing published sources and suggested two questions a researcher should ask: What is the purpose of this work? and How well is that purpose fulfilled? There are many works whose purpose is to be an index to other works; as such, they fill the intended purpose quite well. However, problems arise when an index is quoted as though it were a source.

“But it was my source,” you say. “It’s where I found my information.” Not so. It is the place you found the clue that should lead you to the source. The following examples illustrate the point.

CENSUSES

When the soundex to a census yields a family configuration that fits your other data, don’t cite the soundex card. Go to the census page itself, verify that the soundex extractor interpreted the handwriting correctly, study the information and columns not included on the soundex card, and scan the neighbors. Your eventual citation will be the census itself, e.g.:

1880 U.S. census, population schedule, Buchanan Co., Va., Sand Lake magisterial dist., enumeration dist. 16, sheet 45, dwelling 35, family 35.

INTERNATIONAL GENEALOGICAL INDEX [IGI]

As its name states, the IGI is an index. It is not a citable source. The citation would be to the source of the information that was entered into the IGI. Broadly, entries in the IGI come from (1) extraction projects from films of original records; and (2) group sheets and family research submissions that may, but often do not, contain source information. When a clue is found in the IGI, the real source must be sought.

If the source is an extraction from an original record, you must look at the film yourself to see if you agree with the interpretation of the handwriting and of the record. You often will be rewarded with additional detail such as ages, names of parents, and names of witnesses that are not included in the IGI entry. After checking the original, you may then cite:

Wethersfield [Conn.] First Congregational Church Records, 1694–1738, Roger Welles’ Copy,” 132; Family History Library [FHL] microfilm 1,1014,196.

If the reference is to a family group sheet or individual submission, you must note the “batch number” cited for the index entry. Use this number to locate the film containing a photograph of the submission, then note the source of the information on that sheet.

If the submitter cites an original record, get the film of that record, confirm the information, and cite the original as your source. If the citation is to another derivative work, go there to see if it cites the original. (It may have no citations at all!)
The object is to find that original source and then to confirm the information provided in the IGI and the submitted data. If origins cannot be determined and the information seems logical and probable, you might then cite the best secondary source—in proper form. Do not cite “IGI.”

All too often the citation on the submission by a patron or a proxy is “Rec’d by corresp. from relative” or else the line is left blank. It is shocking how many of the “facts” people copy from the IGI fall into this category. Again, try to confirm the information using original sources. If the data seem very probable, you may have to say that you found the information in an index database, and then explain the unsuccessful efforts you made to find the original record. For example:
A family group sheet for Isaac and Mary deposited in the Family Group Record Archives, Family History Library, Salt Lake City (no. 1,273,709) cites the date as 6 August 1650, but the date is not in Farmington’s vital records or either of the two sources listed on the family group sheet.

TORREY’S NEW ENGLAND MARRIAGES

In New England, a very popular index to records is Clarence Almon Torrey’s “New England Marriages Prior to 1700.” This index is a manuscript. The original is at the New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston but is available nationwide on microfilm (NEHGS Ms 142; FHL Microfilm 929,494).

An index to this index was published by Genealogical Publishing Company (Baltimore, 1985). Do not cite this index. Using its clues, go to the microfilm and find Torrey’s handwritten entry for the marriage. To the side of the names of the couple and their marriage and/or birth dates, Torrey has listed all the references he found.

Most of Torrey’s sources are secondary ones—town histories, genealogies, and even other indexes and directories. This means you must go to those sources and try to deduce the original sources from which their data are extracted.
Other geographical areas have their own local, highly regarded indexes. There are published guides to religious records, military collections, passenger lists, and bounty land files. They are all just indexes. The essential determination to be made is: What is the purpose of this work? If the purpose is to be an index, use it as an index. Do not misuse it by treating it as a source.

Anita Anderson Lustenberger, CG

This article was originally published in OnBoard, BCG's educational newsletter and is protected by copyright. Individuals may download and print copies for their personal study. Educators are granted permission to provide copies to their students as long as BCG, OnBoard, and the appropriate author are credited as the source of the material. Republication elsewhere is not permitted.