Michele wrote: >I went back through and re researched everything so that I could site my sources properly. Even though >this made me mad at times and it was a bit tedious it was so worth the effort because as I did this not only >did I find mistakes but I also I found information that I didn't even know I had. I too have been going back through all my research fixing citations. I have also found information I didn't know I had. It wasn't that I didn't read it or know it was there it was because I now have the experience to understand what I had. When I started I am sure people told me cite your sources but with out experience you have no idea what that means. When I started I would ask where information came from but my source citations where minimal at best I would make a note like rootsweb or so so's tree or Aunt Virgina. The only "citation" that resembled anything that was close to accurate was for books and then it was just title and author. The most important thing to remember is a beginner doesn't have the experience to analyze what they are looking at. You can not teach experience. People learn in different ways, some from an academic perspective and some from the "street". I don't know how many people start their research thinking about sources and citations but I would bet it is a very small percentage. There not thinking in those terms and I am not sure that they should be. If you expect beginners to be research specialists you are setting yourself up for disappointment. When I talk to new researchers I tell them just make a note where you got the information even if it is just your grandmother or the postman. If they decide sometime down the road to do serious research those little clues will give them a reasonable chance of retracing their steps. I don't want to dash someone's excitement by telling them if you want to do genealogy you have to have to approach it from an academic perspective. Discovering your family history is suppose to be fun. Ann Gilchrest