Anderson Guthrie Patent

Bureau of Land Management

Accession IN2740__.057 - Guthrie Anderson C dated 8/15/1838
Doc. # 13094
Indiana
2nd PM
Twp 6N Range 10E
NE1/4Nw1/4 Section 34
Ripley County

The United States of America
Certificate No. 13094

Cleaning up Bad Citations

Do you ever have to do a 'clean-up' in your genealogy database? Whether you do or not, I know I do. I recently figured out that some of my citations did not 'convert' well when I moved my data from The Master Genealogist to Roots Magic. Thus, I have some 'bad' citations to clean up.

Even though I knew these bad citations existed in my database, I had no clue how to go about finding all of them. Thus, I posted a query in the RootsMagic Users Group on Facebook.

Although, it isn't possible to create a report listing these citations, a kind user posted some steps to try and locate those hints.

Scavenger Hunt

Do you ever find in your own research that leads you on a scavenger hunt? That's how I felt this morning when I was trying to figure out some of my 'bad' citations attached to James Crawford on my Ancestry tree.

Fortunately, when I clicked on the top Entry citation, it opened up a window that provided enough information about this erroneous citation to help me locate my original research.

Scroll, Click, Connect

Do you ever look at other trees on Ancestry? I know I do. I use them for hints. I also attach them as 'sources' so that I can get back to trees that match my ancestors.

However, I try not to add 'new people' from those trees to my tree. I also try to add additional sources to support the information in my tree. Some of those sources are obtained thru Ancestry and the hinting system.

However, some of my sources come from outside of Ancestry. Thus, when you search Ancestry's Public Member Trees for someone in my tree, the number of sources attached to the individual will be shown.

Bad citations

Do you have older source citations in your tree that your high school English teacher would yell at you about? Do you have source citations in your tree that even you can't use to locate the information?

I don't know about you, but I have such sources in my tree. As I'm reviewing my Crawford research, I'm finding those source citations.

Most of these HORRIBLE citations came from my early days of research when citation standards were just being developed.

1815 Guthrie Patent

189 141

Examined & Sent May 22d 1815

James Madison, President of the United States of America
To all to whom these presents shall come, Greeting:

Know Ye, that William B Guthrie of Clark County Ind. Territory