what is a genealogical abstract do you need to take one when you're
researching in this episode of the ancestral findings podcast I'll give
you an explanation of abstracts and when you should use one in genealogy
what is a genealogical abstract it is something you may come across in the research of other
people when you are exploring records plainly speaking an abstract in genealogy is an inventory
of the most important details of a genealogical document abstracts are usually used when people
are researching in the field and do not have the means or the permission to make a photocopy or
computerized scan of a document they can use abstracting to quickly get all the important
points out of the document so they can input it into their research on their family tree
software later the trick to abstracting is to be able to quickly scan a genealogical document and
decide what is really important to know and what can be left out you want to include the
important names dates and places such as names of parents names of children names of grandparents
names including maiden names of spouses places where the document was written residents of your
ancestor in the document date the document was written any other pertinent dates in the
documents such as birth death and marriage dates dates and places for military service
place of birth death and marriage place of birth death and/or marriage of parents these are just
some examples of the information you want to copy off of a genealogical document for your
abstract once you have looked at a large number of genealogical documents you will get an idea of
what is the most important information for your research you will also become adept at quickly
scanning a document to get that information and write it down when abstracting always cite the
source at the bottom of your abstract this is so you can go back and look at the whole thing
again later if you need to since there may be interesting personal information on your
ancestor in the document that doesn't end up in the abstract but that you may want to record
to give you additional information on your ancestors personality it may not be necessary
sorry for including in your research at that moment but it is something you will want to
include at some point always bring a notepad and pen or pencil with you when you go to the archive
buildings courthouses and other places where original documents are located sometimes the
documents are too delicate to be photocopied or scanned so abstracting them is the only way to get
information from them if there is only one useful document there you may have time to transcribe
the whole thing but in most trips you will be working with many documents and you won't have
the time necessary to transcribe them all before the repository closes and your trip is over with
your abstract you can get important information from documents that have not been published online
and put that information in your research when you get home everyone has their own preferred method
of abstracting so do what works best for you just remember the goal of producing an abstract is to
get the most important genealogical information the information that will further your research
in new ways once you know how and when to use an abstract you will see their genealogical value
what is genealogical numbering it is actually a very important part of your
research in the next ancestral findings podcast I'll show you
what it is what it does and how to use it in your family trees