Begat Chat

Recently Julie Miller, a genealogy columnist for Broomfield Enterprise, wrote an article titled, "Using Style to Enhance your Genealogy." She says that every genealogist needs a style sheet to help define their writing style. Some items deal with genealogical standards and others are based on preferences. One of these preferences might include how you like your surnames written. My mother likes hers all in CAPS. I like mine in lowercase letters.

Here is Miller's list of examples.

STYLE SHEET (Example)

NAMES:

Unknown name — a question mark inside square brackets in place of unknown name. Example: [-?-]

DATES:

Day, month, year; month is written out; numbers are not used for the month; four digits are used for the year. Example: 29 July 1956.

NUMBERS:

First word in a sentence is written out. Example: One hundred dollars

Page numbers - write the full form of the numbers. Example: 145-146.

LOCATION:

County abbreviated as Co. Example: Broomfield Co.

State spelled out. Example: Colorado

Order is city, county, state, country. Example: Lyons, Boulder Co., Colorado

PUNCTUATION:

Jr. and Sr. without commas. Example: "Harry Warren Jr. has four brothers."

SOURCES:

Birth registration (state level)

Joseph L. Brown, birth certificate no. 1889 (1915), South Dakota Department of Health, Pierre, South Dakota

So the idea is to make a style sheet for yourself in order to display your research consistently. A good idea.