Home sources for genealogical purposes are those items you find around a home - yours or a relative’s - that give a little bit of information about family history. They may be documents, furniture, clothing, military medals, jewelry, etc. The fact that these were kept and preserved tells you something about the person who kept them and how important the item is. These home items can be clues that lead to further discoveries.
Inventorying and Cataloging Home Sources
Home sources are not going to be found in one place. There may not be any in your home. They may be in your grandparents’ home, or in the home of an elderly relative. Wherever they are, it is important that you document them for your research.
The first thing to do is take pictures of the item. If they belong to someone else, ask permission of course. If the home source is a document, such as a deed, power of attorney, will, letter, or certificate, photograph it if you can. Otherwise, transcribe the document, carefully preserving even the typographical errors.
Put the photographs into a home source album (both print and digital). This could be important for insurance purposes. At each photograph, provide some description of the item, including where the original is and who owns it. Make sure to state why it is important—what you learned from it.
For your home sources, document them in a catalog. The photograph album can possibly serve as a catalog of the items, provided you add all the data needed. How elaborate this will be depends on how many of these items you have. The exact organization of the items in the catalog (by type or by chronology, for example) is perhaps not as important as you having the catalog.
Try to look ahead to the day when you will share your genealogy research with someone else, someone outside the immediate family. When they ask you how you know the death date of their great-grandfather, a man who was your great-grand-uncle, you should be able to go to your home sources catalog and retrieve the data from the funeral card you found in your grandmother’s house. Your research will be much more valuable to you and others if you do this.
Preservation, and Display of Home Sources
For home sources in your possession, begin immediately at proper handling and storage. For old items, regardless of the condition they are in, the less they are handled the better. This is one reason why photographs of an item are important. Documents can be put in protectors. Old photographs can be mounted in an album, or can be stored loosely in a box. So long as they are not frequently handled, they will be well preserved in a box. Avoid storage in excessive cold or heat, as either one can cause damage to most items.
When items are not in your possession, take note of how the owner stores them. Sometimes someone comes into possession of an item, but doesn’t understand its importance, and hence is not careful on how they keep it. Courteously explain the importance, and suggest a method of storage or display that will properly preserve the item. Most people will thank you for that if you do this in a kind manner.
Restoration of Home Sources
Old things deteriorate with age. Often when a home source comes into your possession, it will already be damaged. Photographs may be creased or torn. Documents may have browning edges. Furniture may be damaged. Old baby clothes might be close to tatters. All of these can be restored. With adequate time, skill, and knowledge, you can do your own preservation work. One highly recommended source is A Preservation Guide: Saving the Past and the Present for the Future, Ancestry, 1995.
If you don’t believe you can do the restoration yourself, due to lack of time or skills, consider using a professional. There are specialists for almost every type of preservation work, and nowadays they are easy to find through multiple databases.
Just as you shouldn’t overlook the value of home sources in defining genealogy lines and expanding family history knowledge, don’t neglect their proper preservation, storage or display, and restoration. Document each item in a catalog. Share them with others, especially with fellow genealogists.
David A. Todd - David Todd is a civil engineer, a genealogist, a citizen concerned with the environment, and a writer by passion.
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