Question

I am entering my late father's family history information but I do not have access to his sources. What should I do?

Answer 1

Hi,

You can try to find online sources - check Research on the right-hand side of his profile, click on RootsSearch and try FamilySearch.  You need to have a free account on that site.

Check with others that have the same surname or that surname in FamilySearch to start.

Good luck with your search.

Answer 2

Welcome Einar.  As Sheryl suggests, it is often possible nowadays to find many of those old records online, which may include some of the same records your father found.  And you may find things that he didn't find at the time he did his research.  Just guessing here, but if your ancestors were from Iceland, you can Google 'genealogy records in Iceland' and come up with a number of places to look.  My quick search, for example, showed:

https://www.icelandicroots.com/genealogy-links

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%8Dslendingab%C3%B3k_(genealogical_database)

and some others.  If you still live in the area of your ancestors, you may be able to visit a local library or historical society and also find a lot of good sources and good advice.

If you make a reasonable effort to locate legitimate original sources and still come up empty, I personally don't think it's unreasonable, at least in some cases, to cite your father's research as your source -- especially if it's a published work and not just handwritten notes.  I have, on a few occasions, used old family genealogy records as a source when I couldn't find something better.  I felt comfortable with that because I had found other legitimate sources to support much of the other data in the family records, and it gave me overall confidence that it was a credible body of work.

Comments

Thanks Dennis and Sheryl:

I will poke around on-line since Dad's (and Moms when it get to it) was all done before in internet.  On the other hand Dad would go to Iceland every now and then and spend a week in the National Library and anywhere else he could find information.  This is not just random stuff, it was his life's work for a 1/4 of a century after he retired. We are not talking about a few names here but lines that go back to before 1000.

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I'm going to guess that you'll find an effort like that to be very accurate and reliable.  Good luck!

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To learn a bit more about my dad's passion check out "Einar Ragnarsson Kvaran" on wikipedia. Einar EInarsson Kvaran

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Very impressive!  Based on the wikipedia article, I think your dad might qualify as a 'notable' on WikiTree (although I admit I have no knowledge of what that means or how you make it official):

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Project:Notables

I doubt that anyone would question using his work as a legitimate source in cases where you can't find original sources.