Written by Generation Archives. You do not need a formal style manual for this. A sentence your cousin can follow is enough. The same note works in any family tree program.

How to cite a family photo, letter, or interview

Published by Generation Archives on October 25, 2026. Last updated November 5, 2026.

A date on a family tree is only as good as the reason you believe it. "Aunt June said so in 2019" and "the back of the wedding photo" are both real sources. They are not the same kind of real. Writing the source down takes less time than reconstructing it after June is gone and the photo album has moved to another house.

A citation is a trail, not an essay

You are trying to answer three questions:

What is the thing you looked at?
Who has it, or where is the copy?
What did it say?

One or two sentences do that. You can be more formal later if you want. Consistency matters more than commas.

Photos

A useful photo note names the people, the occasion if you know it, who identified them, and where the picture lives.

Example: "Black and white photo of Margaret Hale and her sister Edith, written on the back in pencil as 'Margaret and Edith, Regina, about 1952.' Identified by their niece June Hale, 12 March 2019. Original print held by June Hale. Scan in the family photo folder as hale-margaret-1952.jpg."

If nobody is sure of the year, say that. "Thought to be the early 1950s" is a citation. A bare "1952" copied onto twenty websites is how a guess becomes a fact.

Write on a copy, or in the tree, not in ink across the only print. If you label a scan, keep the file name stable so the note still points at it.

Letters, cards, and clippings

Quote the line that matters and describe the paper.

Example: "Letter from Thomas Hale to his son Robert, 4 June 1968, page 2: 'your mother was born in Moosomin.' Original letter in the blue shoebox held by Robert's daughter. Photo of the page saved as hale-letter-1968.jpg."

A funeral card can carry a full birth date that no one in the family had written anywhere else. Cite the card, who printed it if it says, and who owns it. A newspaper clipping should include the paper's name and the date of the paper if the clipping still has them. If the date was cut off, say the date is missing.

Interviews

An interview is a source. Treat it like one.

Example: "Phone conversation with June Hale, 12 March 2019, notes typed the same day by her nephew. June said her mother Margaret was born in March, 'either 1931 or 1932,' in Regina, and that the family Bible that had the date was lost in a move."

The hedge is part of the citation. If you drop the "either," you have changed what June said. Record who asked, who answered, the date, and whether you have notes, a recording, or only a memory of the call. A recording is better than notes. Notes taken the same day are better than a recollection a month later.

Ask before you record. A note that says "June agreed to the recording" belongs with the file.

When two sources disagree

Keep both citations. Do not average them into a third date nobody stated. "Funeral card says 12 March 1931. June Hale, interview 12 March 2019, recalled 1931 or 1932." A later record can pick a winner. Until then, the disagreement is the honest state of the research.

Put the citation on the person it supports, or in a note next to the fact, not in a drawer of unsorted files with no names. The point of the sentence is that someone else can find the same photo or call the same person.

A template you can copy

You do not need a style manual, but a fill-in-the-blanks sentence helps you stay consistent. Use whichever parts apply.

> [What it is] of [who or what it shows], [date or approximate date]. [What it says or what is written on it]. [Who identified it or told you], [date of conversation]. [Where the original is]. [Where your copy is].

Filled in for an invented photograph: "Studio portrait of Walter and Ruth Whitfield, probably 1957. Stamp on the back reads 'Lindqvist Studio, Duluth.' Identified by their son Peter Whitfield, 8 October 2026. Original in a cardboard folder held by Peter. Scan saved as whitfield-walter-ruth-1957.jpg."

That is four sentences, and a stranger could find the photo from it. If you keep your tree in an app, put the note on the person or on the photo. In Generation Archives you can write notes on a photo and on each person, and tag the people in a photo, so the citation sits next to the picture it describes.

A worked example with three sources that disagree

Here is a made-up set of facts about a made-up person, Walter Whitfield, showing how citations keep a disagreement honest.

A wedding program from 1957 says Walter was "of Duluth." Source: wedding program, held by Peter Whitfield, photographed 8 October 2026.
A funeral card from 2009 says "born 3 February 1931." Source: funeral card, held by Karen Marsh, scanned 12 October 2026.
His daughter Karen says on the phone he was born in 1930. Source: phone conversation with Karen Marsh, 12 October 2026, notes typed the same day.

The tree should not say "Walter Whitfield, born 1931" with no note, and it should not say "1930 or 1931" without saying who said what. A better entry reads: "Birth: 3 February 1931 per funeral card (2009). Daughter Karen recalled 1930 in an interview on 12 October 2026. A birth record has not been found." The next researcher can see the funeral card is a document and the interview is a memory, and can decide what to chase.

How much to trust each kind of source

Not every source is equal, and you do not have to be a professional to tell the difference. A rough order, from stronger to weaker:

Documents made at the time of the event by someone who was there: a birth or baptism record, a letter written that week, a diary entry.
Documents made later but by someone with direct knowledge: a family Bible entry written years after, a funeral card, an obituary.
Photos with labels written by someone who knew the people, and, ideally, dated.
Interviews and family memory. Valuable, and often the only source for who people were. Less reliable for exact dates.
Other people's online trees. Useful as leads. Unsourced, they are not evidence.

This is a rule of thumb, not a law. A diary written years later can be worse than a careful oral history. What matters is that you know which kind of source you have, and say so in the note.

Common mistakes

Citing "family records." That phrase does not tell anyone where to look. Name the object and who holds it.

Losing the connection between the scan and the note. A scan called IMG_4021.jpg and a note in a separate file will drift apart. Rename the scan with a name that includes the person and a year, or attach the note directly to the file inside your tree. How to organize family photos for a tree covers a naming habit that holds up.

Paraphrasing a quote. If a letter says "your mother was born in Moosomin," write that. If you summarize it as "born in Saskatchewan," you have already lost information.

Citing a person who would not want to be named. An interview source is a living person. If someone shared something sensitive, ask how they want to be credited, or write "a family member" and keep the details in a private note. What to record about living people covers this.

Putting all your citations on one page. A single "Sources" document grows until nobody reads it. Attach each note to the person or the fact it supports.

Skipping the date you looked. Online records and trees change. "Viewed 5 November 2026" is useful.

What good interview notes look like

An interview is the source most families rely on and the one most often under-documented. Ask permission to record, or take notes as you go. Afterward, type the notes the same day and add the date, the place, and who was there. If you want ideas for questions, see how to interview relatives for family history. Save the recording or the notes with a file name that includes the person's name and the date.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need footnotes?

No. A plain sentence with the item, the person who has it, and the date you saw it is a citation. Footnotes are optional.

What if the only source is my own memory?

Say so. "Remembered by the author, October 2026, from childhood visits. Not checked against a record." That warns the next person, including you, that it still needs a source.

Should I cite a public family tree I found online?

Yes, as a clue, and say you have not verified it. Name the site and the date you looked. An unsourced online tree is not proof of a date. It is a lead.

How do I cite a record I found on a website?

Name the record and the person it concerns, the site that holds the image, and the date you viewed it. If you can, describe the original too: "1940 census, household of ... , as shown on [site], viewed 5 November 2026." If you can save a copy, do, and say where.

Does a citation go on the person or on the photo?

Both, ideally. Put a short note on the photo that says what it is and who identified it. Put a one-line note on the person that points back to it. If you keep a tree in software, attach the photo to the person and tag them in it so they are linked.

Will my citations survive if I move to different software?

Text notes usually survive a GEDCOM export, though how they appear depends on the program, and photos and files do not travel inside the file. Keep your scans and a copy of your notes in a folder you control. See what is GEDCOM and how to back up a family tree.

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