Locations are listed with as much data as we have. The United States of America is assumed in most of this record and the country is added when needed to clarify.

Because this data is stored in a database, the format used is city, county, state, country. For example, Hess, Jackson, Oklahoma. The words city, county, and state are not used. If the city is unknown, then the comma shows a blank city. For example: , Jackson, Oklahoma. If only the state is known, then: ,, Oklahoma is used. Note the commas showing empty city and state fields.

In the PDF and printed versions there is a related information section near most families that includes a [page number] in square brackets. For example, Related information ➥ Section 2. The Roger Lanham Family 1560 [35].

In electronic versions (HTML, epub), it will simply show a link without any page references and the links work. For example, Related information‣ Section 2. The Roger Lanham Family 1560 (active link not included in this example).

If we have more than one date for the same event, we separate the dates with a slash (/) or the word “or,” for example 2 Feb 1839/40.

We use genealogical approximations for event dates. Going forward, we will do better at documenting in our source annotations when we approximate and show the basis of the approximation for future researchers.

For mother birth approximations when there is only a child’s birthdate, we make an assumption that the mother was at least 12 years old before giving birth. This provides an approximate date for searching for additional information. If I cannot find any documentation, then I may widen the time frame perhaps five or ten years at a time. They are only approximations.

We are open to any additional information from anyone with reason to believe our dates are off for our estimates. Please contact us if you have information to help clarify.

Sources are shown by superscript and reference a sources footnote ^[1] for each instance rather than one for the entire volume of content. The source content is always at the bottom of each family’s section of the content in PDF versions and at the end of the page for HTML versions.

To help those with disabilities, we are trying to add ALT tags to images describing what they are for those people using screen readers to see this family history. This accommodation is a work in progress. If you find one we missed, please let us know.

The living who have not given their permission to be included in a public version (book or website) are automatically filtered out in preprocessing during the publication build. Private versions are intended only for family include the living as well. If you are surprised that a child is not listed, it could be because they are still alive and filtered from this content until they pass away.

To facilitate crowd sourcing and gathering data from other genealogists, we have included notes for when some information is still needed. We have also included family timelines on those individuals toughest to find to help identify any new information.

Because the plan is to primarily publish electronically going forward except for very limited paper printouts, we are intentionally including all information we know going forward. We will not prioritize based on limiting the page count. If the book is 300 pages or 1,500 pages, it is no harder to carry it around in a tablet or eReader device. Websites also do not matter about the number of pages. So we will use as many pages as needed to keep the families straight, to document the sources we find, and to add families as the missing people are found.

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