It can be really tempting to underline or highlight important facts on your documents when you’re doing a lineage society application. After all, you’re trying to make it easy for the registrar or genealogist. Don’t! At least, don’t do it yet.
Why not? Societies are increasingly scanning documents for storage, and marking on the paper interferes with scanning quality. The vast majority of societies no longer want you marking the paper.
There are exceptions. But those societies have explicit instructions for what they want you to mark and how they want you to complete the marking. Follow the instructions carefully. Never mark your originals. Copies are much easier to replace if you mess up.
In short:
- Don’t mark until explicitly told to. If you’re not sure, ask.
- Follow the society’s direction.
- Never mark your originals!