Source and Ontology

To me the term ontology means the study of the way things are supposed to be and how they are. I never really knew what this word meant until I read a line in the Matrix and philosophy that said, “The second way to distinguish between the categories of real and unreal has to do with their respective ontological status- put plainly, the way things exist.” (Irwin, 61). In other words, Sanford and Gracia use the term ontology to express how things just are. Dictionary.com states that ontology means: “the branch of metaphysics that studies the nature of existence or being as such.” All together, my understanding of this word is the science behind every living source.
Source on the other hand to me does not mean HOW things are but WHERE they came from. For example when writing a research paper you would need to gather information first in order to write your paper. Then you would list the sources in which you got your facts from and that means where they came from. Dictionary.com says, “Source: any thing or place from which something comes, arises, or is obtained.” In the Matrix and philosophy, Gracia and Sanford state, “The two ways of distinguishing between the real and unreal world- the sources for each and their ontological status- clarify the distinction between the two categories of the Matrix.” I agree with Gracia and Sanford’s idea of the source because I believe everything has a source. However I do not agree on the fact that you can distinguish between real and unreal using ontological status because if it’s unreal then it wouldn’t have ontological staus.