Sunday, July 1, 2012

Citations and documentation – What are your thoughts?

A lively discussion occurred at Root Cellar's Reunion for the Mac segment meeting last week about citing and documenting our research. It demonstrated to me that many genealogists are not on the same page when it comes to sourcing their work. With so many different genealogical databases out there for the PC and Mac that more or less automatically give you fill in forms for your citations, you would think more of us would be inclined to keep track of our sources. Whether you use your own version or follow Elizabeth Shown Mills's examples, everyone should be documenting their efforts. Personally, I would have a hard time justifying my nearly 2 1/2 decades of research that I have done if I thought that my descendants who may became interested in their family history would find my research of little use. So my current project is going back through each of my ancestors and documenting more fully where I found my information. I want to create signposts for someone else to easily see the validity of my statements. This is not an easy project. Considerable tedious effort will be call for. Is it worth it? How do you handle your sources? Do you feel comfortable that your research will stand the test of time?
Posted by Ron Setzer

3 comments:

  1. One has to consider handling sources in two contexts -- your genealogy database and your publications. For a variety of reasons, I don't expect my computer files to survive long after I am gone. It will be my publications that make this genealogy hobby something more than just my personal entertainment.

    The last book I did about my grandparents' dairy ranch in Rio Linda was organized a bit differently than prior ones. It consists of three parts: 1) the story; 2) an album of all photos; 3) list and images of all source records. The story is the part people will want to read and it includes the more interesting photos and sources. The album part is a complete set of images (all labeled of course) including all the marginal and apparently redundant ones. The third part contains images of all the sources, all important but may be of little interest to the average reader. So that book is a complete encapsulation of all my research for its subject area.

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  2. One has to consider handling sources in two contexts -- your genealogy database and your publications. For a variety of reasons, I don't expect my computer files to survive long after I am gone. It will be my publications that make this genealogy hobby something more than just my personal entertainment.

    The last book I did about my grandparents' dairy ranch in Rio Linda was organized a bit differently than prior ones. It consists of three parts: 1) the story; 2) an album of all photos; 3) list and images of all source records. The story is the part people will want to read and it includes the more interesting photos and sources. The album part is a complete set of images (all labeled of course) including all the marginal and apparently redundant ones. The third part contains images of all the sources, all important but may be of little interest to the average reader. So that book is a complete encapsulation of all my research for its subject area.

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  3. I hate to admit this but I have not documented the vast majority of my work. Hopefully, being active in Root Cellar will cause me to mend my ways.

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