Norman: No, we're not all professionals or authors, and sourcing doesn't have to be overly complicated. Fortunately Legacy gives us the option to create pretty simple sources in the old basic format. Those are perfectly adequate for many users and they're quick and easy to do. The new templates for citing data from published books, online census images and databases, etc., are also very easy to use. At the same time there's a new format developing (based on Mills' work) that tries to address some of the more obscure items and artifacts that we sometimes want to cite as sources (such as great-granny's old wedding quilt) and those tend to get more complicated, especially if the quilt is owned by your cousin Jane. Even then, the basic format can be adequate.
What we're going through now with "complicated" sourcing reminds me of learning to do the bibliographies that were required with term papers in school. That was a headache until we got the hang of it. I suspect that genealogical source formats are still in the developmental stages and will settle down to a rather more simple standard and, at the same time, we'll learn to be more comfortable with the formats. But isn't it convenient to know, for example, that italics indicate published books and that data in parentheses describes the publication details? Some standard rules like those are very handy. Kirsten -----Original Message----- From: Norman Weston [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, January 18, 2010 10:38 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [LegacyUG] Simple Sourcing Is everyone here a professional genealogist or want to write a book or something? I suspect the vast majority of Legacy users are rather like me. They want to cite their sources adequately but not necessarilly with the complexity that seems to keep being touted here! What are the main reasons for sources? To know where the information came from so that it can be looked at again or quoted to someone else and to know the level of surety of the source. That's all I need. Birth certificate held in filing cabinet, 99% surety. Birthdate from Ancestry with reference to someone's tree -marginal evidence. Why does it have to be so flippin complicated!!!! Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
