My philosophy is that the only way to answer that question is to know who your "target audience" is. (This is true for any type of writing.) I am writing to my daughter - thirty years from now. I ask myself would she enjoy reading this paragraph? By all means I would construct a paragraph such as the one you propose. Of course as a researcher I need to transcribe the data as accurately as possible. I put it into the source. (If very large, then attach it as a multimedia file.) My target audience for my sources is you guys. I ask myself would one of you guys be able to follow my research and be able to duplicate my results. If the answer is yes, then I have properly sourced the data. Naturally, if my daughter ends up being one of you guys down the road then everything will be perfect in the world. Others, including you, may have a different target audience in mind and will do things differently.
-Jack -----Original Message----- From: James Cook <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Thu, Jan 13, 2011 8:29 pm Subject: Re: [LegacyUG] What are the pros and cons of splitting or lumping facts? Yes, I was talking about events, but not across sources. Keeping with the census example, and example, let's say it was for a married couple. I currently do not create separate events for each spouse, but instead add one event to the marriage. (I suppose this could be a form of lumping vs splitting, though not what I had in mind in the OP). What I was thinking of as lumping was to lump into the notes of the event other facts taken off that one census form. Maybe a paragraph similar too: "They lived on a farm, which they rented. Neither could read or write. He was a 'teamster' with his own team (as was his neighbor, Gus Johnson). He was a veteran. She was the mother of 10, 8 were still living." The event itself has a date and location, so I wouldn't include that in the notes. Instead of a paragraph like this, I could opt (as I have in some instances) to split out several different facts like Occupation and Military maybe. 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 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
