Dean: In an ideal world the family history book would cite (or hint at) original sources that you could verify for yourself and cite. Since this is unfortunately not the usual case, I use the book as a Master Source and break out abstracts or extracts as separate source details. You might include the names, dates, and locations for a married couple and a list of their children as one source detail, and then the same type of information for one or more of their children and grandchildren as separate details. Typically each of these individual citations would include content from only 1-2 pages of the book and would be condensed down into manageable chunks.
With each citation I would include any hints as to the origin of the data, such as “From a private letter to (the author of the book),” or “Family tradition says . . .” You should be very wary of copying large sections of text verbatim from books under copyright, and I dislike obvious parroting of statements unless it is clearly shown as a quote. I’m very tired of reading in modern trees, for example, that Michael Pierce (1615-1676) *was a captain of great bravery,* as if this was the compiler’s original thought, when the phrase actually comes from much earlier work that is rarely credited. Legacy’s Master Source/Source Clipboard arrangement makes all of this fairly quick and easy. Kirsten -----Original Message----- From: Dean Adams Sent: Friday, September 16, 2011 12:16 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [LegacyUG] Sources - Geoff's Method Geoff includes all the info from a source in the source detail, whether the source is a census, obituary, etc. How is a source such as a book of family history handled? It contains pages and pages on many individuals and families. This appears to be too much to include in a single source. Dean Adams ----- No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 10.0.1410 / Virus Database: 1520/3900 - Release Date: 09/16/11 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 Follow Legacy on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/LegacyFamilyTree) and on our blog (http://news.LegacyFamilyTree.com). To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
