I've spent much of today reading "Evidence!" by Elizabeth Shown Mills. Overall it's excellent, as it clearly sets down the principles of citation and relates this to the analysis process. It is concise, clear and comprehensive, and includes numerous examples, as well as defining detailed standards to be followed for full, short and bibliographic entries.
Three main limitations though:
1. It does not address recording oral history, other than via one example of citing an interview.
2. All the examples (which comprise about one third of the book) are drawn from the USA. Although the principles are similar, the structure of Government records (in particular) is different in Australia. For those of us in the rest of the world, this means we need to go back to first principles, rather than just copy her otherwise excellent examples. Until I apply it more, I'm not sure of how great a limitation this is.
3. The coverage of Internet-based sources is rudimentary (the book was published in 1997).
Nevertheless, if you're struggling with setting your own standards of citation, I'd recommend it (as others have done). It was available from my local library.
Rob
----- Original Message ----- From: "Paula Ryburn" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, January 07, 2005 9:27 AM
Subject: Re: [LegacyUG] Citing questions - Verified Verbal Sources
Rob, Let me know if you find "Evidence!" very useful. Thx, --Paula
----- Original Message ----- From: "Rob Weiss" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, January 06, 2005 6:46 AM
Subject: Re: [LegacyUG] Citing questions - Verified Verbal Sources
Steve,
My recent experience "interviewing" my wife has changed my views on verbal
sources. Whilst some things obviously fall into the category of family
lore, and are taken with a grain of salt, others, such as dates of certain
events, and particularly the occurrence of certain events, can be more
reliable than written sources. However, for this to be the case, it is
important that the reason someone believes something is obtained and
documented. For example, I was amazed that my wife could recite without
hesitation the birthdates of a number of her cousins (she has many). Upon
cross examination there turned out to be good reasons for this, by
association with events in my wife's life that are provable by other means.
For example, "I heard that Aunt X had just had baby Y when I was on a trip
to stay with my aunt in Madagascar" - and she only went to Madagascar once,
when she was 12. Still some room for error, but a lot less than if just a
direct memory of a year.
So, with just the assertion "born in year x" -> Surety 1; with the supporting reasons -> Surety 2 or 3. (On my scale, a birth certificate, whilst still liable to some error, rates 4).
The challenge is to cite the evidence so that others give similar credence to it as I do! (I'm about to read Mills' book Evidence! to learn some more).
Cheers, Rob
----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve Silverman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, January 06, 2005 11:25 PM
Subject: Re: [LegacyUG] Citing questions - Verified Verbal Sources
Hi Rob,
In this case, the source is personal knowledge of J Smith. So, if I found
this source marked verified in your database, it would indicate to me that
J Smith told you that he saw the birth certificate and that you believe
that
you correctly entered the data that you heard from J Smith.
Of course I would feel a lot better if I could get J Smith to send me a copy of the certificate.
In the case of verbal sources, marked verified or not, I tend to take them
with a grain of salt.
Verbal sources and family lore are an important part of our research, but fall short in our quest to "prove" our facts.
Of course if you followed other recent threads on this list, even official
documents can contain errors.
Steve
--- On Thu 01/06, Rob Weiss < [EMAIL PROTECTED] > wrote:
From: Rob Weiss [mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [email protected] Date: Thu, 6 Jan 2005 19:33:37 +1100 Subject: Re: [LegacyUG] Citing questions - Verified Verbal Sources
Thanks, Steve.
I like that approach. How would you apply it to a source such as "Birth Certificate XYZ cited by J Smith". Would you mark this source as verified only if you had checked that the contents of the birth certificate had been entered correctly, or just that J Smith's interpretation has been entered correctly? I would favour the former, as this meets your requirements to guide a future researcher.
Cheers, Rob
----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve Silverman"
To:
Sent: Thursday, January 06, 2005 12:49 AM
Subject: Re: [LegacyUG] Citing questions - Verified Verbal Sources
Rob,
I use this flag when I have seen the source and can confirm that the data entered in Legacy accurately reflects what the source claims.
Using this definition, a verified source does not imply that the source is true, only that it has been summarized correctly in the database.
I use this flag so that a future researcher would not have to go back and check the source again. For a verbal source, this of course has no use, because there is no way to go back and verify what was heard.
However, since you transcribed what you heard (and had it validated by the speaker), and use that as the source, you can "verify" that you summarized the transcript correctly.
Steve
--- On Tue 01/04, Rob Weiss < [EMAIL PROTECTED] > wrote:
From: Rob Weiss [mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [email protected] Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2005 11:36:51 +1100 Subject: Re: [LegacyUG] Citing questions - Verified Verbal Sources
I'm interested in hearing how others use the "This Source has been Verified" flag (accessible on the Source Detail screen), particularly for verbal sources. I'm trying to establish a consistent way of using this flag for possible future guidance in my research.
[snip]
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