MGP Chapter Four Homework

MGP Chapter Four                                                     Homework:  Molly McKinley

GPS Element 2: Source Citations

Thomas W. Jones, Mastering Genealogical Proof (Arlington, Virginia: National Genealogical Society, 2013). [Book available from the publisher at http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/cs/mastering_genealogical_proof , also available
in Kindle format through Amazon.com]

Jones, Thomas W. (2013-12-04). Mastering Genealogical Proof (Kindle Locations 598-599). National Genealogical Society, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

The five questions we must answer  to make good citations:

1. Who?  Answers who are the person or organization who created the source.  If that information is unknown, we simply leave that part out.

 Ex:  newspaper obit does not usually have the person who scripted it.

2.  What?  The next element is the title of the source.  If it is a published item, we then would italicize the title.  (ex: journals, books, websites or newspapers)  If the title of part of a published work is cited, that part precedes the actual title. (ex:  “Walking Alone in Widowhood” Living a Good Life After He is Gone.)   If it is an unpublished work there is no need for quotes unless if the title is used to ensure its identification.    If there is no title in an unpublished work, we would simply describe the item. (ex: photo of Uncle John at Smith Lake). 

[When I don’t know the title or if there is not a title, I try to describe what I have before me. If it is the buttons from my grandfather’s WWI uniform, for example, I would start it like this: Military buttons from the WWI uniform of John Freeman Hames.  The person takes over my research would then know what they were looking at (the photo of the item).  I might actually take the same citation note and make a copy to place in the box containing those very buttons.  That would make the matching of item to source easier.]

3.  When?  For books, microfilms, CD or the like, we cite the year published.  We would need the month or season for journals and magazines (ex: Spring, 2003).  Newspapers need the exact date of issue and downloaded items would need the downloaded date.  We also need to put the date we accessed those online sources.  The URL might be long gone when we try to backtrack that source again.  By documenting the date when we found the source, we can do better research.  Those things like photocopied pages from a book we got 20 years ago and did not think to write when on it, we would make an approximation of when we copied it. [After doing this study, I might not use one of my old copies like that as it could not really be used to prove anything without having to find the original again.]

4. Where in the source?  We would need the volume, page, chapter, folio or other identifying information to show where exactly is the item you cited.  It may be even an identifying statement as to the source section (ex: marriage index, S-T section). 

[I am not sure how you would use this part in a family photo, unless you were pointing out the arrangement of a group shot. Ex: Grandma Joan Smith is the front row, 2nd person from the left.]

5.  Where is the source?  This question answers the question as to where the person needing to find it needs to look.  If I own the book, I would state that the book is in the possession of Molly Mckinley, with my address or at least my city listed. [I do not have my personal address in my public citations of items I personally am caretaker of.]   If we have a photocopy of the item, it is in our possession, even though the original book may be in a local library. [I have always cited the library where I got the copied page from in case others want to do further research in that same book.]  This part of our citation needs to have enough detail for the one seeing our family history can also find the source.  We may need to include the agency, office, city and state, file section, online URL, part of the website we found it in, or location in a repository.  When using online sources, we can actually put the URL link as clickable to aid in retracing our steps.  That way we can quickly check to see if the source is still available.  Truly any and all details needed to retrace our steps.

I liked the fact that Dr. Jones gave us some places to find guides for creating better citations.  There are so many things genealogists collect that are out of the norm.  We have old quilts, Great-Grannies wedding dress, buttons from uniforms, photos, journals, old letters, postcards, and even old tools that were handmade by our ancestors.  We need to know how to craft a citation that both explains and details those items.

The use of reference notes and source lists was a little confusing.  Thankfully, I listened to the two previous recordings of the class and that helped clarify them.  I realized I needed to use a source list, especially to keep track of all those sources I have used, and those I looked at but did not find any record of family in them.  I do have a Research Log, thanks to Cousin Russ, that I try to use faithfully, but this would be a simple list of all the places I have looked for ancestors.  It would seemingly be a lot easier to look through at a glance, than the detailed research log that includes my findings.

Chapter Two Homework

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? What is your Question ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

Chapter Two: Concepts Fundamental to the GPS Homework: Molly McKinley

Thomas W. Jones, Mastering Genealogical Proof (Arlington, Virginia: National Genealogical Society, 2013). [Book available from the publisher at http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/cs/mastering_genealogical_proof , also available
in Kindle format through Amazon.com]


Since our moderator, "Dear Myrtle" asked us not to literally answer the questions from each chapter. it seemed better to look at what this chapter was addressing and answer that question in my own mind.

The whole basis of fulfilling the five parts of the GPS pivots around questions. All those questions running around our minds concerning a new ancestor we found. In this chapter, Thomas W. Jones, shows us how to narrow down the search to answer one or two questions at a time.

The need to "know all" pushes us to want to grab anything we can about a certain person we are researching without careful study of each piece of information. Another issue is the "copy-and-paste" habits we pick up in this on-line world we live in. Every piece of information we find will not be for our ancestor and to grab and add it to our database really causes us lots of issues in the future.

I liked the way he has us look at the main two issues when asking questions about our ancestor. We are usually stuck in one or the other mode...too narrow or too wide in our questions. "Who was Sally Smith?" or "What is the exact date John Smith was born?". Either one is not a good enough question to ask.

He showed us how to add supporting questions to our original one. The where and when questions help us form a better picture of what we are really wanting to know. The who were and whose questions help us determine family relationships.


Sources
The subject of sources is very deep and wide. And the quality and accuracy of the sources available are always questionable. They may be published or unpublished written items, photos, diaries, grave stones, scrapbooks, indexed records, microfilms, oral histories recorded, and even needlework like samplers where the person dated and named the creator.

Records are created to document or save all sorts of events. My favorites are military files, family Bibles, birth, marriage and death certificates and also probate files. There are so many records that are rich in family history, that fill out the whole of the ancestor we are researching. It makes their story come alive for us.

A source is the whole item, not just a piece of information gleaned from the source. They are containers for the content we seek. Those books, census records, birth and death certificates, deed and wills are in the sources.

Sources are generally categorized into three areas: authored works (like family histories), original records (those not based on prior records) and derivative records (those which have been transcribed, abstracted or translated).

Informants
Informants are the way in which the source is created. It is the "who created" in the source. There are three classifications of informants. primary (the eye witness), secondary (information gotten from someone else) and indeterminable (either a group of informants or unknown informants) I have a letter that was written to my grandmother...unfortunately the last page with the writer's goodbyes is missing....that person is my unknown informant.

The bottom line is that the source or container may have information, the content, that has all three types of informants involved. A death certificate comes to mind. The doctor who signs the death certificate is primary. He uses his knowledge to determine the reason for death and states the date and time to be recorded on the certificate. On that same certificate there may be the parents' names and birth places, also the deceased birth date. Those pieces of information may or may not be accurate due to the informant's, usually the spouse or child of the deceased knowledge. So in the same source you may have accurate and inaccurate information.


Question 5: Three relationship questions for my own research.

1. How did the marriage of E.R. Murry and Rufus Saphroney Black end?

2. Where did Joseph Elijah Williams really die?

3. Where is William Skidmore buried?