Dear Cousins, I sincerely hope I haven't been making American Crossroads into too formal a forum. I want to thank Barb and W Woodson for each of their comments on documentation, which I found very helpful, and gave me more insight into how to convey the process. We ALL have been Newbies. There is no reason to feel badly if you are. The way we get beyond Newbieism !!! is to ask questions. Newbie questions do not offend anyone, nor should you feel they will EVER make you look stupid on American Crossroads. Often there is no right or wrong answer -- just opinion on how to proceed. I hope I haven't harped so much on "correct procedure," that anyone feels intimidated. With that said, here are a couple more thoughts. My ideas on methodology are largely concerned with evolving new methods to proceed now that we are in a highly technological time. They are MY ideas! They have been developed in a dark cave of ignorance, from which we ALL are trying to crawl upward toward sunlight. Doesn't mean I know it all! I appreciate insight and commentary on my ideas. It helps develop what is needed. Often Newbies are the ones who can best point out flaws and errors in logic because they are the ones who are looking at things with brand-new views. I believe that looking at genealogy through a historical perspective (and vice versa) is one of the few means of getting past the "missing and misplaced links" that stymie our progress. In the "olden days" of my first research, accessing documents and the work of others was a long time consuming process. We are fortunate that in this technological time that more sources are becoming available online. In the genealogical sphere these have initially focused on cloned gedcoms that are OFTEN incorrect and undocumented. The means of offsetting this effect is to turn to primary sources which are becoming handily available online. There are lots of primary documents being digitized and put online. College websites are a great source for these, and so are government online Archives, the Genweb sites, many Rootsweb sites where you can find actual original documents online. While there are broad resources for census records, and sometimes even county records (rentable at LDS Family History Libraries) treasures such as family Bibles can be found in Archives such as the Library of Virginia. This is a unique opportunity to find original documents which could not usually be accomplished except by a trip to Richmond. http://www.lva.lib.va.us/dlp/ There are lots more, but you may find Documenting the American South especially interesting. http://ftp.oit.unc.edu/docsouth/ Paul Hallsall's Modern History Sourcebook (And links to sources in other periods) http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook.html HOW TO READ A PRIMARY SOURCE http://www.bowdoin.edu/~prael/writing_guides/primary.htm Why Study History Through Primary Sources http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/robinson-sources.html History in the Raw [The Natiional Archives] http://www.nara.gov/education/teaching/teaching.html National Standards for History http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/nchs/standards/ Thank you all for your congratulations and comments on the scholarship! I am so very proud to have been selected! Remember, we can't learn anything instantly. Our lives, our histories and genealogies are all works in progress that keep evolving and changing, and (we hope!) improving. We can all help one another in the process. Happy Easter and Spring! Love, Your Cousin, Carolyn Carolyn McDaniel cmacdee@teleport.com ========================================= To send a message to the American Crossroads List: AMXROADS-L@rootsweb.com --- Visit American Crossroads --- http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~amxroads