http://www.ancestry.org/primary-secondary-genealogy-sources/ remember there is a difference in primary verses secondary sources -----Original Message----- From: Craig Alan Myers <[email protected]> To: brethren <[email protected]> Sent: Sat, Apr 9, 2011 12:47 pm Subject: Re: [BRE] The Brethren Encycopedia of 1983 Thanks to those who spoke up for the Brethren Encyclopedia. Several things about works like this: 1. This was produced in the early 1980s--before computing was cheap and ubiquitous. The details were checked by hand, and always errors creep in. 2. The BE was produced with time and financial constraints. If you want a near-perfect book, then it will never come out, and will almost immediately be out of date (plenty of practical experience here with local church directories). BE is an amazing work, for what it is. 3. BE pleaded for materials from local churches, Districts, and the like. The BE editors worked with what they had. They depended on local church and family historians. They assumed that most of the material was fairly accurate. I suspect that the smaller Brethren denominations looked askance at the project, perhaps thinking it would be another "liberal" work. Also, when published, the BE specifically requested updates, corrections, and additions that would be published in a fourth volume. That volume came out several years ago. 4. The District Histories are not infallible either. There are numerous errors of fact and spelling that could have been corrected in Winger's 1917 Indiana History, and there are mistakes in the magisterial Two Centuries of the Church of the Brethren in Western Pennsylvania. 5. Even with carefully-researched family genealogies, there are mistakes galore. For example, "Christian Fike and His Descendants" has many errors of dates and names. 6. Finally, source materials are often erroneous. Church membership books have much information, but that is supplied by the members themselves who have faulty memories, or who supply (sometimes intentionally) wrong information. The business of historiography is one that is carried out with human judgments and concerns. To that extent, it is filled with errors of fact and judgment, and even as to process, procedure, and the like. Discernment is always necessary in studying such materials. Craig Alan Myers ------------------------ Search the Archives at http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/BRETHREN ------------------------ Support Our Sponsoring Agency The Fellowship Of Brethren Genealogists (FOBG) For further information contact Ron McAdams mailto:[email protected] ------------------------ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message