Cheryl Rothwell <[email protected]> wrote: > On citing your sources you might want to investigate Mills - Elizabeth Shown > Mills, Evidence - Citation and Analysis for the Family Historian. It's more > modern than Lackey. TMG helps you cite your sources properly too, annoying > as it can be as it forces you to do it. *Evidence* is definitely the book to get. Elizabeth Mills is, in my opinion and that of many others, the pace setter in genealogy today and her guide is without doubt the most authoritative in the field. She is currently working on an extensive update of her book. > I admit, I didn't cite starting out and paid dearly for it. With odd things > [and aren't most of them odd?] I find citing to be a pain in the rear but it > should be done. I echo what Cheryl said, having suffered a similar fate. The following is taken from an on-line course I once did for the Genealogy Methods Mailing List: While "sources" and "documentation" can both be "citations," most often they are quite different things. Every item in your database has a source and you will do yourself a great favor if you record that source when you enter that item, either electronically or in another medium. I can state from dreadful experience that you will come to regret it if you don't. [From: Understanding Sources, Citations, Documentation And Evaluating Evidence In Genealogy. On line at: http://www.pipeline.com/~richardpence/classdoc.htm > The issue of believing a source is quite different. I have a line the DAR > took as proven and I proved it was wrong - he served, just not as they said > he did. No one is perfect and more recent research can disprove long held > beliefs and good research. Cheryl, as you have already learned, demonstrating that some DAR-accepted lines are not accurate is sometimes pretty easy. In the past, quite a few applications were accepted without adequately being documented. That's why the DAR no will longer let anyone in on previous approved lines. You must do your own research and documentation. (For a case study, see "Which Jacob Pence?" an article I once wrote for the National Genealogical Society Quarterly, at: http://www.pipeline.com/~richardpence/shenback.htm#which As the title indicates, evaluating evidence is amount the topics in the above-mentioned course. Regards, Richard A. Pence 3211 Adams Ct. Fairfax, Virginia 22030 703-591-4243 Pence Family History <www.pipeline.com/~richardpence/>

I'm going up to Samford University, where Mills is, in a couple weeks for a conference. There is a larger one there in June, a week long I believe. She will also be on the genealogy cruise I am going on in the late fall. I expect to meet her at one or both. The previous proof of my ancestor used my ancestor's genealogy [more or less] and tacked it on to another guy's service. I guess there were several of the same name and the prior proof of my ancestor with his real service had been done by a totally different line -- the DAR thought they were different men. Cheryl Rothwell [email protected] Logan County ILGenWeb www.rootsweb.com/~illogan Central IL Regional Coordinator, ILGenWeb Clark, Downing, Harding, Lucas, et al -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.9.4 - Release Date: 4/6/2005