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Archiver > TMG > 2000-04 > 0954858223


From:
Subject: TMG-L: Re: Sources - E-mail and Web Site And Others
Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2000 09:23:43 -0500


I wrote:

>>For example, obtaining a birth date from Aunt Elisabeth, who was 84
years
>>at the time, for her cousin who was 76 years and died five years
before,
>>should leave a bit of doubt as to how correct the information might be.

>>On the other hand, if the source was a birth certificate from the local
>>court house, one can pretty well "assume" the date is correct or at
least
>>as correct we might be able to get; collaborating independent sources
are
>>better. For other than primary sources, it is important to identify
when
>>the information was obtained in relationship to when the event actually
>>happened (that Aunt Elizabeth was 84 years when she passed on a 81 year
>>old date)

>>Now if Uncle Joe received this same information from Aunt Elizabeth, be
>>this on the telephone, in a letter, or though email, but in his
communication
>>to us he did not cite Aunt Elisabeth as his source, we must cite Uncle
Joe
>>for he was our source.

>>If Uncle Joe identified Aunt Elizabeth as his source, I then cite Aunt
>>Elizabeth "for she is the source" and as a courtesy I also identify
that
>>I receive the information through Uncle Joe.

>Lee Hoffman/KY responded:
>>If Uncle Joe identified Aunt Elizabeth as his source, I then cite Aunt
>>Elizabeth "for she is the source" and as a courtesy I also identify
that
>>I receive the information through Uncle Joe.

>No, I disagree here. You should cite where _you_ got the data. In this
>case, you didn't get the it from Aunt Elizabeth! You got it from Uncle
>Joe. Aunt Elizabeth may have been right, but did Uncle Joe remember it
>correctly? A better way would be to cite Uncle Joe and indicate that he
>obtained it from Aunt Elizabeth. This give one your exact source and
>further tells the source's source. The combination is more or less the
>same as what you indicate above, but the emphasis is on _your_ source
and
>eliminates any confusion.

I disagree. The information here is the birth date of Aunt Elizabeth's
cousin and the source of that information is Aunt Elizabeth and coming to
me through Uncle Joe.
Now identifying Aunt Elizabeth as the source "of the information" and
that I received it via Uncle Joe to me better identifies to a third party
where the information actually came from. When someone reads the
published work 50 years after all parties have expired, I believe what is
important to them is that Aunt Elizabeth came up with the date, not that
Uncle Joe provided it to me. While I am researching, Uncle Joe may be
the more important element "to me", but once published and many years
later, that Aunt Elizabeth identified the date is more important "to the
reader".

A better example might be, third Cousin Caryl provided birth information
of her grandaunt. She obtained the information from a birth certificated
filed in Moody County Court House in Flandreau, South Dakota in volume
123, page 48, record number 26. I do not identify my Cousin Caryl as the
source of the information but the birth certificate in volume 123, page
28, record number 26 in Moody County Court house in Flandreau, South
Dakota, USA as viewed by cousin Caryl in 1983 and sent to me in a letter
dated 2 February 1987. Now if someone wished to actually check this
information, they are not going to contact Cousin Caryl but will go to
Moody County Court House.

This may be one of semantics, but from a many years later documentation
standpoint, I go with identifying the source of the information, and how
I may have received it (if appropriate), not identifying from whom I
received it and secondarily where they obtained it. I believe I am
documenting my information, not documenting my work.

Donald
Living in Dallas, Texas; Born in Germantown, Washington County, Wisconsin
Ancestors from: Rheinbach, Rhineland; Vollmau, Bohemia; Kemnath, Bavaria
Researching: Henseler, Kachelmeier, Kachelmeyer, Kuchenreuther,
Odenbrett, Ott, Schulteis, Siegl, Wolf
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