In response to my blog post, How Important are Formal Citations?, reader Karen Cavanaugh sent me an excellent email about why she’s taken the trouble to format her sources in the format prescribed by Evidence Explained and how she makes it easier on herself. I liked it so much, I asked whether I could turn it into a guest post. She graciously said yes, so I present to you Organize Your Family History’s first guest post. Take it away, Karen!
I had been aware of the Evidence Explained book and used the website in the past but resisted implementing the standard in documenting my sources as it seemed so demanding and required more detail than I was accustomed to doing. I found it too tedious to master and just the weight and scope of the book made it harder to commit.
But one day as I was organizing some files I found an old family history created by a distant cousin using the old Family Tree Maker. It included some new information on my family and boy, was I excited. Until I looked at sources. Dismay! The sources were so skimpy as to be useless – I had a hard time deciphering them. I made calls to libraries and repositories in the respective area but no one could identify the one citation I needed. As a last resort I went down to the Allen County Public Library and found a very helpful person who was able to guess at the reference it was alluding to, took me to the shelf and there is was! Lesson learned.
I have always documented my sources (I have about 950 in Reunion) but this experience made me wonder if I was doing the best I could in my own work and convinced me to look at EE again. Like you, I tried the templates in Reunion but found them restrictive and especially difficult to modify the punctuation so they printed in a readable and standard manner.
Even after studying many of the sections of the book and trying to understand the logic behind it all, I still struggled to find an efficient way to implement it. Then one day I tried creating a 4” x 6” cards (see photo) for each major kind of source and rather than having to pick up the heavy book and look it up each time, I could use the cards as guides. And so I did and it worked. After adopting this aid and entering all my new sources using these cheat cards I was able to remember many of the formats without consulting the cards and now can write many of the sources from memory.
I put the cards in one of those cheap 4″ x 6” photo books that cost about a dollar and can flip through them quickly. I love not having to return to looking them up in EE.
On the sample card the top portion guides a citation for a SS-5 (application for SS number) and is substantially different than the second citation for an on-line entry found in the SS Death Index. Why is that important? Because the application will contain the applicant’s birth date and place, the names of mother and father, and date of application. The SS Death Index just provides the name, SS number, date of death and state where SS was issued. If I were reviewing the sources in a book or report, the citation for the application would jump out at me. I’d definitely want to consult that record!
In Reunion I now use the free form format to create a source. I also do a lot of copy and pasting the citations from on-line sites into Reunion, particularly FamilySearch as they seem to have adopted much of the EE standard. Often I use your idea of copy and paste in the preview section in the source window. Over couple of days I was able to edit all 950 sources in my family file and am very pleased with the results.
The most important benefit to me is that my sources now are standard and consistent when I use the Book feature or report features in Reunion. I am confident any researcher coming behind me will be able to locate the source without difficulty.
Another benefit is the EE citation will include the access date and this has been helpful on several sites such as Find A Grave because contributors often come back to add more information and that helps prompt me to remember to return to the site periodically for a particular ancestor. And last, I noticed the EE citation often includes the birth and death dates of the person to help tell same-name ancestors apart. For example, I have many John Boyers in my tree and now when I review sources it is clear to which person it refers (John Boyer 1785-1826).
I don’t hesitate to modify the EE format when I need to. Often I will add a brief comment such as “this book contains four sections the pages of which are renumbered at the start of each section.”
A brief note about me: I am a “Roots generation” genealogist and the daughter of a career officer who served in WW II and a mother born in Texas. I am retired from Parkview Health System in Fort Wayne, Indiana. My current project is digitizing my father’s 300 letters he wrote home during the war. I give presentations on my journey to discover his service record to genealogy groups, Air Force associations, and anyone else who cares to listen! I have a son in Denver and twin sister in Indianapolis.
I think this is great food for thought and makes the idea of using the Evidenced Explained format less daunting and more compelling. I think I would probably use Evernote, rather than index cards, but the idea of using a “cheat sheet” to make it easier remains the same. Thank you, Karen!
Very similar to the citations I use! Although I keep my citation templates on it’s own research journal, so I can cut and paste it on to the formal documents I need to prepare while working.
Maria, I love it when you validate things that are written here! I know you follow best practices as a professional genealogist. Thanks for commenting!
I, too, use the free-form citation box in RootsMagic to make my citations. I feel I can approach EE citations much better and they transfer completely in a gedcom. I also use 3×5 cards for citation cheetsheets. My favorite one lists the federal census publication number for each year. I have many old citations where I left off the publication number and roll number and I am working on filling that in!
Lisa, thanks for commenting. It’s nice to hear that this system works for you!
Interesting discussion. I’ll probably still avoid the EE method as it is overly complex and intimidating. As you said in your original post; “If I’m hung on doing it right, I may put off citing the source, which does not do me any good.”
That said, if someone took the time to make me a set of index card printables based on EE, I’d probably use them. Though instead of using the ‘free form’ source in Reunion, I’d probably take the time to set up some source templates in Reunion.
Kim, I stand by the assertion that doing any sourcing, whether the citations are perfect, is definitely better than no sourcing. And if it’s too hard to use EE method, use what works for you.
I have to admit that I find the source templates in Reunion preferable to free form–I think I like filling out forms. But I like the idea of modifying the templates so that they provide a citation as robust as EE.
Thanks for commenting!
Thank you for this. I am a relatively new at genealogy and am struggling with how to do this. I like the idea of the index cards to give me a format to go by. The classes I’ve taken all say, document, document, document, but they haven’t been very good with telling me how to do that.
Eva, I’m glad you found the post helpful. The criterion I use for citations is that I want to be able to find it again–and now I’m adding I want someone else to be able to find it too.
Janine,
I want to let you know that your wonderful blog post is listed in today’s Genealogy Fab Finds post at http://janasgenealogyandfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/2017/06/janas-genealogy-fab-finds-for-june-9.html
Have a great weekend!
Wonderful! Thank you, Jana!!
I think for American records especially, EE is very useful, but I find it too much for me, personally. And I’m a historian and librarian who is used to citing sources. I’m working on figuring out my own simplified system of citation that will still be complete enough for those who follow me. The index cards are an interesting idea 🙂
It makes me feel better than a historian and librarian finds EE to be too much! Feel free to share your simplified system of citation here once you figure it out! 🙂 Thanks for commenting.
I love your blog! And I remember borrowing EE via interlibrary loan and being overwhelmed…especially as the majority of my records are from the UK and Eastern Europe, so there weren’t nearly enough examples for me to really grasp her system. I felt like a failure 🙁 Then I found others who have felt the same way and work on a more simplified system. I’ll most certainly report back on what I come up with!
I find that many professional genealogists appreciate EE, however find it too “fussy”. Our goal is the research and with that a workable citation. Thank you fhtess65!
Maria – you’re welcome 🙂 I know the EE hardliners can be intimidating, but I don’t think most of them mean to be – they just love that system. I’ve overcome my feelings of failure and have moved on to accepting that it’s not for everyone and there’s no shame in finding a citation system that works for me 🙂 Maybe I should start a FB group for non-EE genealogists!
fhtess65, I’d join that group! And if you come up with a simplified system, please do share!
“…have moved on to accepting that it’s not for everyone and there’s no shame in finding a citation system that works for me.” Yes! That’s how I feel about organizing systems in general.
Like Kim, I’d join that FB group!
So how I deal with citations, is that I have one research log, called Citations. In the box where I would put my citation in, I keep a running tab of templates of citations. This allows me to cut and paste and drop in the information I need. Since I am charging clients by the hour, this allows me to devote more time on research, rather than building citations. Here is an example of one.
1940 U.S. Federal Census (Population Schedule), [City], [Township], [County] County, [State], ED [ED#], Sheet [Sheet#], Dwelling [Dwell#], [Head] household; digital image, “1940 United States Federal Census,” Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com), accessed [Month-Year].