The ability to customize almost anything is one of The Master Genealogist's (TMG) most powerful features - and one of its most frustrating. The amazing detail in Evidence Explained makes it a treasure for genealogists - but makes it difficult to synthesize principles. Put the two together and you get chaos - or a wonderful way to cite your sources consistently and professionally.

The Tri-Valley TMG User Group is associated with the Livermore-Amador Genealogical Society (L-AGS), and we meet in Pleasanton, California. Information on our meetings - location, date, time, and topic - is always available on the home page of the L-AGS web site. Our three-hour meetings are actually hands-on workshops in which up to fifteen computers are connected to a digital projector allowing customized personal assistance to attendees. In the past, the group has systematically studied Lee Hoffman's Getting the Most out of The Master Genealogist and Terry Reigel's A Primer for The Master Genealogist. In February 2010 we embarked on our most ambitious project to date, a study of Elizabeth Shown Mills' Evidence Explained.

If you would like to participate in the Tri-Valley TMG User Group's adventures as we attempt to create TMG source templates that approximate Evidence Explained's principles, please feel free to comment and share your ideas.

If you would like to download and use our source type templates in your personal database, we would appreciate it if you retain our acronym (TVTMG) in the template name. Societies, if you would like to use these templates in your group activities, please contact the TV-TMG chair at: tvtmg.chair@L-AGS.org.

Please note that these are our attempts and they have not been approved by Mills! In other words, please don't blame her incredible book for our mistakes. Unless otherwise stated, all references are to the 2007 edition of Evidence Explained.

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Citing Cemetery Marker Images (online)

Cemetery Marker (Online image) (This template is a synthesis of EE QuickCheck Model, p. 215, section 5.16, p. 229, and several online discussions in re: Find A Grave citations.)
  • Bibliography (Source List Entry):
<[COMPILER]. ><[ITAL:][REPOSITORY][:ITAL].  >Database and images. <[REPOSITORY ADDRESS]>< : [DATE]>.

Find a Grave Inc.. Find A Grave.  Database and images. http://www.findagrave.com/ : 2009.
  • Full footnote (First Reference Note):
<[COMPILER], ><[ITAL:][REPOSITORY][:ITAL], >database and images (<[REPOSITORY ADDRESS] ><: accessed [CD3]>), <[CD1], ><[CD2], ><[CEMETERY], ><[CITY], ><[COUNTY] County, ><[STATE]><, photograph © [CD4]><; [CM]>.

Find a Grave Inc., Find A Grave, database and images (http://www.findagrave.com/ : accessed 1 April 2010), Ellen Jane Wilson (1849-1926) gravestone photograph, section 3, lot 28, Crown Point Cemetery, Kokomo, Howard County, Indiana, photograph © John C. Anderson, 2010<; [CM]>.
  • Short footnote (Subsequent Note):
<[COMPILER], ><[ITAL:][REPOSITORY][:ITAL], ><[CD1], ><[SHORT LOCATION]><; [CM]>.

Find a Grave Inc., Find A Grave, Ellen Jane Wilson (1849-1926) gravestone photograph, Kokomo, Howard Co., Ind.<; [CM]>.

Explanation of variations from Mills:

Since this template is a synthesis of several sources, "variations from Mills" is not an obvious concept.  There are some comments that should be made, however.
  1. The template in EE does not include the name of the cemetery.  The consensus of online discussions was that the name of the cemetery should be included.
  2. The EE template does not include any copyright information on the photographer.  Again, the consensus was that this information should be included.
  3. This template does not include information on the person submitting the Find A Grave memorial.  There was no consensus on whether or not this information should appear in this citation.  Since one could argue that we are citing the digital image, the name of the person submitting the memorial might be considered unnecessary.  As is, this template would work well for online sources other than Find A Grave.
  4. What information should be put in the [DATE] field in the bibliography is a little problematical, since there may be three possible years: the date the original database entry/memorial was posted; the date the photograph was posted; or the date the image was viewed.
  5. Note that [CD1] begins with the subject's name.  This avoids capitalization problems if the order of elements in this template is ever changed.  Mills begins with the type of document.
TMG notes:
  1. This template uses [REPOSITORY] and [REPOSITORY ADDRESS] for the name of the website and its URL.  This makes great sense for large websites like Find A Grave and Virtual Cemetery.  If the image comes from a single-page website, this isn't an obvious choice.  If you choose to change this to [WEBSITE] and [URL], you will need to create an alternate URL source element.  There is a conflict between [URL] and [COUNTY].
  2. As presented, this template includes the word "County" as a word constant.  You may want to delete that and enter County in the data field.
New source elements in this template:
  1. All custom elements have already been created.
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