For years, I found the differences between primary and secondary sources confusing. Add the fact that you can have original and derivative versions of both and that either can be negative or positive proof and it all sounds like mumble jumble to someone who isn’t used to them all. Luckily, the glossary within the\u00a0Board for Certification of Genealogists “Geneology Standards” manual makes all the important distinctions very clear.<\/p>\n
For example, on page 72, the glossary defines “primary information” as:<\/p>\n
A report of an event or circumstance by an eyewitness or participant; the opposite of secondary information.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
This is just one of many confusing nonfiction research terms that are clearly defined in very simple language. The chapters within this pithy guide cover how to plan and research a story. It also shows how to properly cite sources. Several pointers throughout the guide clarify some of the most challenging nonfiction research challenges.<\/p>\n
If you want to document, research and write stories about ancestors’ experiences, the guide is a must-have. In my opinion, it’s equally useful for any obsessive nonfiction researcher and writer who wants to communicate carefully and accurately.<\/p>\n
Board for Certification of Genealogists Genealogy Standards<\/em>. Edited by Thomas W. Jones. Washington: Turner Publishing Company, 2014. ISBN 978-1-630-26018-7<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For years, I found the differences between primary and secondary sources confusing. Add the fact that you can have original and derivative versions of both and that either can be negative or positive proof and it all sounds like mumble jumble to someone who isn’t used to them all. Luckily, the glossary within the\u00a0Board for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"0","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Genealogy Standards","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[843,100],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-genealogy-ensemble-history-worth-remembering","post-wrapper","thrv_wrapper"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2buQs-4si","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":16179,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/thomas-w-jones\/","url_meta":{"origin":17130,"position":0},"title":"Genealogy Tips from Thomas W. Jones","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"February 9, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been listening to tapes from the 2013 Federation of Genealogical Society conference. One of my favourite speakers is Thomas W. Jones, who specializes in Fairfax, Virginia research. Jones also wrote the book Mastering Genealogical Proof. In his presentation about Genealogical Documentation, Jones made three\u00a0comments I think are important: Documentation\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Family History Writing"","block_context":{"text":"Family History Writing","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/history-worth-remembering\/family-history-writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15511,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/listening-genealogy-experts\/","url_meta":{"origin":17130,"position":1},"title":"Listening to Genealogy experts in my Sauna","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"February 8, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"A few of them made long car rides to Ontario flow by quickly. Others made visits to the doctor seem shorter. I\u2019ve even heard a couple while sitting in the sauna. So far, twenty experts have taught me how to improve my genealogy research while sitting around. All thanks to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Family History Writing"","block_context":{"text":"Family History Writing","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/history-worth-remembering\/family-history-writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15534,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/funny-friday-genealogy-weekend\/","url_meta":{"origin":17130,"position":2},"title":"Funny Friday: Genealogy in a weekend","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"February 14, 2014","format":"video","excerpt":"http:\/\/youtu.be\/VGTtPciJTBs","rel":"","context":"In "Genealogy Ensemble"","block_context":{"text":"Genealogy Ensemble","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/history-worth-remembering\/genealogy-ensemble-history-worth-remembering\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/VGTtPciJTBs\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":16173,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/rootstech\/","url_meta":{"origin":17130,"position":3},"title":"RootsTech Happens Next Weekend","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"February 7, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"FamilySearch.org, the genealogy website hosted by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) are teaming up to host RootsTech, a two-day educational extravaganza next weekend, from Thursday February 11 until Sunday, February 14. I\u2019m so disappointed not to be going to Salt\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Family History Writing"","block_context":{"text":"Family History Writing","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/history-worth-remembering\/family-history-writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18499,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/quebec-genealogical-esociety\/","url_meta":{"origin":17130,"position":4},"title":"Qu\u00e9bec Genealogical eSociety: A New Type of Family Research Society","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"February 22, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I just joined the\u00a0Qu\u00e9bec Genealogical eSociety\u00a0for\u00a0$45 Cdn. Johanne Gervais, a professional genealogist who is passionate about researching Quebec records, founded this online research society last month. It operates in both English and French. In addition to participating in webinars, the membership will give me access to two important Quebec databases:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Genealogy Ensemble"","block_context":{"text":"Genealogy Ensemble","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/history-worth-remembering\/genealogy-ensemble-history-worth-remembering\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Logo","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/QuebecGenealogyesocietylogo.jpg?fit=825%2C366&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/QuebecGenealogyesocietylogo.jpg?fit=825%2C366&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/QuebecGenealogyesocietylogo.jpg?fit=825%2C366&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/QuebecGenealogyesocietylogo.jpg?fit=825%2C366&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":17167,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/evidence-explained\/","url_meta":{"origin":17130,"position":5},"title":"Evidence Explained","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"April 10, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Shown Mills, Elizabeth. Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace. Revised edition.\u00a0 Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2009.","rel":"","context":"In "Notable Nonfiction"","block_context":{"text":"Notable Nonfiction","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/writing\/notable-nonfiction\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/GenealogyStandards.jpg?fit=128%2C199&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17130"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18146,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17130\/revisions\/18146"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}