Sometimes family historians attach documents to individuals and give no idea of where the image was originally located. Sometimes it is easy to determine the source of the image. Sometimes it is not. When you are unable to indicate a source other than the tree, include the following along with the image: website (main URL and title); date of access; name of tree; name of submitter (or at least their username); person in file to whom image is attached; title submitter gives the image (even if obviously incorrect); comments submitters makes about the image (including clues as to where image was located); anything else you think might help you to find item again or evaluate it’s accuracy You will be glad you did later. Whether you want to […]
When searching newspapers–particularly when those searches are of digital images of newspapers–remember that it is possible for someone to be mentioned without ever mentioning their first name. The 1912 reference in a Canton, South Dakota, newspaper mentions Louis and Mary Rampley–twice each–but only refers to them as Mr. and Mrs. Rampley. It’s possible that the writer did not know their first names at all, but using a first name as a search term will not locate this reference if a search of newspaper images is done digitally. The last name of Mrs. Rampley’s father is spelled Neal instead of Neill. That’s another name that will not be in the search results if “Neill” is used as a search term.
A picture that really looked like my grandmother had “Mother at 18” written on it. The problem was that the only people who I thought wrote on my grandmother’s pictures were her and I. If the truth be told, I probably did more writing on them for identification than I did. The writing did not look like my Dad’s writing and I did not think it was my uncle’s either–although I don’t really have any of his writing with which to compare it. The hairstyle and clothing certainly looks more like when my grandmother was eighteen than when her mother was eighteen. The thirty-six year age difference between them makes for a change in styles. Then it dawned on me that it could possibly be someone else’s writing: […]
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