52 Weeks to Better Genealogy – Challenge 43 – Source Citations

This week,  Amy Coffin says: "Week 43: Brush up on your knowledge of citations. The most detailed element of genealogy is also the most important. Take some time to review articles, books and web sites on the subject. If you have a copy of Elizabeth Shown Mills’ Evidence Explained, you can read it as part of this challenge. If you do not, consider getting the book, then review some of these pages and the links they contain: Genealogy Source Citations Quick Reference by Thomas MacEntee at Genealbloggers.com (this is a PDF file), Citing Sources at Cyndi’s List and Documenting Your Research / Citing Your Sources at About.com. Bloggers, do you have a favorite book, web site or tool for helping you craft quality citations?"

I haven't taken part in this challenge in a while, but am glad I got back into it for this week in particular.  I am going over my copy of Evidence Explained by Elizabeth Shown Mills.  I have one professor in school who has us use Chicago style for our papers, which is what genealogical source citation is based on, from what I have seen.  Therefore, I am also going through that manual to pick up any hints I can.

Currently, I use Legacy Family Tree to hold my research, which has SourceWriter, an easy way to input your sources and know that they are created correctly.  SourceWriter crafts citations based Evidence Explained.  The user enters information into a form, which makes it very simple for even the beginning genealogist to source their information.  There is the option to create your own or edit the citations created for you, if necessary.