Mastering Genealogical Documentation
About time to tackle improved citations? This study group is for you!
We turn again to the writings of noted professional genealogist Thomas W. Jones in his book Mastering Genealogical Documentation, with the expressed goal of becoming better able to document on our own.
“Document (verb) The process of recording and showing the sources of concepts, evidence, images and words that an author or compiler has used.”1
When we say document, we are talking about crafting citations. We are not talking about a step-by-step narrative of our research process.
COPYRIGHT
The Mastering Genealogical Documentation workbook is covered by copyright. Book Club panelists are requested to observe the author’s copyright by presenting a personal case study to illustrate a point from the chapter for each session.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE
There are four types of book club participation. It is assumed all will obtain copies of Mastering Genealogical Documentation. It is available from the publisher (paperback format) as well as at Amazon (paperback and Kindle formats).
Panelists are pre-selected to join DearMYRTLE. They submit homework and share screens to illustrate their take on a single concept from the assigned book chapters in question. If you would like to participate, complete the application form.
Host DearMYRTLE collates and edits panelists’ homework using Google Docs. The homework link will be provided during each session.
Attendees view the panel discussion on YouTube and may comment during the LIVE stream at https://www.YouTube.com/@dearmyrtlearchive/live. The video recording and transcript of each meeting will ‘automagically’ appear in the same place thanks to YouTube technology.
Viewers may watch & comment on the recorded Book Club video discussions are archived https://tinyurl.com/MyrtsBookClub.
SCHEDULE
28 Apr 2025
Chapter 1 - Purpose & Nature of Genealogical Documentation
Chapter 2 - Noncitation Aspects of Genealogical Documentation12 May 2025
Chapter 3 - Citation Settings, Forms & Shortcuts
Chapter 4 - Assembling Components into Clear Citations
Chapter 5 - Capitalizations, Italics, Punctuation, and Other Citation Subtitles26 May 2025
Chapter 6 - Determining a Source's Publication Status
Chapter 7 - Issues in Citing Source Titles, Descriptions, or Both
Chapter 8 - Authors, Creators, and Informants
Chapter 9 - Citing Absent, Hidden, Obvious, and Perplexing Dates for Sources, Information, and Events9 Jun 2025
Chapter 10 Citing Numbered Grouped, and Subgrouped Offiline Sources
Chapter 12 - Identifying Offline Publishers & Repositories
[What is Provenance?23 Jun 2025
Chapter 11 - Answering Wherin and Wheris Citation Questions for Online Sources
Chapter 13 - Citing Original Online Content [blog?]
Chapter 15 - Citing Images of Previously Published Materials7 Jul 2025
Chapter 14 - Citing Online Images of Previously Unpublished Material
Chapter 16 - Multi-Part Options for Citing Images
Chapter 17 - Documenting on Your Own [pick a step to discuss]
So let’s get cracking with improved documentation of the items that lead to our kinship determinations.
Happy family tree climbing!
Myrt :)
DearMYRTLE,
Your (not so) retired friend in genealogy.
Thomas W. Jones, Mastering Genealogical Documentation, (Arlington, VA: National Genealogical Society, 2017), 181, citing Board for Certification of Genealogists, Genealogy Standards (Nashville, Tenn.: Ancestry.com, 2014), 67 (glossary definition of “document”).