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From: "D. Spencer Hines" <>
Subject: Re: Grading sources
Date: Tue, 26 Aug 1997 15:12:42 -1000


Stewart Baldwin wrote a piece, dated 5 August 1997, on Grading Sources
that received an abysmal response ---- and that is a bloody shame. It
deserves better.

I have reformatted one long, key paragraph, which should get more
attention:

Again, this is Stewart Baldwin's writing:

"Many books can be used in two ways, as a finding aid (i.e., as a source
for clues toward future research), and as a cited source (i.e., a
relationship is claimed with the source given as a reference). The
example mentioned above uses a book as a finding aid.

All but the most pitiful genealogies have at least some value in this
regard, but the usefulness as a finding aid is COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT
(apologies for shouting) when grading a book on the correctness of the
relationships given.

In the best of all possible worlds you go to the original documents for
every fact claimed, but this is not always possible or practical. The
grades help people who are unfamiliar with the source to decide how
likely the given source is to be mistaken on the relationships claimed.

(To give an example which has not been discussed before, the Ancestral
File database gets an "F" as a source for genealogical relationships,
because of its completely ridiculous unreliability. However, it is
still a very useful finding aid.

Note that, in this case, the "blame" for the "F" grade does not fall on
the people who made the database, because they are not responsible for
the fact that an item which should never be used as anything but a
finding aid is being used by many as if it were a citable source. On
the other hand, the "blame" for the unreliability of Burke rests
squarely on the shoulders of the authors, as has been discussed here
before.)"

-------- Stewart Baldwin -----------------

So --- the COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT point Stewart makes is well taken. It
deserves shouting.

These GRADES we are assigning are for the publication's scholarship and
correctness as to genealogical relationships. The grades have nothing
to do with a publication's value as a finding aid ---- that is
completely separable and distinct.

In my opinion, we should not try to grade publications as finding aids.
That could turn out to be most confusing and meretricious.
--

D. Spencer Hines---"It may be said that, thanks to the 'clercs',
humanity did evil for two thousand years, but honored good. This
contradiction was an honor to the human species,and formed the rift
whereby civilization slipped into the world." "La Trahison des clercs"
[The Treason of the Intellectuals] (1927) Julien Benda (1867-1956)

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