This is the sort of thing which reminds you of the importance of citing sources. Over the years, I have tried to impress on beginning genealogists how important it is to note down the source of any fact that they discover; I wish I had done it when I had started to research my family tree yada yada yada. But I thought I was getting better (there goes that smug attitude again) - much better.
Until I started writing "Faith and Silk" for the Family History Writing Challenge. Suddenly, facts which I had absorbed over the years, but not documented because I knew about them anyway, are looming large and unfinished in my book. For instance: "The Great Sweat". Now, I know it was something horrendous like influenza which spread to epidemic proportions like the Black Death - but when exactly did it happen? And what exactly was it? Have I remembered right? Oh, that's easy, I'll just look it up in my software - er, no, perhaps I won't. Why? Because I forgot to write down not only what it was and when it was - but where I found the information in the first place.
Right then, I thought, I'll have to go back to the Internet and put "Great Sweat" into a search engine. I have now officially given up on ALL search engines. They return stupid results like "Great Sweat from leading men's fashion retailer...", "Great Sweat and Odor Laundry Round Up", "Painting - great sweat equity or pain in the neck?", and "if you are trying to lose weight quickly and get a great sweat, using a sweatshirt is a good idea". I despair.
Now - the Black Death was when? where?
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ReplyDeleteGood luck with A-Z. I look forward to your posts.
Hi! I'm visiting from the A to Z Challenge List to get a head start on finding some great new blogs. Nice to meet you! And all I can say is wow, wow, you really know your family history stuff! My ancestors came from Wales and Norway, my husband's from Scotland, but we haven't researched it as thoroughly as we would like. Your blog is really impressive.
ReplyDeleteKarenG