VAUGHAN, ETC N EW S L E T T ER
June 1987
EDITOR; Verna Baker Banes
Page 27
VOL. V, #2, JUNE, 1987 P. 0. Box 7435, Huntsville. TX 77340
WE HAVE MIGRATED. EMIGRATED, MOVED, ETC., FROM AUSTIN TO HUNTSVILLE, TX!
Hopefully, I have included everything in this issue as promised; but we have moved twice since the
last issue—from Austin to an apartment in Huntsville and now to our permanent home—so keeping
up with genealogy correspondence has been a little tricky!
One shock associated with the move was to discover that duplicating costs here run far above what I
had been paying in Austin. I'll continue to search for a cheaper way to set the newsletter printed in
order to keep the requested donation at the present level. Many thanks for these donations, some even
more than the requested amount. Those extra gifts are keeping me afloat. From those funds I
purchased a gothic style printing wheel for my typewriter which makes the print clearer to read.
GIVEN NAMES AND TITLES
Just a word of explanation about my use of people's first names and elimination of titles, such as Mr.,
Mrs., Ms, etc. Although I insisted for years that my letter-writing students must use a title of respect
before names, I now find that is no longer feasible. Many readers do not designate a title, so I decided
to drop all of them to prevent using the wrong one. In genealogical research, given names are necessary
to establish positive identification. "Mrs. John Doe" may not do the job. Also alphabetizing by
computer Is complicated by titles before names. Life seems to be too complicated this day and time for
some of our old customs.
DOCUMENTING OUR RESEARCH
I had planned to write about this important phase of research when I received a copy of
APPALACHIAN ROOTS, monthly genealogy newsletter dealing with "digging" in that area, edited
by MARY JO BROWN, P.O. Box 4004, Parkersburg, WV 26104. She has done a much better
job on the same subject than I could, so here are excerpts from her article:
Not only is It important to document your data for the occasion! when you nay pass it along to others.
What if you read a well-researched journal or quarterly article that disputes some of the information
you have. Can you remember whether your data cane from a primary source, or whether it was
passed to you by another individual without references to any source?
The important thing to remember—always document or reference any piece of data or information
you get. If you copy pages from a book, note right then on your copy the title, author, and publisher
of the book. If you find census records, birth records, or marriage records, write down exactly
where you got this iniormation. If a fellow searcher sends you important data, make cure you will
know-who that person was two years down the road.
Documenting your sources is nearly as important as finding the data in the first place—always note
the source!
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