More Glowing Reviews of ‘Evidence Explained’ Fourth Edition

The latest issue of the Tennessee Genealogical Society’s  Ansearchin’ News features two more reviews of the new edition of Elizabeth Shown Mills’ Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace. Here are the highlights: 

In the first review, archivist and genealogist Melissa Barker writes, “Mills has done an excellent job in this fourth edition. . . . Chapter 3 is a brand-new chapter for the fourth edition and is titled “Building Citations” and includes 14 templates that replace the previous 170 QuickCheck models in previous editions. . . . One of my favorite chapters is Chapter 4 titled “Archives and Artifacts” because I am an archivist . . . . Genealogists need to understand the hierarchy of archived collections, and Mills goes into detail about the layers that are found in archived collections and offers her expertise in composing a source citation. . . .Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace. Fourth Edition is a must have for any genealogist’s reference shelf. The quick references, thorough explanations and expertise given by Elizabeth Shown Mills are even more enhanced in this fourth edition. .  . . I can highly recommend this new edition.

Reviewer Nancy Walczyk, who writes the second review and also teaches a class on source citation, writes, “As Elizabeth Shown Mills so clearly articulates in the first two chapters of this book, citations are about truly and deeply understanding the source; format and punctuation rules are not the purpose. The revisions to those two chapters in the new fourth edition make the point even easier for beginners to grasp. But I was most excited about Chapter 3, the new chapter  titled “Building a Citation.”  This chapter helps beginners understand the components of a citation by focusing on the Basic Seven Building Blocks . . . Creator, Title, Description, Place, Date/Year, Publisher, Specific Item.  The fourteen templates each start with a table explaining how the Basic Seven Building Blocks apply to that type of source and provide examples.  . .  Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace. Fourth Edition belongs on every beginner’s bookshelf.”