* Evidence Explained citations and Evidentia

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Simonides
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Re: Evidence Explained citations and Evidentia

Post by Simonides »

What sort of Kindle do you have? According to https://www.amazon.co.uk/Evidence-Expla ... +explained it's a print replica, only available on a short list of Kindle Fire Tablets and Reading applications.
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ColeValleyGirl
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Re: Evidence Explained citations and Evidentia

Post by ColeValleyGirl »

That links says its available on Kindle for PC and Kindle for Android... Mine is an older version converted to AWZ3 and sideloaded.
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Re: Evidence Explained citations and Evidentia

Post by Simonides »

thanks, I tried again with Kindle for PC and now have "QuickSheet: Citing Ancestry Databases & Images, Evidence Style" on my PC! Not sure what went wrong last time.
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Re: Evidence Explained citations and Evidentia

Post by ColeValleyGirl »

Sounds as if you've purchased a Quicksheet not the whole book.. was that what you mean to do?

(I will say it's so big I prefer to read it as a PDF -- and not on my smartphone!)
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Re: Evidence Explained citations and Evidentia

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Yes, I thought I'd check out the Quicksheet first!
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Re: Evidence Explained citations and Evidentia

Post by ColeValleyGirl »

You probably know but you can explore the book content at the Evidence Explained website
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Simonides
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Re: Evidence Explained citations and Evidentia

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Yes, I see that the contents are summarized under the Book Content tab, and a small number of sample pages are available. I may get the whole book at some point but for now it might just be overkill. At least I've managed to get kindle for PC working. It's a shame that the ESM book and Quicksheets appear not to be available for the full range of kindle hardware.

Thanks!
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Post by jmurphy »

Yes, EE is expensive -- I compromise by getting every other edition as an e-book. I have Evidence! (the slim white book) and EE 3rd Edition in hardcover, and EE 2nd Edition and EE 3 rev in e-editions. That way I can read EE 3rd edition in relative comfort and then refer to EE 3rd revised to see what has changed.

If you can't afford EE, I highly recommend that people follow the EE website/blog and/or Facebook page and read all the Quicklessons. (I have the Quicksheets, too, but if you get them all, pretty soon it adds up to real money.)

I also highly recommend (again) that everyone download ESM's seminal paper "Working with Historical Evidence." from her site Historic Pathways ( Mills, Elizabeth Shown. “Working with Historical Evidence: Genealogical Principles and Standards.” Evidence: A Special Issue of the National Genealogical Society Quarterly 87 (September 1999): 165–84. PDF download. Elizabeth Shown Mills. Historic Pathways. https://www.historicpathways.com ) and the earlier edition of the Evidence Analysis Process Map.

"Working with Historical Evidence" is especially useful because in that paper Mills explains her reasoning for why the older system of categorizing sources (still in use, e.g. it is the method of evidence analysis taught in the U. Strathclyde online course offered via FutureLearn) wasn't finely-grained enough for genealogy. It's easier to understand the differences of the two POVs once you see the process by which the later method was created.

Edited: I seem to have skipped some messages, so I missed that you had already discussed the problem of the Print Replica books. Now that I've inserted a disclaimer, I'll just leave the content here for easy reference. Feel free to ignore what's below. ;)
ColeValleyGirl wrote:I have it on Kindle -- not sure why it wouldn't work for you. Not cheap on Kindle either though.
EE 3rd edition revised in its Kindle Edition (and most if not all earlier e-editions) is Print Replica (aka a PDF in a wrapper). That format apparently doesn't work on e-ink Kindles.

The supported devices:
Fire Tablets
  • Kindle Fire HDX 8.9''
  • Kindle Fire HDX
  • Kindle Fire HD (3rd Generation)
  • Fire HDX 8.9 Tablet
  • Fire HD 7 Tablet
  • Fire HD 6 Tablet
  • Kindle Fire HD 8.9"
  • Kindle Fire HD(1st Generation)
  • Kindle Fire(2nd Generation)
  • Kindle Fire(1st Generation)
  • Fire HD 10
  • Fire HD 8
  • Fire
Free Kindle Reading Apps
  • Kindle for Android Phones
  • Kindle for Android Tablets
  • Kindle for iPhone
  • Kindle for iPod Touch
  • Kindle for iPad
  • Kindle for Mac
  • Kindle for PC
I have a 7th gen Kindle Fire 7 (1024 x 600 display) and it's not what I'd call easy to read. It would probably be fine on my husband's HD 8.
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Simonides
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Re: Evidence Explained citations and Evidentia

Post by Simonides »

Thanks, Jan, for the comments. I did buy the EE as e-book in the end, and can view on Kindle for PC but have to admit I've not made much inroads into it yet. I'm sure I'll understand more once I've finished the first two chapters.

I'll check out your other suggestions when I have a moment :-

- Evidence! (the slim white book)
- "Working with Historical Evidence"
- Evidence Analysis Process Map

BTW, last month I completed the excellent FutureLearn course that you mentioned and so have their method and therefore something against which to draw comparisons.
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Re: Evidence Explained citations and Evidentia

Post by jmurphy »

If you've got EE itself, you may not need Evidence! -- there will be a lot of overlap with the first two chapters of EE. But I do think ESM's article "Working with Historical Evidence" is important because it shows her argument of why the older systems of evidence analysis like what you learned in the Future Learn course aren't always sufficient for the needs of genealogists.

Before you plunge into the rest of EE, I recommend these two blog posts by Michael Hait:

Why we don’t always need source citation templates …

… but we do need Evidence Explained.
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Simonides
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Re: Evidence Explained citations and Evidentia

Post by Simonides »

Thank you Jan. Mike Hait's blogs look interesting and I'll work through them in more detail later. I take your point that much of what's in Evidence! is also in the first two chapters of EE so I'll probably stick with that!

I've downloaded Working with Historical Evidence:Genealogical Principles and Standards but not read it yet so thanks for the timely reminder!
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Re: Evidence Explained citations and Evidentia

Post by jmurphy »

A couple of thoughts. I bought Evidence! quite a while ago now, and I haven't done a side-by-side comparison with the material in EE. You may want the little Evidence! as well as EE to see the development of ESM's thinking on analyzing evidence.

Just as we look at sources and pay attention to the date of the source and the dates of the events described within, we need to be aware that authors' ideas grow and may change over time. Material published in 1997 (the publication date of Evidence!) is not necessarily going to reflect the current thoughts of the author, but having the earlier material to compare with the newer may help you understand the newer material.
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