Source talk:Sargent, William M. Maine Wills, 1640-1760

Should Maine Historical Society be listed as an author? [18 June 2014]

The title page of the volume makes no mention of the Maine Historical Society with the exception that the author is a member. The title page reads in part "compiled and edited with note by William M. Sargent, A.M., of the Cumberland Bar, Member of the Maine Historical Society, of the Maine Genealogical Society, and of the Gorges Society.

If as another contributor suggests that in the preface it reads: "Resolved, That if the Maine Historical Society shall cause to be compiled and copied all the wills recorded in this state..." that that statement is sufficient to attribute authorship. This resolution was passed by the Maine State Legislature.

had the Historical Society sought credit for authorship it would have included such notice on the title page. There is no evidence of a Society Publication Committee's involvement. If credit needs to be given at werelate, then it seems to me that they were acting more as a co-publisher rather than co-author. But even that is in doubt since no attribution specifically appears anywhere in the printed text indicating that the Society was co-author or co-publisher.--Kpb2011 09:21, 28 November 2011 (EST)

You may want to post something at WeRelate Talk:Support. As you may notice there are not many people watching this page, since source pages rarely change, though kennebec1 especially, and various others, have both done a lot of work on this and various source pages. --Jrich 12:10, 28 November 2011 (EST)

I'm amenable to either leaving Maine Historical or removing it. The Family Search catalog lists the title both ways, depending on the edition. The two reprints credit notes cite the work as their reason: "The Maine Historical Society designated ... [W. M. Sargent] to compile, copy and edit the work." The original edition appears to be credited solely to Sargent.--Brenda (kennebec1) 19:34, 18 June 2014 (UTC)