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As work progresses on the Southwest Virginia Project different approaches have been taken to "card layout", exploring what works and what doesn't. We are coming close to adopting a "preferred format" for "person articles". The narrative section of the current preferred format includes the following elements
1. The Southwest Virginia Project Banner. Appears at the top of every page included in the SWVP
2. Menu. This appears next on person and family articles, and is designed to combine a TOC, and a listing of related articles and sources being used, plus a third compont that varies depending on the needs of the particular article. Sometimes this includes a family Register, sometimes it includes links to specific articles of interest. Eventually this will be standardized.
3. The Overview. This section provides an overview of the life history of a given person, including their immediate family. Because during this period we usually have relatively little information on the wife (we consider ourselves lucky to know even her maiden name), the husband's page tends to have the more robust treatment. When sufficient information is available for the wife, her page may also be used instead.
4. Personal Data Table. This is a table used to record "Vita" information about the person:DOBs, POBs, DOM's, etc., as well as key family members, including parent, spouses, and children. There are several features of this table that should be pointed to.
- Sourcing. Considerable effort is expended to document the basis for various data elements included in the Personal Data Table. That is, room is provided to explain the basis on which the DOB, POB, DOD, etc. has been determined. This may be specific "original source" documentation (e.g, date will was written, and probated, etc.), or it may be logical deduction (e.g., eldest child was born in 1760, and so marriage probably occurred 1759 or earlier.) In many cases, "facts" are available in online-genealogies, and the like, but the source of those facts is not given. These tertiary (and usually ephemeral sources are not usually recorded. The reason for that is two fold:
- First, such information can not be relied on to be accurate. The rule of use is that unless a "source" specifically points to an original source, there's not much point in citing it; and if it points to an original source, then the original source needs to be examined. Only where the original source is pointed to, but has not been examined directly, is there a need to cite an intermediate source---and then it is cited with the designation Fide:fide to indicate that it is "temporarily taken on faith". On the other hand, when an intermediate source has done a particularly good job at documenting their information, it is important to acknowledge their contributions; in those cases the "Sources Used" section will include a reference to their contribution.
- Second, The world wide web has become an excellent source of information, and is a place where many genealogists record their information, sometimes in great detail and with excellent sourcing. Personal websites, as well as on-line genealogies such as that found on Ancestry, have become excellent intermediate sources for family history information. Such sites are often treasure troves of information, though their value is greatly reduced by poor documentation. Unfortunately, these are often ephemeral; that is, while they can be examined today, there's no guarantee that they can be examined tomorrow, or that they will say the same thing the day after tomorrow. As a result, they can not be revisted in the verification and validation process that's at the core of doing good genealogy. Since there's no guarantee that they can be revisited, citing them serves no useful purpose.
- Dispersion. One of the purposes of the Southwest Virginia Project is to develop an understanding of family dispersion---that is, what happened to the immediate descendants of persons for whom articles are developed. Did they remain in southwest Virginia, or move on? If they moved on, where did they go? Where they went is referred to as "Dispersion". It is for this reason that space is given in the vita table for life details of the children---DOB, DOM, DOD, Spouse, etc. The final column provides space to show how we know this child is the parent of the person about whom the article is about, and to show information about dispersion. Documentation of the details of their life is generally placed on the childs card itself. If the child remains in Southwest Virginia, and was an adult prior to the end of the settlement period, then a similar narrative is developed for them. Otherwise, the narrative section is left blank. (It can, of course, be developed if there's a desire to do so on the part of the user's community.)
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