Advice before editing this pre-1700 Bates profile?

Question

I have information to contribute to the profile of John Bates. This is what I can add:

• Born around 1670

These are the sources I am using:

• The Bates Bulletin Winter-Spring 2016-2016

Should I contact one of the pre-1700 projects or know about any style guidelines before proceeding? Thank you!

Comments

Where in the world did these people live? What's the Bates Bulletin?

Answer 1

The Bates Bulletin 2016 is clearly a derivative source. We generally try to use sources as close to the actual event as possible. Look up the references they use and quote those, with links to the source. If they don't quote references then it shouldn't be used at all.

Also, born around 1670 is a guess, not a source. Sources are specific, stating date, place and event. This becomes far more important for older records, because people build their trees upon those roots.

Examples of an acceptable source for birth: a church or government record, and if the link contains a picture of the original document it's even better. Indexes are secondary sources. Books are secondary sources. A family bible with entries made at the time of birth is also an excellent source, but a photo of the page would be required.