Acknowledgement or See Also

Question

I've spent over an hour searching for an answer, but after reading through the style guidelines and searching G2G, I'm still unsure which would be best, so I'm asking for help.

In creating profiles for my Mathews family line, I came across two website that have been useful in my research. The first is John Pyle and Mary Withers Descendants. For Frank Sr. I noted in Research Notes that the date of birth listed here, on Aunt Sue's compilation, and his death record are in agreement (FAG has different birth date).

When working on his son Charles's profile, I found supporting evidence from the Descendants of Henry Snoots which contained his obituary and his wife Mary Ellen's obituary.

I think I should note this information under an Acknowledgement section to recognize the many hours of work contained in these files. If not, should these sites at least be noted under See also so other genealogist can also find this information?

What should I do? Since I'm not the Profile Manager on some of these profiles and haven't received any response from the PM, I don't want to do this the wrong way and cause problems.

Answer 1

Hello Diane.

Why not both?

Sources

"On WikiTree we put them beneath the references and a line that says "See also:"."

"This list can contain web pages, books, and other sources where more information about the person can be found, whether or not they were specifically consulted as sources."

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Acknowledgements Sections

"First, if the research you are adding is built on the work of someone else. For example, you may be citing primary sources such as census records but those sources may have been originally found by a family member or another genealogist and you want to give them credit for their work."

Comments

Thanks for your answer. I also found this thread about using See Also very confusing.Guess I like to have "black and white" answers and not shades of gray!

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Many thanks for the star, Diane!

Answer 2

Diane,

I would certainly add citations, with links, for these sites under "See also:".  I include sources there that were not used to support any statements in the biography.

I use Acknowledgements only to give recognition to WikiTree members who provided invaluable information that was needed to be able to write the biography.

That said, please note that this is what I do … not necessarily what everyone does, or even what WikiTree intends that we do.  My guess is that this would be a choice left to each of us to do as we think best.

Comments

I agree with what Gaile said.  See also is used for other sources where valuable information can be found.

Acknowledgement Help page - https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Acknowledgements

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Linda, I found and read through the page you linked before I asked my question. From that page:

"We give credit. Although most genealogy isn't copyrighted, researchers deserve credit for the work they've done." AND

"those sources may have been originally found by a family member or another genealogist and you want to give them credit for their work"

That guideline doesn't state that Acknowledgements are only for WikiTree members.

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Thanks for answering Gaile. I'll use "See also" for these records.

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Diane, you are absolutely right that acknowledgements shouldn't be restricted to WikiTree members.  With that modification to my original answer, I would suggest that you could include those information sources in either or both, but I would do it differently for those two places.

For the "See also" additional sources, just the citation, of course with the link if it can be accessed online.

For the "Acknowledgements", the person's name, with a statement about why his/her work was so helpful, and (if it's not cited in the "see also" section) identification of the source he/she authored and the link to it, if available.