Appalachia Project Reliable Sources

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Appalachia Project | Category: Appalachia Project |Appalachia Project Reliable Sources | Regional Appalachia Teams | Counties of Appalachia

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This is the Reliable Sources page for the entire Appalachia Project, which includes profiles covered by pre-1700 project requirements. But, it has been requested that we start Appalachia Profiles at 1700+.

This page contains sources focused on the entire Appalachian Region recommended (or warned against) by the Appalachia Project.

Note: for creating a citation from a website that has not been provided see citing websites. Add the link from the page that you are sourcing.

Sample Sourced Appalachia Project Profiles:

John Clarence Bennett (1909-1970) - Basic WikiTree Appalachian Profile
John Wesley Glasscock (1857-1947) - Sports Notable
Hubert Standish Skidmore (1909-1946) - Appalachian Notable
John Marsden Ehle Jr. (1925-2018) - The Father of Appalachian Literature

Sample Sourced Appalachia Project Profiles:

John Wesley Glasscock from the Appalachia Project Project.

John Ehle from the Appalachia Project Project.

John Clarence Bennett from the Appalachia Project Project.

1 Genealogical Standards definitions and syntax conventions:
2 Appalachian Regions

Genealogical Standards definitions and syntax conventions:

What do we mean by "sources" and what is expected on WikiTree:

What is the difference between a Source and a Resource?

Sources: This is the citable piece of information. Most think of this as the actual document related to a person. Typical sources include Birth or Death Certificates, Census Records (from FamilySearch for example).
Resources: These are typically not citable for individuals but rather specific groups. Typical Resources include Maps, Books on Specific Topics (such as the Civil War, Quakers in Pennsylvania, etc)

For More Help on Sources:

Read WikiTree's Help:Sources_FAQ for an understanding on what is required on WikiTree.
Read WikiTree's Help:Sources_Style_Guide for how sources are preferred to be presented on Profiles.
Elizabeth Shown Mills, Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace, Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co.; 3rd edition (May 22, 2015). See also the author's blog by the same name: Evidence Explained

A Primary Source contains data that was recorded by the person in the profile; or by someone known to or with first hand knowledge of that person, during the person's lifetime, death or within two generations thereafter. ex. Census, Court Documents, Tax Lists, Church Records
A Secondary Source is a genealogical reference created as the result of a extensive study of available source material and it provides some evidence of the source documentation used to generate the text data. ex. Dissertations, Newspaper Editoral
A Tertiary Source is a genealogical data source which is a collection of genealogical information that does not cite Primary or Secondary information sources, and the data may be factual or hearsay. ex. Encyclopedias, Almanacs, Guidebooks
Braces {Editorial Note Example} are used to insert editorial comments; that is to say, information or clarification that is not contained in the original, cited source material.

For more details, here is my Sandy's Sourcing Made Simple space page.

NOTE: Each Project Member is responsible for correctly sourcing their Profiles at creation. It is asked that each Project Member also help out the Project by occasionally add sources to "Needs Sources" profiles within our Project. If a Project Member continues to add Profiles without sources, membership could be rescinded.

Appalachian Regions

Sources here are region-neutral. Reminder: books, databases, compilations, and websites are only as reliable as the sources they cite. They are an extra resources in addition to the Specific Regional Reliable Sources pages.

For maps and general information: Appalachian Regional Commission

Encyclopedia of Appalachia on Wikipedia

Reliable Sources

Check each State's Sources and Resources listings:

Peer Reviewed Journals

Articles in the following journals are peer-reviewed, typically authored by experienced researchers, and well-cited.

Drake, Richard B. A History of Appalachia. University Press of Kentucky, 2001. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt2jcv7t. Accessed 3 Jul. 2022.

Vital Records

Vital Records may include Birth Certificates, Marriage Certificates, Death Certificates. Land Records, Military Records and Probate/Tax Records all can usually be found on FamilySearch. If using Ancestry, please provide a free link back to the actual record.

Sourcing Apps

The WikiTree Sourcer and WikiTree BEE are both great apps for finding and citing sources.

Reliable Sources with conditions

Sources here are region-neutral. Reminder: books, databases, compilations, and websites are only as reliable as the sources they cite.

Biographical Compilations

Williams, John Alexander. Appalachia: A History. The University of North Carolina Press (April 3, 2003). ISBN-13: 978-0807853689 and ISBN-10: 0807853682
Winkler, Wayne. Walking Toward the Sunset: The Melungeons Of Appalachia (Melungeons: History, Culture, Ethnicity, & Literature. Mercer University Press; Illustrated edition (February 26, 2020) ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 3870706252 and ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0865548695

Newspapers/ Obituary

Surname / Family-Specific Compilations

The Linger Family History Linger, Fred J, and Hartzel G. Strader. Baltimore, Maryland. The University of Georgia Press. 1989.

Unreliable Sources

Examples of Sources that Provide Uncertain Information

Region Neutral

The following sources should not be cited and are subject to removal from project-managed profiles if found. If these are the only sources on a profile, please replace it with something better prior to removal.

Yates' US and International Marriages Index. See this discussion for why.
Millennium File: "created by the Institute of Family Research to track the records of its clients and the results of its professional research. It contains more than 880,000 linked family records, with lineages from throughout the world, including colonial America, the British Isles, Switzerland, and Germany. Many of these lineages extend back to nobility and renowned historical figures. In fact, one of the things the Millennium File focuses on is linking to European nobility and royalty."
Edmund West Family Data collections, per their own description, "should be used to find primary sources."
UNSOURCED user-contributed family trees, including (but not limited to):
- Pedigree Resource Files on familysearch.org
- Public or any other family trees from Ancestry.com
- Geni.com - World Family Tree - RootsWeb / If the tree cites reliable proofs, find the proofs and cite them instead.
- Geneanet Community Trees Index - If the tree cites reliable proofs, find the proofs and cite them instead.
- A personal family tree.
- Find-A-Grave. Find-A-Grave profiles rarely cite reliable proofs. When they do, find the proofs and cite them.
- Transcriptions of documents (wills, etc.) found online that are not published.
- A discussion in a genealogy forum. If the discussion cites reliable proofs, find the proofs and cite them.
- Books with family trees/family histories that do not cite reliable sources. These books are secondary sources and should be seen as a starting point. Further research is needed to confirm those relationships.

Additionally, it was very popular in the late 1800s and early 1900s to publish family genealogies. These are much like the online trees of today-- their quality varies depending on the extent to which they cite their sources. Some contain accurate information-- especially about the people living within the last 50 years prior to the publication date; but many have been subsequently proven to be incomplete, inaccurate, or in a few rare cases, downright fraudulent. Absent better sources, these old published genealogies can be cited or included under "See also:". A goal of the project, however, is to find more original documentation, closer to the time of the event being cited.

Find-a-Grave is a user-contributed site, and as such is generally excluded from the list of reliable sources. Please do not make changes to a profile's vitals, including identification of relations, based solely on information transcribed on a Find-a-Grave profile. The exception is that if the Find-a-Grave profile contains a photo of a contemporaneous gravestone (i.e., a gravestone created and placed at the time of the person's death) and includes information about the person's death, you can cite the Find-a-Grave profile for the death information, and for other information that appears on the gravestone. Please understand, though, that even gravestones may contain erroneous information.
Lineage Society Applications. Lineage societies such as Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), Society for Colonials Wars, and others, vary with regard to the proofs that they require for membership. And some, like DAR, have changed their rules over time. Therefore, such applications should be used more as finding aids than actual sources. When looking at a lineage society application, please check what sources they cite, and then seek to find those actual sources.
Links to sources on paid subscription sites such as Ancestry, FindMyPast, and MyHeritage can be frustrating for WikiTree members and visitors without access to these sites. We recommend searching for a freely available copy of the source document on sites such as FamilySearch, Google Books, USGenWeb, Archive.org, or HathiTrust.

If the source record is only available to paid subscribers, when providing the URL please also extract as much information as possible, such as relevant names, dates, and the source of the original data.

Resources

These are typically not citable for individuals but rather specific groups. Typical Resources include Maps, Books on Specific Topics (such as the Civil War, Quakers in Pennsylvania, etc)

Albion's Seed Grows in the Cumberland Gap