The Brouwer Genealogy Database website was first placed online on July 29, 2008. At the same time I started a companion blog site using the now defunct "Mobile Me" service from Apple. That original blog was replaced by this current blog beginning on July 6, 2011. As the websites approach their fifth anniversary of continuous operation, I believe I am long overdue in addressing just how material from the websites can be used and should be cited.
Over the years I have found numerous instances where content that I placed online has been used by others on either personal websites, blogs or in "Family Trees" constructed at websites such as Ancestry.com. In many of these instances the material has been adequately cited so that readers are made aware that the material originated at the Brouwer Genealogy Database website or this blog site, or one of the other Database websites I've placed online (New England Brewers, Drake, Alice Freeman, Drake of Devonshire). Let me also make it perfectly clear that I have no qualms with others using the material. If I did I would not have placed it online to begin with. Instead I would have hoarded it at home in my computer files or in physical files where it would be of use to no one but me. But I simply do not see the purpose in doing that. For some background and guidance on how to use the Brouwer Genealogy Database (and the other websites) please see "About the Brouwer Genealogy Database" which I originally placed online in 2008. In this document I do mention that while free, non-commercial use of the material is granted, I do expect that when material is used it is properly cited. I am coming back to this now because I have found a few instances where certain persons have simply copied entries from the BGD website, source citations and all, and pasted them to their own blog pages, websites or Family Trees, living their readers with the impression that the material was generated by themselves. That's just not right.
As mentioned, anyone is free to use the material found these associated websites, provided it is for non-commercial use, but whether you use it in an altered format, or if you simply "copy and paste," I would ask that you please cite the material properly. While there are a number of variations on the correct "styles" (Chicago Manual of Style, being just one) on how to create a citation, I'll simply demonstrate one. If, for example, you wished to cite the blog post regarding the Family of Adam Brouwer and Magdalena Verdon, a citation could appear like this:
Chester, Chris, "The Family of Adam Brouwer and Magdalena Verdon." Brouwer Genealogy. June 1, 2012. http://brouwergenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/06/family-of-adam-brouwer-and-magdalena.html. (If you like, you could also include the date you accessed the blog page).
For info or entries from the Brouwer Genealogy Database (example):
Adam Brouwer, "Brouwer Genealogy Database." Accessed May 30, 2012. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~brouwergenealogydata/index.htm
For any specific information you then could mention the sources that I cited, example: (the above citation) followed by: citing Hoffman, William J., "Brouwer Beginnings," The American Genealogist, vol. 23 (1947): page 193.
Of course, you could also simply use a link back to the original page (The Family of Adam Brouwer and Magdalena Verdon, for example). A proper citation, however, would add more credibility to your own work, and frankly is just the right thing to do.*
Sources for this post:
The Chicago Manual of Style Online. "Chicago Style Citation Quick Guide." Accessed May 30, 2012. http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html
Fenner, Martin, "How to formerly cite a blog post." Goobedygook. July 21, 2011. http://blogs.plos.org/mfenner/2011/07/21/how-to-formally-cite-a-blog-post/
*One note of caution. While the url for the main page of the Brouwer Genealogy Database will remain constant, the url's that would take one to any single individual profile found on the website will change each time that I update the database. I would therefore advise users to cite the url for the main page rather than for any individual pages on which a profile appears.
BGB 282
Sunset at Gowanus Bay
Sunset at Gowanus Bay, Henry Gritten, 1851
Thursday, May 30, 2013
11 comments:
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Thanks for the excellent examples and good work.
ReplyDeleteAfter finding out how to do markup I came up with something like this. If you have any thoughts that would improve it let me know. Thanks for suggesting how to properly cite materials. I am just starting so want to do it right.
ReplyDeleteJoannes Lanen
Joannes Lanen [1,2]
b. between 1583 and 1593, d. before August 1640
Joannes Lanen was probably born between 1583 and 1593.
He married Catharina Bakelmans at St. Martin's Catholic Church, Overpelt, Luik (Liege), Belgium, on 11 August 1613. [1]
Also known as Laenen. [3,4]
He is the father of brothers, Thys Jansen and Teunis Jansen, who came to New Netherland in 1663.[3]
See Dorothy A. Koenig, "European Origins of Adrien Lamberts Smith and the Brothers Lanen Van Pelt," New Netherland Connections, vol. 4 (1999) for the ancestry and origins of Thys and Teunis Jansen Lanen Van Pelt, and for the complete family of Joannes Lanen. [4]
Family: [4]
Catharina Bakelmans b. s 1593.
Thys Jansen Laenen Van Peelt b. 12 Apr 1618, d. b 31 Mar 1683.
Teunis Jansen Laenen Van Peelt b. 5 May 1622, d. b Dec 1700.
Citations
Adam Brouwer, "Brouwer Genealogy Database." Accessed January, 2017.
Joannes Lanen citations:
1. Dorothy A. Koenig, "European Origins of Adrien Lamberts Smith and the Brothers Lanen Van Pelt", New Netherland Connections Vol. 4, no. 1 (1999): 4:12. Hereinafter cited as "Lamberts Smith - Lanen Van Pelt."
2. Gerald James Parsons, "Additional Data on the Lanen Van Pelts", New Netherland Connections Vol. 5, page 11 (2000). Hereinafter cited as "Additional Data on the Lanen Van Pelts."
3. A. Van Dorn Honeyman, "The Lane Families of Somerset County and Vicinity", Somerset County Historical Quarterly vols. 2, 3, 4 (1913, 1914, 1915): 2:110. Hereinafter cited as "Lane."
4. Dorothy A. Koenig, "European Origins of Adrien Lamberts Smith and the Brothers Lanen Van Pelt", New Netherland Connections Vol. 4, no. 1 (1999). Hereinafter cited as "Lamberts Smith - Lanen Van Pelt."
Robert, That looks good to me. As they say, "there are a thousand ways to skin a cat." While there are certain standards and style manuals for published works, the bottom line is that so long as your reader can identify and locate the source him or herself, you've done your job.
Deletecurious how Hannah came to get 3 different spellings in one citation ? Brouwer, Brower, Brewer https://sites.rootsweb.com/~brouwergenealogydata/p110.htm#i84998
ReplyDeletei am descendent of Hannah & Elnathan Underhill and the family is in the midst of placing a plaque at their burial site in Vittoria Ontario i want to put Hannah's family name down but spelled as correctly as possible so i came to this site hoping for clarification please help
Gerry, Hannah lived during a period before standardized spelling, pronunciation and record keeping. Her surname appears variously depending on where she lived and who was recording the name.
DeleteIt would require an entire post to explain and illustrate the variations in spelling of Hannah's surname, including others not mentioned in your question. So, the short answer is, that as an adult, living in English speaking Canada, her neighbors and those keeping the records would have called her and written her name as BREWER. Her father, Adolph, having been born in 1725, in Bergen Co., NJ and baptized in a Dutch Reformed Church would have had his name recorded as BROUWER. As time progressed that spelling morphed into BROWER (dropping the U)when recorded by Dutch speaking clerks or ministers, but in English dominated areas, such as NYC during it's occupation by the British it would have appeared as BREWER. I'd note that Adolph's wife and sister-in-law, when they both applied to the British authorities in Canada for compensation due to the loss of their husbands, their surnames in their "Memorials" are recorded as both BROWER and BREWER.
The Underhill family was of English origins, they had lived initially in the colonies in mixed English/Dutch communities, where Hannah's surname would have been spelled both ways. I think I'd suggest that since this is a physical memorial in English speaking Canada I'd go with BREWER. If I were publishing a genealogy I'd call her "Hannah BROWER/BREWER." I doubt that there is any record were he is recorded as BROUWER as that spelling largely fell out of favor in NY and NJ, with the exception of the Dutch Reformed Church in NYC itself, at the time of the formation of the United States.
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ReplyDeleteChris dodnt mean to start an argusation but how do you explain that out of 9 children to Adolphus (i#2950) & Elizabeth only Hannah has the spelling Brewer Brouwer seems most authentic as a dutch descendent then Brower as a hybrid d&e as you wrote wonder how many times after marriage would Hannah have much recourse to spelling her name i have found that written records are not proof of spelling given the literacy of the times and the ellis island effect thanks for your help vb gerry my apologies for using this forum as a place to correspond
ReplyDeleteGerry, if you are getting the notion that 9 of 10 children of Adolf Brouwer spelled their name as Brouwer, from what you see on the BGD page, then that is a short coming of mine in trying to use the BGD as a way to share info with others. The 9 children's name appear as Brouwer only because in the genealogy program I used to create these pages, Adolf's name was entered (by me) as BROUWER, and so when I added a child, that child's name picks up the BROUWER surname. But in the case of Hannah, she had been in the genealogy's program as unplaced (no link to any parent) as Hannah BREWER. When her placement as a daughter of Adolf Brouwer was made, I simply used the program's tools to link the two, and so her original name of BREWER (as entered by me) stayed in place and this is what you see on the webpage.
DeleteIn reality, all of the children of Adolf Brouwer who went to Canada are found in Canada only with the name spelled as BREWER. The sons, Adolph, John and Cornelius are the best examples. The eldest son, who I have with a "primary" name as Adolph BROUWER, was never referred to that, in records, during his adult life in Canada. There is is most commonly found as Dolf BREWER. The descendants of these three brothers are found in New Brunswick and are quite numerous, and all, beginning with the first generation found there and still living there today (one descendant lives on the original property that Dolf Brewer owned) spell their name as BREWER.
In truth, we'll never really know how Hannah referred to herself. She left no writing of her own. And, most likely, once married, she was always referred to as Hannah Underhill, or Mrs. Nathaniel Underhill, or as "Nathaniel Underhill's wife, Hannah."
I'd also point out that Adam, himself, was not Dutch. He was of German ancestry (See "New Insight into the Origins of Adam Brouwer"). In church records from Cologne, where Adam was from, dating to the decade in which he was likely born (1610-1620) I have not found this surname spelled as BROUWER. I do find it as BROWER, BREWER, BREUWER. It was the Dutch Reformed minister in New Amsterdam and the clerks who wrote out the deeds and court proceedings that spelled out Adam's name as BROUWER. In his own will of 1692 (which he did not write out himself, but would have dictated) his name leads off as Adam BROWER Berckhoven. Later in the will it is spelled as BROUWER. His wife is called, Magdalena BREWER. His children are referred to as Peter BREWER, Jacob BREWER, Aeltje BREWER, and it is signed with the mark "of Adam BREWER." Three different spellings in one document! Which one is "correct"? Can any one be called "correct"?
As much as we'd like it to be, genealogy is often not precise. Often all we can go with is our own best interpretations and accept that someone else looking at the same material may have another idea. In your situation, with regards to Hannah's memorial plaque, you just have to go with what you think is best.
thanks for all those words Chris ! Brewer it is well maybe gerry
DeleteChris
ReplyDeleteCan you up date this? It is pointing to the old site.
I went to add a source to a conversation and double checked my source before posting and realized I almost posted with the old link.
Thank you...
Cheryl Williams
*One note of caution. While the url for the main page of the Brouwer Genealogy Database will remain constant, the url's that would take one to any single individual profile found on the website will change each time that I update the database. I would therefore advise users to cite the url for the main page rather than for any individual pages on which a profile appears. Also need to be updated.
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~brouwergenealogydata/index.htm
Adam Brouwer, "Brouwer Genealogy Database." Accessed May 30, 2012. https://sites.rootsweb.com/~brouwergenealogydata/index.htm
For any specific information you then could mention the sources that I cited, example: (the above citation) followed by: citing Hoffman, William J., "Brouwer Beginnings," The American Genealogist, vol. 23 (1947): page 193.
As written on this page.
For info or entries from the Brouwer Genealogy Database (example):
Adam Brouwer, "Brouwer Genealogy Database." Accessed May 30, 2012. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~brouwergenealogydata/index.htm
For any specific information you then could mention the sources that I cited, example: (the above citation) followed by: citing Hoffman, William J., "Brouwer Beginnings," The American Genealogist, vol. 23 (1947): page 193.
Forever thankful,
Cheryl
Cheryl, all of the links in this post should now work. HOWEVER, one note of caution: I have recently been finding that I cannot access pages that were put up as PDFs on RootsWeb some years ago. At least not with the FireFox or Microsoft Edge browers, the reason I've been given is that they are not secure pages. I have been able to access them with the Safari browser on an Apple devise. That is something I will not be able to fix.
Delete