2. Second, always review recent literature (especially
periodical articles) for the most current status of research on
a Colonial ancestor.
This is important because newer research may
have proven earlier hypothesis false. Take the time necessary
to study all the facts. Particularly become acquainted with
periodical literature. For example, someone wanted to know if
his James Bruce was the one related to Robert the Bruce. Looking
at the PERSI at ProQuest’s Heritage Quest PERSI index,
I did a PEOPLE search with these two criteria:
| Surname |
Bruce |
Examples: Smith, Smit*, Smith and Brown |
| Keywords |
Scotland |
Examples: Irish, Civil War, Quakers |
| Periodical |
|
Examples: New England, Military, Everton |
There were several articles available on the Bruce family but
these looked most interesting:
5. James Bruce-Margaret McMahon fam., ca. 1744+,
Scotland; VA, MD, KY
Keys To the Past. Boerne TX: Apr 2000. Vol. 19 Iss. 1
The earliest articles were recorded in 1882 and
the latest in 2000. Of these, six were available in the Family
History Library and one was only available at Allen County. I
had access to those in the Family History Library through a look-up
service. The form below was filled out and sent to Allen County
for the one not available there.
Periodical Source Index
(PERSI) Order Form
Name:____Karen Clifford_______________________________________
Address:__2863 West 370 North__________________________________
_________Provo, UT 84601_____________________________________
To obtain copies of articles in the PERSI index, contact the
Allen County Public Library Foundation, P.O.Box 2270, Fort Wayne,
IN 46801-2270. Send this form describing the articles to be copied,
provide the full entry from PERSI and the name of the journal.
Request only six articles at a time. The charge is $7.50 for each
letter, pre-paid, plus $0.20 per page copied to be billed to you.
Requests not acceptable by phone, fax, or e-mail. Please allow
6-8 weeks.
Title of article: James Bruce-Margaret McMahon fam., ca.
1744+, Scotland; VA, MD,KY
Title of journal: Keys To the Past ____________________________________
Code: TXKP Vol: 19 No:
1 Mon: Apr Yr: 2000
In the meantime, I started to search for the
original documents of Scotland that were available in the Family
History Library. I discovered that the time period of the client’s
ancestor immigrant in the area was during the years when the documents
were destroyed in Scotland. They were lost during an approximate
20 year time period. I therefore was curious as to how the authors
of these articles arrived at their conclusions. This brings us
to the third caution.
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