Evidence Explained can be used to determine how to compose a citation for a specific item that a researcher encounters in their research. There are not many records that don’t have a sample citation in Evidence Explained. All one has to do usually is to follow the sample item and change what is appropriate. There’s also a discussion of citation theory (mostly in chapter 2, but in actuality discussed throughout the book) that provides general citation guidance that can be used for items that are not precisely in Evidence Explained.
There’s also a discussion of genealogical theory in the first chapter of the book. Those with a background in law or science may have experienced different definitions for the a few key terms, but Mills lays them out nicely. There’s a few terms that I have difficulty wrapping my own brain around, not because the book is difficult to read, but because my own mathematical background used the same words with different meanings. Whether one totally agrees or not is not always the point–thinking about methods and terms generally makes one’s research stronger.
But there’s another really good way to use Evidence Explained and that’s to read the brief overview of the record being cited. That overview is presented before the citation examples are discussed. Given the scope of the book the review is short and given the intent of the book the overview is apparently written with a focus on citation. That’s not surprising. Even if you aren’t going to create citations (which I don’t recommend), reading the discussion of the records and the elements of a citation will get you thinking about how the records were created and organized. And that does help your research.
And when Mills discusses the use of “ibid” glossing over it won’t cause your genealogical research to suffer. But don’t tell her I said that.
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