Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace, 4th Edition

For today’s family historians, records abound. In courthouses and warehouses, town halls and rectories, archives and attics, we find old records in every form imaginable. Technology also delivers documents and relics through many digital formats. Audio files, podcasts, and YouTube stream insight into past lives. Libraries offer film and fiche, reprints, and revisions, translations and transcripts, alongside digital access to books and journals published previously in print.

However, all records are not created equal, and history is not just a collection of “facts.” Critical analysis is essential, and since 2007 Evidence Explained has been the definitive, go-to guide for those who explore history and seek help with understanding, analyzing, and citing the materials they use. Evidence Explained has two principal uses: it provides citation models for historical sources—especially materials not covered in standard citation guides such as The Chicago Manual of Style. Beyond that, it enables researchers to understand the nature of each source so that evidence they cite can be better interpreted and the accuracy of their conclusions properly appraised.

In the six years since the last edition was published, changes at major repositories and online information providers–as well as the ever-evolving electronic world–have generated new citation and analysis challenges for researchers. As a consequence, Mrs. Mills has once again updated her citation models and added descriptions and evaluations of numerous contemporary materials not included in the Third Edition Revised.