More about Evidence Explained
"History is not just a collection of documents—and all records are not created equal. To analyze and decide what to believe, we also need certain facts about the records themselves.""
—The author
“Historians will welcome the publication of this detailed guide to citations. Even avid users of The Chicago Manual of Style regularly encounter sources for which that handbook gives no guidance. Now we can turn to Elizabeth Shown Mills’s comprehensive work.”
—Journal of Southern History
“The definitive guide for how to cite every conceivable kind of source a historian might use, from traditional archival materials to digital media to the most arcane sources imaginable. This volume will be indispensable to every serious scholar, writer, and editor.”
—John B. Boles, William P. Hobby Professor of History, Rice University
“Technology confronts historians and students with a bewildering proliferation of information—some of it accurate and too much of it dubious. In Evidence Explained, Mills demonstrates how to separate the wheat from the chaff. . . . This encyclopedic guidebook is an invalulable resource for historians, students and editors alike.”
—Jon Kukla, presidential historian
“A key resource guide for scholars and serious researchers who must rely upon and understand historical evidence. Highly recommended.”
—Choice
How to cite Professional Genealogy: Preparation, Practice & Standards
Source List Entry (Bibliography)
Mills, Elizabeth Shown, ed. Professional Genealogy: Preparation, Practice & Standards.
Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2018.
or
Jones, Thomas W. “Reasoning from Evidence.” Chapter 12. Elizabeth Shown Mills, ed.
Professional Genealogy: Preparation, Practice & Standards. Baltimore: Genealogical
Publishing Co., 2018.
First Reference Note
Elizabeth Shown Mills, editor, Professional Genealogy: Preparation, Practice & Standards
(Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2018).
or
Thomas W. Jones, “Reasoning from Evidence,” chapter 12, Elizabeth Shown Mills, ed.
Professional Genealogy: Preparation, Practice & Standards (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2018),
265–92, specifically ____ [specific page number].
Subsequent Note
Jones, “Reasoning from Evidence,” [specific page number].
Where to find
How to cite Evidence Explained
Source List Entry (Bibliography)
Mills, Elizabeth Shown. Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace.
3d ed., rev. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2017.
First Reference Note
Elizabeth Shown Mills, Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace,
3d ed., rev. (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2017), [specific page no.].
Subsequent Note
Mills, Evidence Explained, [specific page no.].
Where to find
How to cite Professional Genealogy: A Manual
Source List Entry (Bibliography)
Mills, Elizabeth Shown, ed. Professional Genealogy: A Manual for Researchers, Writers, Editors, Lecturers, and
Librarians. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2001.
Or
Leary, Helen F. M. “Problem Analyses and Research Plans.” Chapter 14. Elizabeth Shown Mills, ed. Professional
Genealogy: A Manual for Researchers, Writers, Editors, Lecturers, and Librarians. Baltimore:
Genealogical Publishing Co., 2001.
First Reference Note
Elizabeth Shown Mills, ed., Professional Genealogy: A Manual for Researchers, Writers, Editors, Lecturers,
and Librarians (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2001), [specific page no.].
Or
Helen F. M. Leary, “Problem Analyses and Research Plans,” chap. 14, Elizabeth Shown Mills, ed.,
Professional Genealogy: A Manual for Researchers, Writers, Editors, Lecturers, and Librarians (Baltimore:
Genealogical Publishing Co., 2001), 261–72, specifically ___ [specific page no.].
Subsequent Note
Leary, “Problem Analyses and Research Plans,” [specific page no.].
Where to find:
How to cite Evidence!
Source List Entry (Bibliography)
Mills, Elizabeth Shown. Evidence! Citation & Analysis for the Family Historian. Baltimore: Genealogical
Publishing Co., 1997.
First Reference Note
Elizabeth Shown Mills. Evidence! Citation & Analysis for the Family Historian
(Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1997), [specific page no.]
Subsequent Note
Mills, Evidence! [specific page]
Where to find:
How to cite QuickSheet: Citing Genetic Sources for History Research
Source List Entry (Bibliography)
Mills, Elizabeth Shown. QuickSheet: Citing Genetic Sources for History Research, Evidence Style. 2d ed.
Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2017.
First Reference Note
Elizabeth Shown Mills, QuickSheet: Citing Genetic Sources for History Research, Evidence Style.
2d ed. (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2017), [specific page no.].
Subsequent Note
Mills, QuickSheet: Citing Online Historical Resources, [specific page no.].
Where to find:
How to cite QuickSheet: The Historical Biographer’s Guide to the Research Process
Source List Entry (Bibliography)
Mills, Elizabeth Shown. QuickSheet: The Historical Biographer’s Guide to the Research Process.
Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2012.
First Reference Note
Elizabeth Shown Mills, QuickSheet: The Historical Biographer’s Guide to the Research Process (Baltimore:
Genealogical Publishing Co., 2012), [specific page no.].
Subsequent Note
Mills, QuickSheet: Guide to the Research Process, [specific page no.].
Where to find:
How to cite QuickSheet: Guide to Finding People in Databases & Indexes
Source List Entry (Bibliography)
Mills, Elizabeth Shown. QuickSheet: The Historical Biographer’s Guide to Finding People in Databases & Indexes.
Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2012.
First Reference Note
Elizabeth Shown Mills, QuickSheet: The Historical Biographer’s Guide to Finding People in Databases & Indexes
(Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2012), [specific page no.].
Subsequent Note
Mills, QuickSheet: The Historical Biographer’s Guide to Finding People in Databases & Indexes,
[specific page no.].
Where to find:
How to cite QuickSheet: Guide to Cluster Research (the FAN Principle)
Source List Entry (Bibliography)
Mills, Elizabeth Shown. QuickSheet: The Historical Biographer’s Guide to Cluster Research (the FAN Principle).
Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2012.
First Reference Note
Elizabeth Shown Mills, QuickSheet: The Historical Biographer’s Guide to Cluster Research (the FAN Principle)
(Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2012), [specific page no.].
Subsequent Note
Mills, QuickSheet: The Historical Biographer’s Guide to Cluster Research, [specific page no.].
Where to find:
How to cite QuickSheet: The Historical Biographer’s Guide to Individual Problem Analysis
Source List Entry (Bibliography)
Mills, Elizabeth Shown. QuickSheet: The Historical Biographer’s Guide to Individual Problem Analysis. Baltimore:
Genealogical Publishing Co., 2012.
First Reference Note
Elizabeth Shown Mills, QuickSheet: The Historical Biographer’s Guide to Individual Problem Analysis (Baltimore:
Genealogical Publishing Co., 2012).
Subsequent Note
Mills, QuickSheet: The Historical Biographer’s Guide to Individual Problem Analysis.
Where to find:
How to cite QuickSheet: Citing Online Historical Resources
Source List Entry (Bibliography)
Mills, Elizabeth Shown. QuickSheet: Citing Online Historical Resources, 1st rev. ed. Baltimore:
Genealogical Publishing Co., 2007.
First Reference Note
Elizabeth Shown Mills, QuickSheet: Citing Online Historical Resources, 1st rev. ed. (Baltimore:
Genealogical Publishing Co., 2007), [specific page no.].
Subsequent Note
Mills, QuickSheet: Citing Online Historical Resources, [specific page no.].
Where to find:
How to cite QuickSheet: Citing Ancestry.com Databases & Images
Source List Entry (Bibliography)
Mills, Elizabeth Shown. QuickSheet: Citing Ancestry.com Databases & Images. 2d ed. Baltimore:
Genealogical Publishing Co., 20017.
First Reference Note
Elizabeth Shown Mills, QuickSheet: Citing Ancestry.com Databases & Images 2d ed. (Baltimore: Genealogical
Publishing Co., 2017), [specific page no.].
Subsequent Note
Mills, QuickSheet: Citing Ancestry.com Databases & Images, [specific page no.].
Where to find:
How to cite QuickSheet: Citing Online African-American Historical Resources
Source List Entry (Bibliography)
Mills, Elizabeth Shown. QuickSheet: Citing Online African-American Historical Resources. Baltimore:
Genealogical Publishing Co., 2010.
First Reference Note
Elizabeth Shown Mills, QuickSheet: Citing Online African-American Historical Resources (Baltimore:
Genealogical Publishing Co., 2010), [specific page no.].
Subsequent Note
Mills, Citing Online African-American Historical Resources, [specific page no.].
Where to find:
How to cite Evidence Analysis: A Research Process Map
Source List Entry (Bibliography)
Mills, Elizabeth Shown. Evidence Analysis: A Research Process Map. Washington, DC: Board for Certification
of Genealogists, 2006.
First Reference Note
Elizabeth Shown Mills, Evidence Analysis: A Research Process Map (Washington, DC: Board for
Certification of Genealogists, 2006).
Subsequent Note
Mills, Evidence Analysis: A Research Process Map.
Where to find:
This laminated guide from 2006 has been revised and replaced by QuickSheet: Your Stripped-Bare Guide to Historical Proof. Copies of the 2006 edition are widely available in many research libraries or through used-book dealers online.
How to cite QuickSheet: Your Stripped-Bare Guide to Historical Proof
Source List Entry (Bibliography)
Mills, Elizabeth Shown. QuickSheet: Your Stripped-Bare Guide to Historical Proof. 1st ed. rev.
Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2017.
First Reference Note
Elizabeth Shown Mills, QuickSheet: Your Stripped-Bare Guide to Historical Proof 1st ed. rev. (Baltimore:
Genealogical Publishing Co., 2017), [specific side].
Subsequent Note
Mills, QuickSheet: Your Stripped-Bare Guide to Historical Proof, [specific side].
Where to find:
How to cite QuickSheet: Your Stripped-Bare Guide to Citing Sources
Source List Entry (Bibliography)
Mills, Elizabeth Shown. QuickSheet: Your Stripped-Bare Guide to Citing Sources.
Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2014. [specific side].
First Reference Note
Elizabeth Shown Mills, QuickSheet: Your Stripped-Bare Guide to Citing Sources
(Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2014), [specific side].
Subsequent Note
Mills, QuickSheet: Your Stripped-Bare Guide to Citing Sources, [specific side].
Where to find:
More About: The Forgotten People: Cane River’s Creoles of Color
Out of colonial Natchitoches, in northwestern Louisiana, there emerged a sophisticated and affluent community founded by a formerly enslaved family. Their plantations eventually encompassed 18,000 fertile acres, which they tilled alongside hundreds of their own bondsmen. Furnishings of quality and taste graced their homes, and private tutors educated their children. Cultured, deeply religious, and highly capable, Cane River's Creoles of color enjoyed economic privileges but led politically constricted lives. Like their white neighbors, most publicly supported the Confederacy and suffered the same depredations of war and political and social uncertainties of Reconstruction. Unlike white Creoles, however, they did not recover amid cycles of Redeemer and Jim Crow politics.
First published in 1977, The Forgotten People offers a socioeconomic history of this widely publicized but also highly romanticized community -- a minority group that fit no stereotypes, refused all outside labels, and still struggles to explain its identity in a world mystified by Creolism.
Now revised and significantly expanded, this time-honored work revisits Cane River's "forgotten people" and incorporates new findings and insight gleaned across thirty-five years of further research. This new edition provides a nuanced portrayal of the lives of Creole slaves and the roles allowed to freed people of color, tackling issues of race, gender, and slave holding by former slaves. The Forgotten People corrects misassumptions about the origin of key properties in the Cane River National Heritage Area and demonstrates how historians reconstruct the lives of the enslaved, the impoverished, and the disenfranchised.
How to cite: The Forgotten People: Cane River’s Creoles of Color
Source List Entry (Bibliography)
Mills, Gary B. and Elizabeth Shown Mills. The Forgotten People: Cane River’s Creoles of Color.
Rev. ed. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2013.
First Reference Note
Gary B. Mills and Elizabeth Shown Mills, The Forgotten People: Cane River’s Creoles
of Color, rev. ed. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2013), [specific page or item].
Subsequent Note
Mills and Mills, Forgotten People: Cane River’s Creoles of Color, rev. ed. [specific page or item].
Where to find: The Forgotten People: Cane River’s Creoles of Color
More About Isle of Canes
“Isle of Canes is the epic account of a multiracial family in Louisiana that, over four generations and more than 150 years, rose from the chains of slavery to rule the Isle of Canes. Historically accurate, Isle is a gripping tale of racial conflict, economic ruin, and family pride told against the backdrop of colonial and antebellum Lousiana.” —The publisher
“A masterpiece! You may never look at American history the same way again.”—Historical Novels Review
“In language that flows like poetry … issues of race and social standing are portrayed with an honesty that is rare in southern literature.” —City Social Magazine
“Mills is a master story teller, bringing to vivid life untold pieces of our country’s history.”—Lalita Tademy, author of New York Times best seller Cane River, an Oprah’s Book Club selection
How to cite Isle of Canes
Source List Entry (Bibliography)
Mills, Elizabeth Shown. Isle of Canes (Provo: Ancestry, 2004).
First Reference Note
Elizabeth Shown Mills, Isle of Canes (Provo: Ancestry, 2004), [specific page no.].
Subsequent Note
Mills, Isle of Canes, [specific page no.].
Where to find:
How to cite Tales of Old Natchitoches
Source List Entry (Bibliography)
Mills, Elizabeth Shown and Gary B. Mills Tales of Old Natchitoches. Natchitoches, La.: Association
for the Preservation of Historic Natchitoches, 1978.
First Reference Note
Elizabeth Shown Mills and Gary B. Mills. Tales of Old Natchitoches (Natchitoches, La.: Association
for the Preservation of Historic Natchitoches, 1978), [specific page no.].
Subsequent Note
Mills and Mills, Tales of Old Natchitoches, [specific page no.].
Where to find:
How to cite Tips & Quips for the Family Historian.
Source List Entry (Bibliography)
Mills, Elizabeth Shown and Ruth Brossette Lennon. Tips & Quips for the Family
Historian. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2017.
First Reference Note
Elizabeth Shown Mills and Ruth Brossette Lennon, Tips & Quips for the Family
Historian (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2017), [specific page no.].
Subsequent Note
Mills and Lennon, Tips & Quips for the Family Historian, [specific page no.].
Where to find:
How to cite “Marie Thérèse Coincoin (1742–1816)...”
Source List Entry (Bibliography)
Mills, Elizabeth Shown. “Marie Thérèse Coincoin (1742–1816): Cane River Slave, Slave Owner, and Paradox.”
Chapter 1. Janet Allured and Judith F. Gentry, eds. Louisiana Women: Their Lives and Times.
Athens, Ga.: University of Georgia Press. 2009.
First Reference Note
Elizabeth Shown Mills, “Marie Thérèse Coincoin (1742–1816): Cane River Slave,
Slave Owner, and Paradox,” chap. 1, Janet Allured and Judith F. Gentry, eds., Louisiana Women:
Their Lives and Times (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2009), 10–29, specifically
____ [specific page no.].
Subsequent Note
Mills, “Marie Thérèse Coincoin (1742–1816): Cane River Slave, Slave Owner, and Paradox,” [specific page no.].
Where to find:
How to cite “Missionaries Compromised"
Source List Entry (Bibliography)
Mills, Elizabeth Shown and Gary B. Mills. “Missionaries Compromised: Early Evangelization of Slaves
and Free People of Color in North Louisiana.” Glenn R. Conrad, ed. Cross, Crozier, and Crucible:
A Volume Celebrating the Bicentennial of a Catholic Diocese in Louisiana. Lafayette, La.:
Center for Louisiana Studies, 1993.
First Reference Note
Elizabeth Shown Mills and Gary B. Mills, “Missionaries Compromised: Early Evangelization of Slaves
and Free People of Color in North Louisiana,” Glenn R. Conrad, ed., Cross, Crozier, and Crucible:
A Volume Celebrating the Bicentennial of a Catholic Diocese in Louisiana (Lafayette, La.:
Center for Louisiana Studies, 1993), 30–47, specifically ___ [specific page no.].
Subsequent Note
Mills and Mills, “Missionaries Compromised,” [specific page no.].
Where to find:
Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans
How to cite “Ethnicity and the Southern Genealogist”
Source List Entry (Bibliography)
Mills, Elizabeth Shown. “Ethnicity and the Southern Genealogist Myths and Misconceptions,
Resources and Opportunities.” Robert M. Taylor Jr. and Ralph J. Crandall, eds.
Generations and Change: Genealogical Perspectives in Social History. Macon, Ga.:
Mercer University Press, 1986.
First Reference Note
Elizabeth Shown Mills, “Ethnicity and the Southern Genealogist: Myths and Misconceptions, Resources and Opportunities,”
chap. 5, Robert M. Taylor Jr. and Ralph J. Crandall, eds., Generations and Change: Genealogical Perspectives
in Social History (Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 1986), 89–108, specifically ___ [specific page no.].
Subsequent Note
Mills, “Ethnicity and the Southern Genealogist,” [specific page no.].
Where to find:
How to cite Natchitoches, 1729–1803
Source List Entry (Bibliography)
Mills, Elizabeth Shown. Natchitoches, 1729–1803: Abstracts of the Catholic
Church Registers of the French and Spanish Post of St. Jean Baptiste des
Natchitoches in Louisiana. New Orleans: Polyanthos, 1977.
First Reference Note
Elizabeth Shown Mills, Natchitoches, 1729–1803: Abstracts of the Catholic
Church Registers of the French and Spanish Post of St. Jean Baptiste des Natchitoches
in Louisiana (New Orleans: Polyanthos, 1977), [specific page and/or entry no.].
Subsequent Note
Mills, Natchitoches, 1729–1803, [specific page and/or entry].
Where to find:
How to cite Natchitoches, 1800–1826
Source List Entry (Bibliography)
Mills, Elizabeth Shown. Natchitoches, 1800–1826: Translated Abstracts of Register Number Five of the Catholic
Church Parish of St. François des Natchitoches in Louisiana. New Orleans: Polyanthos, 1980.
First Reference Note
Elizabeth Shown Mills, Natchitoches, 1800–1826: Translated Abstracts of Register Number Five of the Catholic
Church Parish of St. François des Natchitoches in Louisiana (New Orleans: Polyanthos. 1977), [specific page and/or entry no.].
Subsequent Note
Mills, Natchitoches, 1800–1826, [specific page and/or entry].
Where to find:
How to cite Natchitoches Church Marriages, 1818–1850
Source List Entry (Bibliography)
Mills, Elizabeth Shown. Natchitoches Church Marriages, 1818–1850: Translated Abstracts from the Registers of
St. François des Natchitoches, Louisiana. 1985. Reprint, Westminster, Md.: Heritage Books. 2003.
First Reference Note
Elizabeth Shown Mills, Natchitoches Church Marriages, 1818–1850: Translated Abstracts from the Registers of
St. François des Natchitoches, Louisiana (1985; reprint, Westminster, Md.: Heritage Books, 2003), [specific page and/or entry no.].
Subsequent Note
Mills, Natchitoches Church Marriages, 1818–1850, [specific page and/or entry].
Where to find:
How to cite Natchitoches Colonials
Source List Entry (Bibliography)
Mills, Elizabeth Shown and Ellie Lennon. Natchitoches Colonials—A Source Book: Censuses,
Military Rolls and Tax Lists, 1722–1803. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2017.
First Reference Note
Elizabeth Shown Mills and Ellie Lennon, Natchitoches Colonials—A Source Book: Censuses,
Military Rolls and Tax Lists, 1722–1803 (Baltimore:
Genealogical Publishing Co., 2017.), [specific page no.].
Subsequent Note
Mills and Lennon, Natchitoches Colonials, [specific page no.].
Where to find: