Dear Pam,
I sight the origin of this information at the end of the email Try going
the Central Michigan University Clarke Historical Library web site and
searching for Carpenter bios. I mean you no harm. I am hoping that my
endeavors will help someone with their search. I am posting Carpenter bios
that are on now available through online publishing. Its a wonderful
resource.
Yours,
Nancy
----- Original Message -----
From: Pamela Berger
To: gliving(a)ckt.net ; berger(a)netstream.net
Sent: Sunday, January 28, 2001 7:57 PM
Subject: Re: [CARPENTER] Charles D. Carpenter
What is the name of the book in which this was published? All of these. Who
wrote or edited the book? A reader might like to know if the author was an
eminent historian or a high schooler working on a history project. Where
was it published and by whom--one might be able to judge the accuracy of the
data by whether it is a respected publishing house or something that was
made up in someone's basement on a mimeograph machine. Was it published
contemporaneously or a hundred years later? Where in the hundreds of pages
does the information appear? To be useful a citation must include: author's
and publisher's names, place and year of publication (or copyright year),
and hopefully the volume and pages on which the material appears. All of
these wonderful references you are sending to the list need the citations
given with them or they are next to useless to other researchers. For the
material already sent is it possible to go back and make a list of the
subject's name and source information so we can get it into the archives for
future reference? This way others could actually use the material that all
your hard work has brought to the attention of the list.
It's easy to forget to copy down this information or to miss it and get home
with pages that have no attribution. The name of the library is not usually
that helpful--the book could be in any library or be obtained by
interlibrary loan if only one knew what to ask for. In order to use the
information it is necessary to know is what book, newspaper, magazine, or
whatever it came from. There are several reasons for this. First, to give
proper credit to the author and to assure that one does not accidentally
infringe copyright if the material is not in the public domain. (Most old
books would have expired copyrights now.) Secondly, one needs to be able to
verify the information independently in order to judge how reliable it is
and to have one's research taken seriously by other genealogists. Every
genealogy should cite the sources for all important information. What I do
to help myself when I am copying things from many books and places is to
also copy both sides of the title page of each book and staple it with the
information I have copied. (I also jot down the call number in case I want
to find it again easily at that library, but we don't need that information
here.)
I don't want to harp on this but this is basic to genealogical or any other
type of research. There are books available through
www.ancestry.com (or
perhaps at your local genealogical library) that give more detail and
explain why proper citations are so important. If you are taking all the
time to gather and share these, (which is a really great thing to do that
will help many people), you may as well take just another moment to do it
properly. Maybe consider taking a trip back to the library and writing
down the citations for future postings if you did not write this information
down originally. Please do not take offense, as I mean this in a spirit of
sisterhood in the hobby we both obviously love. I don't want to embarrass
you so I am sending this off-list.
Best wishes. Pam
date, city
gliving wrote:
Charles D. Carpenter, merchant, Big Rapids, was born in Lawrenceville, St.
Lawrence Co, NY , Sept 7 1856. He is the son of John T. and Emily (Blish)
Carpenter. His father was a physician of prominence and gave his son a
good
education sending him to the common school until 12 years of age and to
the
Academy at Lawrenceville until he was 18 years old.
At that age Mr. Carpenter came to Big Rapids and engaged with the
mercantile
firm of Phelps & Parker as clerk. He acted in this capacity six months,
when he bought the interest of Mr. Phelps and the house became Parker &
Carpenter. My Parker died May 7, 1882, and his widow soon after sold her
husband's share of the business to the remaining partner and his brother
Frank R. Carpenter, M.D. They operated together one year and May 26,
1883,
Mr. Carpenter of this sketch became sole proprietor of the establishment
by
purchase. He carries an average stock of about $20,000 value in dry
goods,
carpets, sewing-machines, etc. and transacts, annually an amount of
business
aggregating $70,000.
Mr. Carpenter was married at Kvart, Newaygo Co,. Oct. 19, 1881 to Nettie
E.,
daughter of Howard and Jeannette Wiltse. She was born at Kvart, May 14,
1857, and her parents were among the earliest settlers of Newaygo County.
Her father came to Mecosta County 1860 and died at Big Rapids in 1865.
Her
mother died in 1857. The father of Mr. Carpenter died April 30, 1869: his
mother is yet living at Lawrenceville. Mrs. Carpenter was a teacher at
Big
Rapids six years.
This is from Central Michigan University Clarke Historical Library.