[WikiEN-l] Archives as sources proposal

[Oskar Sigvardsson]

On 4/14/06, Sean Barrett <sean at epoptic.org> wrote:
> I have a specific example: the Wikipedia article on a notable historical
> figure, like all other sources I have checked, states that he had two
> wives (in series, not parallel).  However, an official government-issued
> marriage certificate on file in a county clerk's office proves that he
> had another wife between those two.  What will I be permitted to add to
> this person's article?

Well, in your case, the archival material directly contradicts the
published result, then that may not be an appriopriate use of archival
material. I talking about cases like, was Nancy Reagan born in 1921 or
1923? Was Jennifer Lopez born in 1969 or 1970 (I use these two
examples only because they come to mind right now, I was looking
through WP:LAME earlier today :P)? Also, the article that started all
this [[Hopkins School]], also used archival sources in a pretty clear
way.

Having said that I don't think you should include archival information
in that specific situation (because of the contradiction thing), you
could if you wished write something like (now, this is without knowing
any specifics) "There exists a marriage liscense that suggests that he
may have been married inbetween these two marriges, however there are
no research to support this" or something a little bit slicker.

Your example is a very good counter-argument for why we should use
archival material sparingly, if at all, but I still think that it can
be very useful for finding out very specific things like dates of
birth and marriages, city-populations, etc. (hard data, that is).

--Oskar