When:  Saturday, May 4, 2024, 10 am to 12 noon
Where:  Virtual meeting via Zoom (open to public)
Subject: Presentism
Title:

Our Founding Fathers would What? Presentism in Genealogical & Historical Research

 

Presentism is a type of historical bias in which our understanding of the present influences or clouds how we evaluate and interpret the past. Historians take great pains to avoid presentism—and genealogists should be on guard for it also. History scholar and professor Donna Cox Baker will define presentism for us and give examples of it. She will also explain how presentism may impair the craft of family history including the types of research questions we craft, the selection of research sources, and the interpretation of the data we find in our sources.

 

Registration for this program opens on Monday, April 29, 2024 for both members and non-members.

 

Members, use the link in the email you will receive on Monday, April 29 to register, or log into the website, go to Members Only and select Meeting Registration.  Member registration fee is $5.00.

 

Non-members, use this link beginning on Monday, April 29, either to register as a non-member for $10.00, or to join BCGS and register as a member for a total fee of $25.00.

 

This presentation will be recorded.  Only members who have registered for this program as members will be able to view it for 30 days following the program date, by logging in to the website and selecting "Meeting registration" from the Members-Only menu.

Speaker:

  Donna Cox Baker

 

Donna Cox Baker
  BCGS regulars will recall Donna Cox Baker from her well-received presentations on the use of Zotero in genealogical research. We are delighted to have her return to present to us again. Donna Cox Baker has a PhD in history and recently retired from a career in historical publishing. She began her journey in genealogy in 1985, and her love for history followed. In the past decade, she began to integrate genealogy into her historical profession and created a side business that blends them in a hybrid form she calls genohistory (see Genohistory.com). Zotero was her essential tool for her PhD dissertation work. She later realized its value for genealogy and applied it to that career. She has written two related books: Zotero for Genealogy: Harnessing the Power of Your Research and The Zotero Solution: Knowledge Management for the Scholarly Researcher.