Genealogists and historians often look at the same data but for
very different reasons. There are occasional conflicts between the two, especially
when deciding how to allocate funds at a library or archive. Each audience believes
it should receive more attention than the other when budgets are prepared.
While historians and genealogists might scowl at one another across
reading tables in archives, they have begun to reach some common ground on the
Internet. A look at genealogy and history websites demonstrates the efforts
of each group to adopt what is best about the other, if for no other reason
than that the Web's accessibility to the public means that the intended audience
for the material is, de facto, much broader than either group has ever
before considered.
You can find a great discussion of this at Common-Place. Look here.
My thanks to Paul W. Romaine for telling me about this interesting
Web page.
Dick Eastman Online
