Really, really important people and primary sources

Question

I was checking up on someone and found that at the 1881 census he was enumerated in the household of Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle along with the Queen, Prince Leopold etc. The Empress Eugenie was also in residence.  Very interesting, I thought. Then I realised I hardly ever see primary sources for these people. Do we all think it isn't necessary, after all the secondaries and tertiaries are good. Wouldn't want to clutter up QV's profile with that sort of thing tends to be my view. Just thinking aloud, really.

Answer 1

Must be the most tedious person on Wikitree in reminding people that we do all agree to add sources when we sign the Wikitree pledge, Thank you for noticing that critical profiles are sometimes unsourced, C. Mackinnon!  If we don't source it's hard to find duplicate profiles. Thank you!

Answer 2

It is a bit of a conundrum that we encourage the use of primary sources where we can find them but are happy to rely on secondary, or even as you say, tertiary sources for notables.

It is true that often the articles you can easily find for notables from the last 500 years or so, such as in Wikipedia, are often reasonably correct and well researched.  Though as someone pointed out in a G2G question recently Wikipedia doesn't encourage the use of primary sources.

Personally I think the priority is on those profiles that don't have any sources or dubious sources, but I don't think it hurts to add interesting information such as details from the 1881 census or other primary sources we come across to notable profiles.

If eventually the profiles on WikiTree for Queen Victoria or Empress Eugenie consist mostly of primary sources that confirm details about their personal life, and we link to Wikipedia or elsewhere for aspects of their history then I think that would be very useful.

Answer 3

I got inspired to find the birth record for Carl Ludvig Eugen Bernadotte (1826 - 1872), known as king Karl XV of Sweden and Norway.

Answer 4

I would love to see sources like these on Empress Eugénie's profile. I try to add the references of actual records for members of the great houses (mostly 19th sometimes earlier) each time I can (which does not amount to much I'm afraid). I certainly would not consider a reference to a census record "clutter".

It is funny because I would have liked to add Eugénie's maternal grandparents as they provide a great link to the Lesseps family. But I did not, because I had only Wikipedia's word for it. I thought that was not enough.

Comments

You're right Isabelle, the Wikipedia biographies for Empress Eugenie's parents aren't that good and seem to rely just on a couple of biographies of Napoleon III and don't actually have any inline citations.  They shouldn't be used as a sole source.

In contrast the French Wikipedia bio for Empress Eugenie herself looks like it is much better.