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Guide to the Mayflower Descendant Style and Submitting Articles The journal contents are dependent on reader submissions. Many of them are written by first-time article writers. It may seem a daunting task by the uninitiated, but realize that you have editors here to assist you through the process. Hopefully this guide will help you start the process. Most new authors find it a rewarding experience, though more work than they initially thought. In the end, everyone benefits from your effort. We encourage you to read further and learn how you can join the "team" of authors. Will you want my article? This is the first question to ask yourself regardless of where you want to submit your article. Journals vary regarding the type of material they publish. The Mayflower Descendant publishes articles related in some way to the genealogy, history, or records that concern the Mayflower passengers, their ancestors, or descendants. That being said, common themes of articles are:
This is by no means an exclusive list. If you have an idea for an article that does not fall into one of the above categories, please email the editor to enquire if your idea is suited for the journal. It is actually a good idea to email with any article concept before writing it as the editor may know of others doing the same thing or if it was published elsewhere. How should I write the article? Every journal has a "style" of how information is written. The most well known is the Register style. Another common one is the modified-Register style that is often called the NGSQ style. The MD style is another version and a modernization of the Register style that is outlined below. Always write your article in the style of the journal to which you are submitting. The key element above all is consistency. You would be surprised to learn how often data is written in random order or citations to the same source differ in title or form. If you have any questions, always email the editor first.
The Mayflower Descendant Style for Genealogical Articles First, the journal is edited in the pc-based Microsoft Word program utilizing "styles" (a way Word uses sets of formatting commands). If you are unfamiliar with Word styles, a short conversation with the editor can explain how to use them. Electronic drafts are generally send back and forth between the editor and the author throughout the process. The author always sees the final version before publication. The edits are usually made directly into the Word file. The Mac version of Word is usually fine to view and edit the less formatted files, but text will "flow" in heavily formatted articles. Images are always inserted after the editing is completed because of the "flow" issue. The discussion that follows covers the different parts of an article. The verbiage can sometimes make the process sound more complicated than it is. Look for the links to visual samples at the end of this page. Introduction Every article starts with a paragraph or more of introduction that states the problem being addressed in the article, any previously published (or online) articles, and what the author aims to prove. Every previously written work named in the text should be a short title or description and the footnote to each carry the full citation to the source. Some articles develop a case for their reasoning and thus describe a source-by-source analysis of the data used to solve the problem. Take great care in presenting the material in a logical manner. Flowery prose or phrases such as "then I went to the most beautiful building that housed the archives" descriptor that do not impact the genealogical reasoning will be edited out. Be careful to fully document each fact with a full footnote citation. A common mistake is to use your determination as the reason for certain research. The meat of the article is the genealogical summary at the end of a problem-solving article and the bulk of the general genealogical article. Each sketch (i.e. family group) in the genealogy has three or four sections: genealogical summary of the subject of the sketch; the biography of the subject, spouses, spouses' other spouse(s), and parents of each; the children; and sometimes the grandchildren. Genealogical summary The genealogical summary is a single paragraph that includes all the vital records information regarding the subject, all spouses, and all spouses' other spouses. The design of this important paragraph is to set the boundary of this sketch and name all the major players involved. The order of the data is very rigid. This is where the Register style is modified to make the sentence structure more readable. Two rules to follow in this section regard places and dates. The towns are always listed first when they are known and written "in Plymouth" and the preposition "at" is for a sub-section or specific location within the town such as "at Jordan Hospital, Plymouth" or "at the North End of Boston." Place names without a state listed are assumed to be in Massachusetts. Places that are only state names have their name spelled out, otherwise use the old standard postal abbreviations (not the new two-letter designations) so it would be "in Springfield, Vt." For places outside of New England, include the then current county and if the name has changed, include that in parentheses. An example is Dresden, Charlotte Co. (now Washington Co.), N.Y. If Dresden is mentioned again in the paragraph, there is no need to repeat the county and state as it is assumed to be the same place. Dates are written out always in day-month-year order as in 4 January 1732/3. A generic outline is: [for a visual example, see samples and link at the end of the page]
Biographical section This section is more a free-form style. It is usually written in chronological order giving all biographical information you can find regarding the subject, parents, spouse, or spouse's parents or other spouses. The last paragraph is commonly a probate record of the last surviving spouse. The section can truly include any relevant data. Some types of records included here can be land, town, and church records. Military service can be given. Words are spelled out in this section with the exception of titles (Dea., Esq., etc.) affixed to names and state names (Vt., Conn., etc., unless there is no town given). This whole section uses the "Text Indent" style for its formatting. Kids section The most notable items in this section are the strong use of abbreviations and punctuation (i.e. phrases instead of complete sentences). The header to this section uses the "Kids Intro" style and uses the husband's and wife's names together, with generational numbers, and only a middle initial even when the full middle name is known for the parents. The data on the children utilizes the "Kids" style. If a child is carried on later, an Arabic number denoting their sketch number is placed first followed by a tab. Lower case Roman numerals followed by a period and tab which number the children. The first child's name is entered in Title Case and this name is formatted with the "Kids Name" style. The rest of this section is the same as the Genealogical Summary described above, but using abbreviations and punctuation instead of an English sentence structure. Each line (i.e. child) has at least three parts: birth and death data on child; marriage event data; and birth and death data of the spouse. These three parts are separated by a semi-colon and all other data is separated by a comma. Grandkids section If this section exists, it follows the same rules as the Kids section with two exceptions. All the styles used are "Grandkids" instead of "Kids" and the "numbering" of the grandchildren is by lower-case letters without anything preceding the letter.
These articles also start with one or more introductory paragraphs explaining the special qualities of the records being copied. The records themselves are best presented in the original order and reasonably close to the format of the original. Full names are commonly bolded so the reader can locate the record of interest from the index easier.
BEFORE YOU START WRITING ... Creating and working with styles in Word is not easy for anyone at first. To help with this issue, the author should start typing the article using the formatted Word file from this website. It contains all the styles needed already imbedded along with the general page layout set. Please download this "md-style" file to your computer and feel free to use it for your submission. [download md-style file]
For a visual example of the discussion above, see the images below. For a higher resolution, printable pdf file of the same, download that file here.
© Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants, Braintree, Mass., 2010 Please report any broken links, additions, or corrections to the webmaster. Page updated 14 January 2010
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