Elizabeth Shown Mills is a great contributor to the genealogical community. She has given us great examples to help us cite our sources in Evindenced Explained and provided wonderful guidance on many genealogical topics in Professonal Genealogy. This week she launched her new website, Historic Pathways!

There are many opportunities for self education using the tools she provided on this awesome website. Under the tab, “Articles we find subheadings: Community Studies, Historiography & Genealogical Theory, Individual Case Studies, Professional Issues, and Research Reports. She has provided several articles under these categories for us to read and learn thru her experiences.

She also has a section where she will list her books she has written. While I knew about many of them, there was a couple I did not know about. Her books are divided between Professional Works and Popular History.

Elizabeth Shown Mills has another section where she lists links to sites she feels are valuable to visit. They are divided between Organizations and Commercial Sites. Personally, if Elizabeth Shown Mills feels these links are worth visiting, I am definitely going to check them out and see if I can benefit from them as well.

While the entire website is very well done, I believe the Articles section will be the most beneficial to the genealogist in his educational endeavors. Read the articles and think about how you can use the experience or skills discussed in your own personal research.

You will notice the phrase, “How to Cite” written frequently throughout the website. I recommend taking time to click on these and see how it applies to the article it is citing. As you get use to seeing citations, they will become more familiar and easier to do within your own personal work.

Elizabeth Shown Mills shares her vision for this website, Historic Pathways, “For a lifetime, I have pursued those whom history has forgotten. Many have teased me through trails of burned-out courthouses and decades in which no census takers found their cabins. Most have challenged me to separate their identities from hordes of other same-name people. Many have rewarded me. Some of their stories I have told already—as tales, as essays in scholarly journals, or in books of various ilk. At this site, as time allows, I hope to share their stories with those of you who might care to follow them down the pathways these men and women quietly blazed through our nation's past."

I am excited and looking forward to visiting “Historic Pathways” often and taking advantage of this new FREE educational opportunity.