Primary documents say what they say. What later litigants, descendants, and advocates argue they meant is a separate question. A four-step method for distinguishing primary text from advocacy interpretation.
Spanish colonial law
When You Are Not the First Researcher in the Room: Working from Compiled Records Without Inheriting Their Conclusions
Compiled records, published articles, and family historian notebooks are research maps, not source documents. A four-step method for using another researcher’s work without adopting their conclusions.