Documentation

WARNING: Do not cite this page as a reference. This page is on this wikispace only to make the content "searchable" and easier to find. If you find the information you seek here, go to the original sources as linked below to verify the information and use them for your documentation.

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Resources:

Alys's Simple Guide to Summarizing Name Documentation, Proceedings of the 2015 KWHSS - https://heraldry.sca.org/kwhss/2015/Alys%20Simple%20Guide%20to%20Summarizing%20Name%20Documentation.pdf

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Precedents:

Precedents of the SCA College of Arms - [[1]] Morsulus Heralds Website - [[2]] (to search the LoARs and Precedents) Restatement Wiki - [[3]] (restatements of Precedents) Use the above links to be sure any precedents listed below haven't been superseded by newer precedents.

From the October 2014 Cover Letter: From Pelican: Unpublished Sources and Documentation Marked Private:

Recently, we've seen commentary stating that unpublished sources and items marked private in OSCAR cannot be used as documentation. This is not true. As mentioned in the September 2014 Cover Letter, only certain OSCAR users have the permissions to see the entire packet. We mark some documents private in order to safeguard personally identifiable information like legal names and dates of birth. The Sovereigns of Arms, Laurel staff members, Principal Heralds, and Submissions Heralds are able to view these materials. In other words, just because you can't see something doesn't mean that no one else can. Similarly, we routinely use sources and information not present in the Letter of Intent and commentary in order to make our decisions. Some of this research is provided directly by staff, found during the decision meeting, or located by the Sovereigns of Arms. We try to identify such external sources in the Letters of Acceptances and Returns if they had a bearing on a decision.

In the case of unpublished works, we scrutinize them just like any other source. Whether or not a source is considered to be reliable depends on several factors, not the least of which is the quality of past books or articles by the same author. As long as the required copies are provided for sources not yet readily available to the general public, we will continue to evaluate the information as we normally do, and will not treat these sources differently from ones already in print.
http://heraldry.sca.org/loar/2014/10/14-10cl.html

From the March 2014 Cover Letter: From Laurel: Translations of Documentation The Admin Handbook states that, "translations must be provided for any sources not in English". In a name submission this month a translation was not provided, and the question was raised whether the documentation needed to be provided in English in order to consider the item. The answer is that it depends on the source and the nature of the documentation. Rarely do we need to translate entire documents. Usually, we just need the critical information, with enough context to interpret it - this could just be a sentence or two, or up to a few paragraphs, depending on the complexity of the information. For example, we might need just a sentence of a legal document showing a name in context, or a paragraph from a museum description of an extant piece being used to document a heraldic charge. An obvious list of names generally doesn't need a translation. We understand that submitters, consulting heralds, and kingdom heralds may not have the expertise to provide translations of every language we encounter, and that automated translation systems do not always provide good results. If this is the case, please state this in the Letter of Intent, and provide the text in question (and even a partial translation, if possible) so that the information can be discussed in commentary. http://heraldry.sca.org/loar/2014/03/14-03cl.html

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Created {$creationdate}