Draft:Jane Scardefield

• Comment: Neither Family Search nor obituaries are considered reliable sources. You may find additional relevant information at WP:RS/P. UtherSRG (talk) 16:01, 19 May 2023 (UTC)
• Comment: UtherSRG, this is a little disorienting; here I was, thinking this was the sort of thing—i.e. talk—that one does on the talk page. Anyway, thanks for the heads up, but I have to admit, I went through both those articles and could find nothing related to obituaries, per se. However, I did come across this essay, and I can only guess that, much like its author, your concern lies in the potential for obits published by anyone other than well-established news sources to editorialize and/or inflate the accomplishments/notability of the deceased. However, the article in question—which, after all, is not even being cited to demonstrate notability—is not even an obit, but merely a funeral notice which happens to inform us when and where the party died, and then, halfway through (just so we know this is the same Jane Scardefield), mentions in passing, "She was a missionary for many years in Arabia for the Reformed Church of America." About as modest yet useful a funeral notice as any Wikipedian could hope for, I would've thought. As for Family Search, I initially wondered whether we might not actually be talking about FaG (which, of course, FS sometimes cites). But no; I did finally find a specific FS mention via the second link provided. That is surprising, although I notice it does at least offer the option of deploying with caution: "FamilySearch also hosts primary source documents, such as birth certificates, which may be usable in limited situations, as well as a large collection of digitized books, which should be evaluated on their own for reliability. When using primary source documents from FamilySearch, follow WP:BLPPRIMARY and avoid interpreting them with original research." Well, unless balancing info given in two immigration applications against that given in two Census forms and coming up with what seems the only possible answer amounts to original research, I think I'm in the clear; nothin' original in this noggin. But then again, I'm just passin' through. Good luck; here's hoping this house gets built, one of these not-too-distant days. DavidESpeed (talk) 23:04, 19 May 2023 (UTC)
• Comment: UtherSRG and Mejoel, I almost forgot the most important thing! I couldn't help but notice that, for what appears to be the entirety of her missionary career, Scardefield was not referred to as Jane, but rather Jennie Scardefield (both with and without the middle initial), so you can find plenty of building materials at NPC, as well as full-text public domain stuff via Google Books, and of course also at Internet Archive. Once again, good luck! DavidESpeed (talk) 23:08, 19 May 2023 (UTC)

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Jane A. Scardefield (August 10, 1871 – March 1, 1952) was among the first single women who joined the Arabian Mission, to serve as a teacher and nurse.

American Missionaries working