Talk:Jessie Kerr Lawson

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The following references may be useful when improving this article in the future:

"Jessie Kerr Lawson". Database of Canadian Early Women Writers. Simon Fraser University.
"Jessie Kerr Lawson". Canada's Early Women Writers. Canadian Writing Research Collaboratory.
Shields, Juliet. "Jessie Kerr Lawson". Scottish Women Writers on the Web. Note: This site does not appear to qualify as a WP:RS, but may provide information that can be corroborated by and cited to another reference.
"Jessie Kerr-Lawson, a remarkable lady". Leader-Post. Regina, Saskatchewan. November 24, 1955. p. 17. Note: the link has a poorly OCRed text ("Show 17 article text"); a letter by one of Kerr Lawson's grandchildren. I don't have access to newspapers.com, but an inquiry at WP:REX may be able to get it for you
Edwards, David Herschell (1890). Modern Scottish Poets: With Biographical and Critical Notices. D. H. Edwards. p. 239.
Lang, Marjory (1999). Women Who Made the News: Female Journalists in Canada, 1880-1945. McGill-Queen's Press. p. 51. ISBN 978-0-7735-1838-4.

Andrew Lawson[edit]

Which source states that this Andrew Lawson is her son? I note he is not mentioned at [1]. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 18:21, 15 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Gråbergs Gråa Sång: [2] mentions this. I am just a beginner, so I don't yet know how to reference this.Alison hunter (talk) 21:52, 15 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Update: when I scrolled down, I did see Andrew Lawson mentioned at the link you cite above. Alison hunter (talk) 22:13, 15 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Alison hunter, that I missed, thanks. As for referencing stuff, take a look at Help:Referencing for beginners and/or User:Nick Moyes/Easier Referencing for Beginners. There's a semi-automatic tool that's pretty good once you get the hang of it. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 00:04, 16 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Gråbergs Gråa Sång Thank you very much! Alison hunter (talk) 17:50, 16 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Near Edinburgh?[edit]

St Monans is 70km (43 miles) from Edinburgh by road. It's all relative I suppose, but as someone who lives there, I wouldn't really say I live near Edinburgh. And in fact it would have been much further in Jessie's day, because the Forth Bridge wouldn't have been built. Should I change it to say the actual distance? I'm new here so not sure about things. Alison hunter (talk) 22:00, 15 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

WP has a lot of policies and guidelines, but it's seldom wrong to start with WP:BOLD. Make the changes you think are good. If someone changes again (that's sort of the point of a wiki), you can decide what to do then, more at WP:BRD. Fwiw I agree, either put distance, direction or both. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 00:11, 16 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I can't actually find a reference to Jessie being born in St Monans. Can anyone help? Alison hunter (talk) 17:36, 16 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

[3] Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 17:58, 16 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Gråbergs Gråa Sång: Interesting! The phrase used is "hails from" which is ambiguous. It doesn't necessarily mean the place you're born. She may have moved there as a young child and felt that it was her home. So she would say she hails from there. We have stated she was born there. One of the other references states she was born in Edinburgh. Is there a way of checking? Do you think we should? Alison hunter (talk) 19:32, 16 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Interesting indeed! You're right that "hails from" is ambiguous. Well, this is where we WP-editors earn our abundant pay-checks. Should we include both "opinions", should we exclude one because the other source is "better", should we look for more sources and try to weigh them? I'm likely to be ok with anything you decide. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 10:42, 17 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Incorrect citation?[edit]

The link indicated by the number 2 doesn't seem relevant to this article? Alison hunter (talk) 22:16, 15 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The Stout book? The page linked to does give information on Jessie Kerr Lawson for which it's cited. What seems wrong to you? TJRC (talk) 22:47, 15 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@TJRC: Yes, the Stout book. None of the Lawsons highlighted are Jessie as far as I can see? Alison hunter (talk) 22:51, 15 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Hopefully TJRC has access to the whole book, but from a googlesnippet [4] I get "Jessie Kerr Lawson became a well known writer of Scottish stories and verses." so it should be in there. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 00:18, 16 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I don't have access to the entire book, but here's the passage I see from the link in the article:

A native of Canada, W.L. Lawson... married Jessie Kerr, who was born in Edinboro, Scotland in 1838, and died in Toronto, Canada, in 1917, having survived him five years. Jessie Kerr Lawson became a well known writer of Scottish stories and verses.

TJRC (talk) 00:26, 16 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Google gives us different lines, then. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 00:32, 16 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Try this link; page 19, column 2, paragraph 2. Can you see it there? I see no text from the link you have above. TJRC (talk) 01:03, 16 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

If I "search inside" for "jessie kerr" in your latest link I see it. Also works with the searchbox in the link in the article. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 01:26, 16 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I added this source originally based on the above Google snippet (...who was born in Edinboro, Scotland in 1838...") as a confirmation of her birth and death dates. I don't see any reason to question it. ThatMontrealIP (talk) 03:03, 16 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

No. Well, I have to say I've never heard of Edinboro. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 08:59, 16 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@TJRC: @Gråbergs Gråa Sång: Ah! The "google snippet" that I see when I click on the wee number 2 is obviously different from the ones you do. I have no idea why that would be the case? Alison hunter (talk) 16:53, 16 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I have also just noticed that the article about Jessie on the Simon Fraser website suggests that her husband was born in Anstruther (Scotland) which contradicts what it says in the Stout book, i.e. that her husband was a native of Canada. For the purposes of this article, it perhaps doesn't matter, but you may be interested to know that @TJRC:. Alison hunter (talk) 16:59, 16 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Like private parts to Google are we, the play with us for their sport. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 17:01, 16 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Alison hunter: for copyright reasons, Google only provides snippets where they do not have the right to display the entire page. Being also somewhat good with programming, they obfuscate the information a bit when doing so, depending on where you are searching from, among many other secret variables.ThatMontrealIP (talk) 00:21, 17 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Reliable_sources/Noticeboard#The_Canadian_Writing_Research_Collaboratory[edit]

For the interested. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 08:38, 16 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Google Search on Jessie takes me to the talk page rather than the article[edit]

Is that unusual? That's surely not what we want? Alison hunter (talk) 17:39, 16 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Currently I get the article first with the talkpage just below. Perhaps it'll sort itself out when the algorithms get more to work with. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 10:45, 17 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Alison hunter: Google is a different company than Wikipedia. We are not connected and have very, very little control over their results. This question and the one above about Snippets are not under our control.ThatMontrealIP (talk) 12:01, 17 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

That said, a WP-article on something is likely to be at least near the top of a google-search. Which IMO is one of the cool things about creating a WP-article about something. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 12:08, 17 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]