Field Guides
Field Guides for Reading American Memory
The Foundations of US Americans helps readers study places, records, stories, and public-history claims with care. These field guides are practical worksheets for source-aware learning. They are built for Foundational Black Americans first, White Americans second, and Americans broadly who want to understand the record without turning open questions into false certainty.
Choose your path
Start with a place, a source, or a claim. Each path keeps source type, claim status, privacy risk, and evidence limits visible before public wording is strengthened.
What these field guides add
- They turn vague research energy into a bounded next step with visible evidence standards.
- They help readers decide whether they need a place packet, a source table, or a claim-review lane before stronger language is used.
- They add practical learning value by making privacy, uncertainty, and review gates part of the workflow instead of afterthoughts.
You should leave knowing which guide fits the question and what kind of review needs to happen next.
Start with a place
Use the Place Packet to record location, date range, maps, institutions, open questions, and next source checks.
Best when geography, institutions, routes, and local records are the fastest way to narrow the question.
Place HubsMapsOpen Questions
Start with a source
Use the Source Table to separate exact source details from interpretation, privacy risk, claim wording, and follow-up work.
Best when one document, ledger, map, directory, or archive item is already in front of you and needs careful labeling first.
Source ReviewEvidence LevelPrivacy
Start with a claim
Use the Claim Review Card when a statement touches identity, descent, Muur/Moor language, spiritual interpretation, oral tradition, or living people.
Best when the wording is the real risk and the main job is to separate what is supported from what still needs review.
Claim StatusEvidence GatesNo Certification
Evidence gate reminder
These guides do not certify identity, ancestry, descent, tribe, nationality, DNA, legal status, membership, Muur/Moor claims, spiritual interpretation, or oral-tradition claims. They help readers collect sources, label uncertainty, and decide what needs review before stronger wording is used.
Muur and Moor note: Muur history and Moor history may appear near each other in public conversation, but they are not the same claim set. Keep labels source-specific. Do not use one tradition, name, spelling, or interpretation to certify another.
Goal-Aligned Workflow
Pick the outcome before the worksheet
Use these goal paths to move from a reader question to the right field guide, review gate, and public-safe next step. The goal is usable learning, not certification.
What these goal paths add
- They help readers choose a route by desired outcome instead of filling in the wrong worksheet first.
- They make the site more useful for beginners, contributors, and teachers by clarifying what kind of output each lane is designed to produce.
- They keep public-safe next steps visible before anyone mistakes process completion for proof.
You should leave with a clearer destination, a better fit between question and workflow, and a more realistic sense of what the process can and cannot settle.
Beginner path
Start a place-based research packet
Best when a reader arrives with a town, river, cemetery, church, school, neighborhood, archive, or place-hub question.
- Open the Place Packet and write the location, time range, public sources, and open questions.
- Use the Source Table for each map, record, directory, ledger, park page, or public-history source.
- Route sensitive wording through Evidence Gates before turning notes into public copy.
Contributor path
Prepare a community note safely
Best when a contributor wants to suggest a correction, add context, or submit a source lead without exposing private family details.
- Use the Contributor Workflow to define the page, claim, source holder, and proposed safer wording.
- Check Safe Sharing for living-person, private-record, and sensitive family material risks.
- Submit only source-aware context, uncertainty labels, and redacted public details.
Claim-review path
Turn a strong claim into a review card
Best when wording touches ancestry, identity, descent, DNA, legal status, Muur/Moor language, spiritual interpretation, oral tradition, or living people.
- Copy the exact claim into the Claim Review Card without strengthening it.
- Separate what the source supports from what remains open, debated, sensitive, or unsupported.
- Move the claim through Evidence Gates before public promotion or stronger wording.
Teaching path
Run a classroom or reading-group session
Best for teachers, homeschool groups, reading circles, and community educators using FOBA as a source-literacy environment.
- Choose one place hub, one source type, and one learning question.
- Use Classroom Use guidance to keep students focused on source type, date, place, claim status, and what remains unknown.
- Avoid exercises that ask learners to prove personal ancestry, legal identity, tribal membership, nationality, or spiritual status.
Before publishing
These guides do not certify identity, ancestry, descent, tribe, nationality, DNA, legal status, membership, Muur/Moor claims, spiritual interpretation, or oral-tradition claims. They help readers collect sources, label uncertainty, and decide what needs review before stronger wording is used.
Do not publish stronger wording until source review is complete. A completed workflow is process evidence, not proof of identity, descent, legal status, membership, Muur/Moor claims, spiritual interpretation, or oral-tradition claims.
Printable worksheets
Open a worksheet, fill it in during research, and use your browser print command when a paper copy helps. These are learning aids, not proof or certification.
What these worksheets add
- They turn browsing into documented research by forcing the reader to name source type, claim status, place, and uncertainty.
- They give classrooms, families, and independent learners a repeatable structure that keeps evidence and interpretation from blurring together.
- They make the next review step visible before a note turns into public wording.
What remains open: A completed worksheet is still a working packet. It may need Source Review, Claim Review, Community Notes, Fact Check, or Safe Sharing before the material is ready for public reuse.
Place Packet Worksheet
Build a place-based packet with maps, records, institutions, timeline notes, open questions, and safe-sharing limits.
Use this when the place itself is the clearest way to organize the research before person-level claims get stronger.
Place HubsMapsOpen Questions
Source Table Worksheet
Separate exact source details, interpretation, privacy risk, claim wording, and follow-up checks before publishing.
Use this when one record or source item needs careful labeling before you decide what it can support.
Source ReviewEvidence LevelPrivacy
Claim Review Card
Turn a strong claim into a reviewable card: what it says, what supports it, what remains open, and safer wording.
Use this when the wording is riskier than the source packet and you need to slow the claim down before sharing it.
Claim StatusEvidence GatesNo Certification
Classroom Use Guide
Use field guides in classrooms, reading groups, and community education without turning learning exercises into certification.
Use this when the real task is teaching source habits and discussion boundaries rather than proving a conclusion.
EducationDiscussionReader Care
Contributor Workflow
Prepare a community note or fact-check request with source details, claim wording, uncertainty labels, and privacy review.
Use this when a reader has a correction, source lead, or question that needs a safer path into public review.
Community NotesFact CheckSafe Sharing
Finish Line
After the worksheet, choose the safest next action
A completed field guide is a working packet. It helps organize evidence, but it does not certify identity, ancestry, descent, legal status, membership, Muur/Moor claims, spiritual interpretation, or oral-tradition claims.
What this finish line adds
- It prevents readers from treating a filled worksheet as the end of the work.
- It turns the last step into a public-safety decision: keep private, move into review, or submit a bounded note.
- It adds accountability by making the handoff into Source Review, Safe Sharing, Community Notes, or Fact Check explicit.
You should leave knowing the safest next action for the material you collected, not just feeling done because the form is full.
Keep it private until reviewed
Hold back living-person details, private family material, and sensitive identity language until Safe Sharing and Evidence Gates are checked.
Review Safe SharingMove sources into a review lane
Use Source Review or Claim Review when a worksheet points to identity, descent, legal status, Muur/Moor language, oral tradition, or spiritual interpretation.
Open Source ReviewChoose the public-safe action
Submit a Community Note for context, request a Fact Check for disputed claims, or keep the packet as private working notes.
Prepare a Community NoteWhat these guides add
- They give readers a repeatable method for collecting facts, tensions, source types, and wording limits before a claim gets repeated as settled.
- They make fieldwork visible by showing how a place visit, source table, or claim review should be structured rather than left to memory and intuition.
- They reduce low-value reading by turning passive browsing into documented comparison, note-taking, and review decisions.
Choose your path
Start with a place, a source, or a claim. If you are visiting a site, use the Place Packet. If you are reading records, use the Source Table. If a claim involves identity, ancestry, descent, legal status, Muur/Moor history, oral tradition, spiritual interpretation, or living people, use the Claim Review Card and route it through Evidence Gates before publishing.
- Start Here for the learning path.
- Place Hubs, Wiki, and Field Notes for source trails.
- Source Review, Claim Review, and Evidence Gates before stronger wording.
- Safe Sharing, Community Notes, and Fact Check before public contribution.
- Corrections Log, Editorial Standards, Privacy Policy, Disclosures, and Ad Policy for trust and review rules.
What a reader should leave with
A completed worksheet should leave you with better questions, cleaner source labels, a visible uncertainty trail, and a concrete decision about whether a claim is ready for public wording, needs more evidence, or should stop at a note.
Evidence gate reminder: These guides do not certify identity, ancestry, descent, tribe, nationality, DNA, legal status, membership, Muur/Moor claims, spiritual interpretation, or oral-tradition claims. They help readers collect sources, label uncertainty, and decide what needs review before stronger wording is used.
Muur and Moor note: Muur history and Moor history may appear near each other in public conversation, but they are not the same claim set. Keep labels source-specific. Do not use one tradition, name, spelling, or interpretation to certify another.