I wrote the following in 1993:
Several years ago FRECOGs had Ronald BREMER as a speaker. Among other things, he is editor of Genealogy Digest. I was going through some files and found my notes on records references he discussed. He broke sources into 2 groups-Bad and Good. The Bad list first: family tradition, printed family history, DAR lineage books, census, tombstone, death certificate, obituaries, general reference works, family groups sheets, and Adamic lineages.
I can hear you mumbling, "What else is there?" The good list: Judicial court records, property transfer records, probate records, qualified vital records (birth, death, marriage, divorce, sexton records, adoption, founding, orphan court, and bastardy bonds), church records-denominational yearbooks, fraternal societies-Mason, alliances-as in immigrant, life insurance companies, military-adjunct general office and militia lists, and stories in newspapers-but not obituaries.
Woe to you who use poor references-document your sources.