Examples: American Revolution

Primary Sources: Writings by Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, writings by Thomas Paine, etc.

Secondary Sources: a Social Studies Textbook, writings by someone in the mid-1800s, your history professor telling stories of the Revolutionary War, nonfiction books from your local library.

Primary Sources often include newspaper articles, magazines or catalogs from a particular time period or genre, political documents, diaries, interviews, etc.

Ken Burns’ series on the Civil War included MANY primary sources.

For a clear explanation see also http://library.albany.edu/usered/basics/primary.html

Good luck in your quest.

they may be identical–for example:

my primary source for groceries is the HEB (name of local g stores in Texas) on west main and my secondary source is the heb on newton ave.