Tackling Your Most Feared Genealogy Duty

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Citation Needed:March for Science in Washington, DC by Adam Fagen on Flickr

Citations! So necessary to our work, and so dreaded. We all know we will thank ourselves later if we write them, but somehow..... don't. 

Why do we need them? Of course we want to keep track of what and where we found the source of the information we're using in our research and writing. That is our duty to ourselves. 

However, to me, the most important aspect of writing citations is analysis.


Analysis

What is this record? Who created it, when and where, and who collected and kept it safe? Who was the informant? Did that person have any reason to give less than accurate information? 

What am I looking at? Is it a digital copy, digital microfilm, in color, or black and white? Or a paper record from the household or an repository? Is there more to the record? Many cards, for instance, have information on both front and back. Probate files can be many--even hundreds--of pages long. Was that probate page  created at the time, or summarized later by a court clerk? For instance, most wills on file are not the original, but a court clerk copy. 

Is this an index created by the county clerk's office, or an archival finding aid? If so, we only need to note the page of the actual record for later retrieval. No citation for the index; just capture the general source link in a doc or spreadsheet and if found in a microfilm, the image number. This information will help in finding, transcribing, and then creating the citation to the Will, Deed, Probate, Court case file, Minutes, etc. 

Is this a published book, periodical, online article? Authored sources can be critical to our research work, but it is important to remember that they are not primary records. Even in the case of autobiography or memoir, the written account is not contemporary to the events.

How about a record from an archive, or courthouse? There is help to create all these citations! 

Citation Creation Help

Elizabeth Shown Mills.
Evidence Explained: Citing History
Sources:from Artifacts to
Cyberspace (Baltimore, Maryland:
Genealogical Publishing Co., 2004)


My impetus for writing this post is the publication of the fourth edition of Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources  from Artifacts to Cyberspace by Elizabeth Shown Mills; my copy arrived yesterday. It is slightly shorter than the third edition; 692 pages plus appendices and index, and more simply presented. The advice from the author remains unchanged: read the first chapters for the fundamentals of research & analysis, citation & style, and building a citation. 

Then if you need more guidance, use the sections or the index to guide you to the more complicated examples.






Helpful Hints

I started as a copy-paster of citations from FamilySearch and became an enthusiastic writer of my own citations by studying and following the process in Research Like A Pro. 

Starting your journey by copying well-written citations is fine, as long as you look at the parts and analyze the document and citations so that you can craft your own. And once you start writing your own, it's easier than looking up the examples.

Where do we find good citations? 

From a person's FamilySearch FamilyTree profile, click the Sources tab:


Given that this source is only an index, generally I wouldn't cite it. However, sometimes a marriage index is all that's available, especially for living people. The actual FamilySearch citation is exactly what I would write: "Washington Marriage Index, 1969-2014," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QLHF-SFTC : 18 May 2023), Robert R Zimmerman and Valorie Cowan, 24 Nov 1972; citing Marriage record, Washington State Archives, Olympia. 

We are lucky enough to have the Washington State Digital Archives where you can see the actual marriage record: Marriage Certificate for Robert Zimmerman and Valorie Cowan, Department of Health, Marriage Certificates, Washington State Archives, Digital Archives, https://digitalarchives.wa.gov: accessed 21 February 2023.

The parts you need to cite records you find on Ancestry.com are available on that site too, but they are not assembled into their final form.


From the Citation details:
Kansas State Historical Society; Topeka, Kansas; 1925 Kansas Territory Census; Roll: KS1925_60; Line: 31
Source information: Title Kansas State Census Collection, 1855-1925
Author Ancestry.com

From the above and record details, I would cite: 
Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/116724407/person/372365142197/facts), Lucile Magazine in family 99, 1925 Burrton, Harvey, Kansas, "Kansas State Census Collection, 1855-1925," database and images; citing Kansas State Historical Society; Topeka, Kansas; 1925 Kansas Territory Census; Roll: KS1925_60; Line: 31. 

Everything in that citation is copied from the information provided by Ancestry.

Once you create or copy-paste citations, where do you put them? Into your research log! In fact, now that I use an Airtable research log, when I'm doing my research planning and locate a database of interest, I immediately write the citation while all that information is in front of me. Naturally, once the record of interest has been found, the names and date of access (if necessary) will be added, but that's the easy part, while it is fresh in your mind. You need only write a citation once; then copy-paste into your research report, ancestor story for your family, article for a journal, or your book.

For more about using Airtable for your research, see https://familylocket.com/. There are also some excellent citation examples there; collect them! Another place to find wonderful citations and footnotes is the National Genealogical Society Quarterly articles. 


Citation creators

There are a few of these online, most of them free. 

However, there are two made for genealogy: Citation Builder and the one I sometimes use: Cite-Builder. For both, you will need to gather the information you need for any citation, but the web-app will put them in the proper order, and apply the correct syntax and punctuation. 

No matter how you get or create your citations, you will thank yourself over and over for taking the time to note them. Here is the one that led me into my present McBee project, which will end up in my book: 

This death certificate which my cousin found, was our first solid evidence for our great-grandfather Samuel McBee's parents, William McBee and Louisa Smith. Our great-grandmother Nancy Jane Booth was the informant on that death certificate.

What is YOUR citation journey? Tell us about it in the comments, or write to m.strickland@skcgs.org. Click to subscribe to our blog.




Valorie Zimmerman


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