Source Citation

Jim Byram discusses citing your sources — an essential research step.

It happens to all of us. You are working on your database and come to an entry and ask, “Where did I get that piece of information?” You failed to document the source. Thereupon follows minutes or hours of searching to find a document or note that answers your question.

We need to document where we find our data for a number of reasons. First, undocumented data is hearsay and lacks credibility. Second, there is the problem of constantly reinventing the wheel. If we document the data when we record it, we won’t need to spend our time searching for the missing source. Third, we want our work and the countless hours invested to have some longevity as a genealogical record. How many times have you obtained data from another person’s work that was not documented and then spent many hours or even years tracking down the original sources?

The 1900 US census record for the household of Thomas Gardner.

Getting Started
Every genealogist should have the following two books on their shelf: Lackey, Richard S. 1980. Cite Your Sources: A Manual for Documenting Family Histories and Genealogical Records. Jackson, MS: University of Mississippi Press and Mills, Elizabeth Shown. 1997. Evidence! Citation & Analysis for the Family Historian. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Company.

Both of these books offer guidance as to how to document your sources, and, although both are US-centric, they offer lessons that can be applied in any locale. Lackey is a ‘lumper’ and divides sources into 14 general-purpose categories. Each of the types of sources is discussed with numerous examples. Lackey does not cover the newer types of electronic information such as e-mail and web pages, although even these sources can be fit into one of the 14 categories. One of Lackey’s categories is an open-ended catch-all titled miscellaneous unpublished sources.

Mills is a ‘splitter’ and provides examples of well over 100 source categories and subcategories including the newer electronic source types. It is not unusual to find a person puzzled as to what Mills category to fit a particular source into. Mills intends for these to be examples to guide the reader and she notes that “given the breadth of resources available, it is not possible to cover all variations…” Another way of looking at this is to realize that once you start ‘splitting,’ the possibilities are endless. Mills has tables showing the basic patterns of citations and a set of rules for arranging the citation elements and includes a sample documented family group sheet and an ancestor chart. The citation styles constitute only one-half of Mills’ book. The first half is an in-depth discussion of understanding, evaluating and using genealogical evidence that every genealogist should read repeatedly.

The first of two additional useful guides to citing sources is the National Archives and Records Administra-tion (NARA) General Information Leaflet Number 17: Citing Records in the National Archives of the United States, 22 September 1997. Available online (www.nara.gov/publications/leaflets/gil17.html).

The second is Maurice Crouse’s Citing electronic information in history papers, 2 May 1999. Available online (www.people.memphis.edu/~mcrouse/elcite.html).

The NARA guide can be obtained in an earlier printed form at the National Archives branches. If you search the Internet for guides to citing electronic information, you will find several dozen useful websites. Crouse’s document is a stellar example covering all types of sources and is a work in progress with frequent updates.

Style and Content
The above publications give examples of citation styles for various sources of genealogical information. Styles include which citation elements to use, the arrangement of these elements, the punctuation and text formatting. Another question frequently asked online is “What is the correct way to cite this source?” The answer is that there is no one correct way. If you publish an article in a genealogical journal, then you will need to conform to the style guidelines specified by the journal editor. Otherwise, the style that you use is up to you. For purposes of clarity and esthetics, you should chose or devise a consistent style and stick to it.

So what citation elements should you include in your citations for a particular type of source? My personal guideline is that you should include that information necessary for another person to locate the source — no less and, preferably, no more. The reason that I say no more is that when you add footnotes or endnotes and a bibliography to a report, you will find that the size of the report has suddenly increased two-fold or more.

You should ask yourself two questions: 1) What information did you have that allowed you to find the record? 2) When you accessed the record, what additional information did you discover that would make it easier for others to find the same record? For example, with census records, which we’re going to use as our citation examples, you might find more than one set of page numbers have been added to the census pages (one handwritten and another rubber-stamped). Some families are recorded near the end of one census page and are continued over to another. I have found such a family where the census pages were microfilmed out of order and the two pieces of the family entry were several pages apart. Notations of such problems should be added to your citation.

Examples
To look at examples of citation styles, I have chosen US census records. These are reasonably complex records to cite and may be cited in a variety of ways that will successfully lead another researcher to the data.

NARA Example
Entry for Parthenia Gardner; p. 4, line 95, Enumeration District 22, Ward 5, Bossier Parish, Louisiana; Census of Population (National Archives Microfilm Publication T623, roll 559); Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900; Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29; National Archives —New England Region.

The NARA citation style is focused on each particular individual on the census sheets and the page number refers to the sheet number within each enumeration district.

A very simple source definition for the 1900 US census as recorded in The Master Genealogist.

Lackey Example
An amalgam of several of Lackey’s examples: 1900 US Census, Bossier Par., La. (Ward 5); p. 195, Family 82, Dwelling 82, Lines 93-95; [National Archives Microfilm T623, Roll 559] US Bureau of the Census (R.G. 29), National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.

Lackey’s citation style points to the entire household. The page number here refers to the stamped or handwritten number added to the census pages. More recent census sheets include two physical pages and the stamped page numbers and sheet numbers will only be on the first of the pair. It is useful to add an A or B to the page and sheet numbers to reflect this. Page or sheet A includes lines 1-50 and B includes lines 51-100.

Mills Example
Primary citation, footnote or endnote: 1. Thomas Gardner household, 1900 US census, Bossier Parish, Louisiana, population schedule, Ward 5, p. 195, enumeration district [ED] 22, supervisor’s district [SD] 4, sheet 4, dwelling 82, family 82; National Archives micropublication T623, roll 559.

Subsequent citations, footnotes or endnotes: 1. 1900 US census, Bossier Parish, Louisiana, population schedule, Ward 5, ED 22, SD 4, sheet 4, dwelling 82, family 82.

An alternate abbreviated form for subsequent citations: 1. 1900 US cens., Bossier Par., La., p. 195, line 92.

Bibliographic entry: Louisiana. Bossier Parish. 1900 US census, population schedule. Micropublication T623, roll 559. Washington: National Archives.
The Mills example is a very complete and disciplined approach to census citation. Mills’ notes encourage the researcher to evaluate the particular source in question and suggests other sorts of information that might be added to the citation. In line with those suggestions, I have added the stamped page number to the sample that was shown in her book.

Her samples make another important point — citations are used in several ways in a report and require several different forms for those uses. The primary citation is used the first time that a source is used in a footnote or endnote and contains the most detailed information. Subsequent uses of the same citation in footnotes or endnotes may be abbreviated to reduce repetition. The latter two citation forms are linked directly to specific data in your report. The entry in the bibliography may be generalized and does not require the citation details since it is not linked to the actual data.

Genealogy Software
Authors of genealogy software were slow to add methods to document your research and, initially, it was necessary to add citations to note fields if you wished to keep a record in the program’s database. Over the last five or six years, all major genealogical programs have added features to cite your sources.

Family Tree Maker version 5.0b allows one or more sources to be attached to each ‘fact.’ The source citation screens for each fact include ‘citation details’ and allow you to edit the footnote used in narrative reports. The source screens include a field for the source location. Legacy Family Tree version 2 includes a source screen listing sources for a person’s events, notes and death cause field. One or more sources may be attached to each event with citation details and a repository may be recorded in the details or comments fields.

The two academic-quality genealogy programs, The Master Genealogist (TMG) version 4.0 and Ultimate Family Tree (UFT) version 2.9, include sophisticated tools for recording source citations including citation details and master source lists. TMG includes a master repository list. Both programs include source templates with citation elements arranged appropriately for differing source types. TMG includes sets of source templates modeled after Lackey and Mills that can be customized from a large pool of source elements. UFT has source templates and version 2.9 added additional templates that follow Mills’ examples.

The ‘citation details’ field is an important labor-saving device. A source may be recorded and specific information such as page numbers may be recorded in the citation details field for each linked event. For example, I frequently use one of the Massachusetts town published vital records books, Vital records of East Bridgewater, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850. From this book, I have found a number of records for birth, marriage and death events to add to my database. The book is recorded in the master source list. When I add an event to my database from that source, I add the page number for the page containing the appropriate data to the citation details field for that link.

The Master Genealogist’s Tag Entry Screen and the associated Citation Entry Screen for the 1900 US census record of the household of Thomas Gardner.

Recording the Census Example in TMG
Perhaps the major impediment to recording source citations is the time and self-discipline required. There are a number of different methods for recording census source citations in TMG and the following example illustrates a simple technique to record these citations.

The 1900 census is entered into the master source list simply as “1900 US Census” and this source is linked to “National Archives — New England Region” from the master repository list. Some researchers might prefer to enter each census year and state as their sources while others might prefer to enter each census year, state and county.

A census event for the 1900 census is added to the head of household, Thomas Gardner. The two other household members are linked as witnesses to the event (a witness in TMG is simply another participant in the event). A new citation is added to this event on the Citation Entry Screen. The 1900 census source is linked and a text macro “ST, Co, Tn, p. n, ED n Sh n Ln n (Nat. Arch. Film #)” is pasted into the Citation Detail field. This template is edited into the citation detail “LA, Bossier Par., Ward 5, p. 195b, ED 22 Sh 4b Ln 93 (Nat. Arch. Film #T623-559)” to be recorded. Surety values are added if desired and the citation is saved.

When a narrative report is generated, footnotes or endnotes are attached to all events linked to this census source with the appropriate citation details.
Primary Citations: 1. 1900 US Census, LA, Bossier Par., Ward 5, p. 195b, ED 22 Sh 4b Ln 92 (Nat. Arch. Film #T623-559), National Archives—New England Region.
Subsequent Citations: 5. 1900 US Census, LA, Bossier Par., Ward 5, p. 195b, ED 22 Sh 4b Ln 93 (Nat. Arch. Film #T623-559).

Bibliographic Entry: 1900 US Census, National Archives — New England Region.
The source entry only needs to be entered once; the text macro for the census citation details only needs to be entered once; and the forms for the citations and bibliography are set to default and required no editing. These parts of the data entry process can be used over and over and only the census citation details template needs to be edited when a new census event is recorded.

Citing your sources is an important and necessary component of your genealogical research. You need to develop a consistent work pattern for recording your source citations and a consistent style to provide clarity for the reader. Use common sense in choosing the citation elements to record and constantly ask the question, “Have I provided the reader with the information necessary to locate this source?”

This article originally appeared in the July/August 1999 issue of Family Chronicle.