This week’s lesson for my Research Like a Pro Study Group has been all about source citations. In addition to the great information provided by Diana Elder in our Study Group and in her book, Research Like a Pro: A Genealogist’s Guide, I have been studying Evidence Explained by Elizabeth Shown Mills and Genealogy Standards by the Board for Certification of Genealogists.
One of the things both Diana and Elizabeth Shown Mills have emphasized is that source citations are an art, not a science. This means that there isn’t one right way to do source citations. History researchers do use The Chicago Manual’s Humanities Style of source citations as a guideline. The Humanities Style places full citations in footnotes or endnotes and gives the author freedom to add unlimited comments relevant to the source. Within that guideline, there is a great deal of flexibility allowed in source citation.
The idea of citations being an art and not a science almost makes them more difficult for me! I would like to have a formula all laid out and be able to follow it every time. The problem with this is, there are MANY different types of sources that we as genealogists use in our research, and we sometimes need to be creative in how we cite them. However, as we create our citations, we need to strive for consistency of format. I’m still trying to wrap my brain around how this creativity and consistency work together, but I am learning a few things, and I’ve created a Reference Guide for some of the basic principles of source citation.
First, I have learned two things that should serve as overarching principles:
1 – The most important element of citation is to provide the information needed to easily navigate back to that source.
2 – Cite what you see. Sometimes we are viewing materials that are located in different formats in different repositories, and it is difficult to know how to create the citation. Focusing on what you are looking at enables others to trace your steps to get back to the exact source you looked at in your research.
With these two principles in mind, let’s move on to my notes from studying Evidence Explained and Genealogy Standards. These are the VERY BASICS of source citation. There is so much more that can be said, but if we can follow these principles, our consistency will be in place and our creativity can then be used as we practice creating great source citations.
Purposes of Citation:
- Assess the credibility of sources
- Enable location of the sources
- Understand the scope of the research
Citations Should Be Created for Each of the Following Instances:
- Statements made that are someone else’s observation, deduction, or opinion.
- Facts that are not common knowledge.
- Images shown of someone else’s creation.
- Conclusions the genealogist establishes.
Source Citations Should Answer the Following Questions:
Who: the person or entity that authored or produced the source.
What: the source’s title or name; if it is untitled, a clear item-specific description. Include the name of the person named in the record.
When: the date the source was created, published, or accessed.
Where: if unpublished, the source’s physical location; if published, its place of publication; if an online resource, a stable URL.
Wherein: the specific location within the source where the information item can be found. For published source, a volume or page number. Online database – cite the image number or waypoints. Government certificate – document number. Unpublished source – page number.
Definitions:
Source List: A master list of materials we have used (often called a bibliography). Omits specific descriptive data. Simply a list of sources consulted during the research process.
Reference Notes: A complete citation of both the source and the specific part that provides the information we are using. Can be included as footnotes or endnotes. Use the complete citation for the First Reference Note. Subsequent notes that refer to that note can be shortened. For shortened notes, here are a few guidelines:
- Author: keep only surnames.
- Titles: abbreviate.
- Publication: Omit.
- Repository: omit.
- Place Viewed: Omit.
- Place names: abbreviate.
Source Labels: Citations we add to image copies of documents or to abstracts or transcriptions of documents. Usually cited in the same manner as reference notes.
Published Material: Material that is created, whether printed or digitally, with the intent to sell or disseminate it widely.
Unpublished Material: Created for preservation only or for very limited sharing.
Layered Citations – digital + physical source. Choose whether to do physical or digital first, and be consistent. Separate layers with commas.
Punctuation and Formatting
Abbreviations, Acronyms, and Initialisms: should be kept to a minimum. If an acronym will be used, the first mention of the entity should state the name in full, followed by the acronym in parentheses.
Capitalization:
- Titles use Headline-style capitalization: capitalize all words except articles, conjunctions, and prepositions.
- Do not capitalize names of parts such as volume, book, roll, and census unless they are part of a formal title.
Colons:
- Periodicals – A colon, followed by a space, appears before the page number(s)
- Publication Data – A colon, followed by a space, separates the place of publication from the publisher and date of publication.
- URL Citations – a colon, preceded by a space and followed by a space, separates the URL from the date of publication (or date of access).
- Volume: Page – a colon separates the volume number or letter from the page number. You may insert a space after the colon, or use none.
Commas:
- Separate Citation Elements – Commas separate the smaller parts of citations
- Separate Dates and Locales. Ex. April 16, 1746 or Boise, Idaho.
Dates: Standard format for dates is the International Usage: 16 April 1746
Ellipses: Used to shorten very long titles in subsequent reference notes. Use only to replace words in the middle of the title.
Italics:
- Publication Titles (Put unpublished titles in quotations)
- Foreign words
- Legal Case Labels (if published. If unpublished, do not place the case label in italics).
- Ship Names
- Words as a Term
Indentations:
- Indent the first line of a Reference Note.
- Source lists use hanging indents (first line flush with margin, subsequent lines indented).
Parentheses:
- Used around publication data (including URL for websites).
- Specific details such as page numbers appear after the parentheses.
- Used to add descriptions or identifiers,
- Maiden names are generally place in parentheses
Periods:
- To separate information in a Source List Entry
- At the end of a Reference Note
- To separate sources when it is necessary to cite multiple sources in a single citation
- In abbreviations
Quotation Marks:
- Manuscript Titles (Unpublished) – When you create a label for an UNTITLED manuscript, do not place those words in quotation marks
- Published Titles of PART of a publication – chapter of a book, article in a journal, website that has many offerings, etc.
- Nicknames
Semi-Colons:
- Separate major elements in a complex citation
- Separate a source from a discussion of the source
- Separate the original source from its derivative form
- Separate multiple sources cited in same reference note
- Separate the source from its source (periods are often preferred for this usage)
Source List
Board for Certification of Genealogists, Genealogy Standards, second edition, (Nashville: Ancestry.com, an imprint of Turner Publishing Company, 2019).
Elder, Diana, and Nicole Dyer, Research Like a Pro: A Genealogist’s Guide, (Highland, Utah: Family Locket Books, an imprint of Family Locket Genealogists LLC, 2018).
Mills, Elizabeth Shown, Evidence Explained, Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace, third edition revised, (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, Inc., 2017).
