More generic question about what information to include

By waterboysh on Mon, 09/28/2020 - 11:03

Forums

I'm still fairly new to this. One thing that I have been doing is including the information I am citing as part of the citation. I'm not really sure if that's needed. For example, I used a birth certificate for a baby as a citation that the father has the occupation of bread salesman in 1922. So after I put the information for the birth certificate, I followed it up with

, JB Harris: occupation: bread salesman; [the information about finding it on FamilySearch]

And that's just one example. I probably also used a citation to that source for part of his birthday too since that is often listed. Is that type of information needed in the citation?

Submitted byEEon Mon, 09/28/2020 - 12:12

waterboysh, you raise an interesting point with one piece of information you did not include. How are you conducting your research or are you now at the writing stage? Are you using a relational database in which you insert pieces of data that the software turns into a sentence, to which you attach a citation? Are you writing a narrative in which you state, in your narrative, that the father was a bread salesman and then you attach a reference note to support that information?

If either of the above, then repeating that same information in the citation is pointless and repetitive. On the other hand, if you are using a good relational database to store your research, then it should provide not only a place to cite the source but also a different place to create a "research note" (i.e., to transcribe or abstract the document in order to preserve full details).

On the other hand, if you are writing a biographical or historical narrative and you are crafting the narrative around certain issues, then your citation to a certain point might include additional data from that document that is not discussed in your narrative. It's a time-honored practice among those who write biography and history. It's also a fiercely debated one, with counter-arguments by people who feel that all relevant facts should be in the narrative and readers should not be forced to read two different threads: one in the text and one in the notes.

Incidentally, typing "discursive notes" into our search box will bring up other discussions of this.

Yes, I am using RootsMagic. I always transcribe (or extract) every document I use as a research note. It makes entering sources more tedious and time consuming, but in the end makes them easier to add citations for multiple facts. That's actually what started me questioning whether I should also be adding the information to the citation, because at this point I am literally just copy/pasting it from one place to another.