Citing A Personal Memoir

By Tower19 on Mon, 04/26/2021 - 21:49

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How would I go about citing a personal memoir that is held at a state historical society and copies are among the family including myself?. I decided to make citing easier so I want to use the historical society version since I have used information from both my copy and the society's, my reasoning being if someone outside the family wanted to get a copy they know what archive to go to. I feel like the closest format would be using the example archived material as shown in 3.14 using the author as lead or should I just use a book citation format without having a publisher listed?. I looked at the examples for diaries and journals but those didn't seem to fit either since they're referring to manuscripts and this is not.

Submitted byEEon Tue, 04/27/2021 - 08:54

Tower19, you say the document is not a manuscript. Are you using the word "manuscript" to mean "written out by hand"?  Is it an unpublished typescript? Or is it a publication, with a title page that usually cites publisher, place & date? Publication—i.e., availability—is the basic difference between citing it as 3.14 or using a book format. 

If you are uncertain as to whether it is published (and, therefore, available to others at locations other than the historical society), you might check Worldcat.org and the Library of Congress catalog at loc.gov. 

Submitted byTower19on Tue, 04/27/2021 - 16:47

It is not a manuscript, that's why I didn't think citing it as a diary or journal was appropriate, Its typed out. 

The memoir is found on worldcat, here is the link,

https://www.worldcat.org/title/my-most-memorable-days/oclc/233171701&referer=brief_results

I wasn't sure if it should be considered published just because its found in a couple of historical societies, but since it is found on wordcat does that mean its a published work?

 

 

 

Submitted byEEon Fri, 04/30/2021 - 08:20

Hello, again, Tower19. Thanks for the link to the catalog entry at WorldCat.org.  I'm pasting in a SnagIt with one passage highlighted. Note, toward the bottom under "Details," WorldCat tells us that the item is a typescript. 

EE 3.29 "Diaries, Journals & Authored Manuscripts" covers typescript memoirs and should work well in this case. Just substitute the details. You can either cite it to your own possession or to the library where you found it.

 

Typescript

Submitted byTower19on Fri, 04/30/2021 - 11:35

Thank you for pointing that out I didn't connect that was saying what kind of work it was. It seems pretty straight forward, this is what I came up with for a citation:

Carter, Muriel Partington, transcriber, “My most memorable day” (typescript, ca. 1974), p. 1; copy at the New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston Massachusetts.

 

Submitted bySharon Whitneyon Sun, 01/19/2025 - 15:53

Consider the following reference in my personal family history narrative:

 

Dorothy (Martin) Conner, “The Story of a Lifetime: A Keepsake of Personal Memories,” (MS, San Luis Obispo, California, 1924-2014). 

 

Clearly, Dororthy, my mother has no first hand account for her birthdate.  But she mentions her birthdate in the Keepsake book. With that said, she began the narrative in 2010, after I gave a book of prompts to her. She stopped writing in 2014.

 

ESM in EE (3rd), p. 106 provides a template for diaries/journals that includes for the "when" the "record dates."   I see no further elaboration by her.  My question: does "record dates" refer to dates included in the manuscript or the dates the manuscript was created? AI says dates created, but offers no good source for saying so. Tom Jones suggests that for this kind of item, the "when" refers to the dates covered by the document (Mastering Genealogical Documentation, p. 40). 

What say all of you? 

Sharon

P.S. 

 

A related question: Must I include following in my citation? the Keepsake book has an author, Pamela and Stephen Pavuk, publisher, TriAngel Publishers, Inc (where?, (c) 2000).

Sharon

Hello, Sharon. You ask:

ESM in EE (3rd), p. 106 provides a template for diaries/journals that includes for the "when" the "record dates."   I see no further elaboration by her.  My question: does "record dates" refer to dates included in the manuscript or the dates the manuscript was created? AI says dates created, but offers no good source for saying so. Tom Jones suggests that for this kind of item, the "when" refers to the dates covered by the document (Mastering Genealogical Documentation, p. 40).

The record dates are whatever dates are stated (or discerned by us) for the record. If a diarist dates each entry, then we can can discern the period covered by the diary from the beginning and ending entry dates. If someone's memoir tells us the date or year that memoir is being penned, then that's the date of that "record."

You also ask:

Must I include following in my citation? the Keepsake book has an author, Pamela and Stephen Pavuk, publisher, TriAngel Publishers, Inc (where?, (c) 2000).

Two issues are at stake here:

  • Credit. Credit is always given where credit is due.
  • Accurate identification of what we are using. If we are using our mother's manuscript, in that physical form, then we cite our mother's manuscript and its location. People then know that we have deciphered her writing for ourselves. If we are citing someone's typescript or published edition (whether it's published as a facsimile or typeset), we cite the typescript or the publication. When we use derivative versions and cite them appropriately, we acknowledge that omissions, additions, or errors are possible.