Citing Personal Transcriptions of Documents

Robyn, let's approach this from another angle that might simplify the issue for you.  Every time you read a document, do you feel a need to cite your reading of the document instead of the document itself?  No.  Why, then, would we need to cite our “write-out” of the document instead of the original? (Or, in this case, the photograph of the original.)

That said, there are a few situations in which citing our transcription would be necessary. For example: if once-upon-a-time we had made a transcription of a record and then, say, the church office burned and the original was destroyed.

As for your citation on the attached image, it works so long as it remains attached to your transcription. However, if someone copies your citation to reference the document in their own writing (giving credit to you, of course), their readers would then be left with a couple of very basic questions unanswered:

• If those readers went to D2440/ Box 84/33 at the Gloucestershire Archives, would they be looking for a document that is formally titled "Hicks Beach Family of Coln St Aldwyn and Great Witcome"? If so, then that title needs quotation marks around it. If the object they would be looking for does not carry a formal title, then they need more details to understand what it is.
• In either case—in most situations—a couple of other questions need answering when we cite a document from an archives. (Remember, every citation should answer the questions, Who, What, When, Where, and Where In?)  So: who created the document and when was it created?

In this case, we might say that adding those elements to the citation is not necessary because those details are in the transcription to which the citation is attached. But that leads back to the issue I first raised: what happens if someone copies your citation to reference the document in their own writing and your citation does not include the who and when?

In addition to the five basic Who, What, When, Where, and Where In questions, there's actually a sixth W that every citation should consider: Why?  As in Why should we attach any credibility to what this source has to say? Answering the Who and the When, along with identifying the title or nature of the document, are all essential to credibility.

Thus, a standard citation to an archived document such as this might be:

Agreement, William Edward Boyes with Thomas Penson, 21 October 1842; Collection: Hicks Beach Family of Coln St. Aldwyn and Great Witcome; Reference: D2440/box 84/33; Gloucestershire Archives, Gloucester, England.

You might then add that you are working from a photocopy supplied by So and So. However, the "scrapbook" nature of the medium to which you are adding the citation raises a "conflict" between the ideals of thoroughness (from a researcher's standpoint) and brevity and informality (from a graphic designer's standpoint).

Given your statement that you are “very new to citing manuscript items” and are still unclear after reading chapter 3, “Archives & Artifacts”—and given that you work heavily in British records—I’ll also ask: Have you seen 6.51 and, particularly, 7.38, both of which discuss the essential elements for citing materials from British archives, one from the standpoint of church records and one from the standpoint of civil records?

Finally, to say that your scrapbook-style page is “engaging” would be an understatement! Are you using special software for the design and layout?