Subsequent note quandary, Fold3 multi-image file

Hello, angelah100:

Thanks for saying that the discussion at note 2126 helped. For the record, with future questions, we could better target the help that you need, if you would identify the specific section and edition of EE that you are following. That way, I know what your foundation is and don’t have to start from ground level with the creation of new explanations that have already been explained in EE. I should have mentioned this to you during our prior lengthy discussion of another issue.

A pension file that we view online requires a layered citation because there is both the file and the website to be cited. As EE’s QuickStart Guide notes: “Layered citations are mix-and-match. When we need to feature the database or website, rather than the document, we can reverse the layers.”  EE4’s new Chapter 3 gives extensive advice as to when to choose one approach over the other (see specifically 3.14–3.16). 

Your draft, which I am pasting in below, presents the original file first, then the website:

     1. Bradbury Green’s pension no. S45571 (Musician, Capt. James Carr’s Company, New Hampshire Line, Revolutionary War), index card; image, Fold3 (https://www.fold3.com/image/22611570/green-bradbury-page-1-us-revolutionary-war-pensions-1800-1900 : viewed 15 May 2024); NARA  microfilm publication M804.

This is feasible if this one pension file is the only pension file that you will be citing from that website.  However, there are pieces of information missing from your draft:

        1. Index card, Bradbury Green’s pension no. S45571 (Musician, Capt. James Carr’s Company, New Hampshire Line, Revolutionary War), much information about original file is missing here; image, “Title of Database,” type of database, Fold3 (https://www.fold3.com/image/22611570/green-bradbury-page-1-us-revolutionary-war-pensions-1800-1900 : viewed 15 May 2024); NARA [acronym needs to be spelled out at first usage] microfilm publication M804, roll number needed.

Note that citations to original files start with the identity of the smallest item in that file and then work up to the largest. This is not just an EE dictate. It's been standard format for all U.S. citation styles, from time immemorial.

EE4’s example for Fold3 pension files (following Template 5), presents the database in Layer 1. See 12.35 "Pension Files: Online Database Entries & Images."

With this approach, you can create just one master citation for all RW pension files that you use from this database. Layer 2 then reports the details that Fold 3 give us about the source of its images. That creates a shorter citation.  Below, in our edited version of your citation, Layer 1 is blue and Layer 2 is black. Boldface marks the essential information that is missing from your draft.

     1.  “U.S. Revolutionary War Pensions, 1800–1900,” database with images, Fold3 (https://www.fold3.com/image/22611570/green-bradbury-page-1-us-revolutionary-war-pensions-1800-1900: viewed 15 May 2024), Bradbury Green, invalid pension no. S45571, original application no. 1746, index card; imaged from National Archives (NARA) microfilm publication M804, roll 1118.

Using this approach also solves your quandary about citing a subsequent document. You simply substitute the image number and its descriptor. The substituted informatio is in red.

       2.   “U.S. Revolutionary War Pensions, 1800–1900,” database with images, Fold3 (https://www.fold3.com/image/22611768 : viewed 15 May 2024), Bradbury Green, original app. no. 7146, jacket.

Note that Fold3's long URLs carry a description of the document. However, the URL may be shortened to end with the image number.

A second problem with citing the original file in Layer 1 is that you lack most of the information that one needs to fully cite the original document.   EE 12.35 provides examples of the details needed for a full citation to a NARA pension. I’ll copy one below so that you can see how much essential information is missing. In this example, there are three layers, as indicated by the shading:

Deposition of Claimant, 31 August 1927, Abigail A. Littrick, widow’s pension application no. 1,590,638, W.C. certificate no. A-12-14-27, combined with Robert B. Littrick (Pvt., Co. C., 1st Ohio Infantry, Civil War); Case Files of Approved Pension Applications ..., 1861–1934; Civil War and Later Pension Files; Record Group 15: Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs; National Archives, Washington, D.C.

Angelah100, the roll number is in the sidebar to the first image in the file.