Canadian "Directorate of Movements" collection - Citing the convoy records

By History-Hunter on Mon, 01/27/2025 - 09:11

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I have the EE-book, ed. 3 (revised). I'm trying to decide what "style" of citation to use for the following case. I'm thinking that it lends itself to using something like the QuickCheck Model, Archived Manuscript Records (Series as lead element in Source List). If there is a more appropriate "style", I would appreciate hearing which one is recommended.

Situation:

  • The material is made available by the Library and Archives Canada (LAC) via a site called Héritage, but the index Ito the microfilm reel content s made available on the LAC site.
  • The material is published as a collection of numbered, but unnamed, microfilm reels pertaining to the records of the "Directorate of Movements".
  • It is further organized as a number of sub-collections pertaining to the branch of the service involved.
  • Each reel for the Maritime group images 4 or 5 folders; each pertaining to communications for a specific convoy crossing between Canada and the U.K. or the UK. and Canada.
  • There is no index to a reel, so one has to search across about 5,000 images to find the start of the desired imaged folder.
  • Each folder is more of a "catch-all communications file" with a log sheet checking off various types of communications that have been sent.
  • The log is some help in locating items, but it is not a true indexed communications log and doesn't allow one to go directly to a desired item.
  • Within a folder, it appears that a particular document can only be identified by its' constituent frame numbers, noting that those are relative to the overall microfilm.

In short; the microfilm reel is one grouping, the folder is another, then the one or more frames containing the communication of interest. To fully document a persons trip, one needs to scan through the frames of a folder and pick out documents containing the info to build a full picture of the persons' voyage.
 

Submitted byEEon Mon, 01/27/2025 - 20:20

History-Hunter, if you are using microfilm at LAC, of records held at LAC, then a LAC/microfilm model is appropriate to follow. If you want to credit the Héritage website for the index, that's a different source. You can put them both in the same reference note if you wish.

Regarding the organization of material on the microfilm, we usually handle that by citing the relevant file/folder names in the layer in which we cite the original records; then, in the layer in which we cite the microfilm, we cite the appropriate frame numbers. If the LAC microfilm does not have frame numbers, then we're scrambling to figure out a feasible way to describe the material so that it can be relocated with reasonable ease.