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I ordered copies of documents in a Bounty Land Warrant Application file from the NARA (Form 85C). The documents came with a packing slip labeled Military Bounty-Land Warrant Application File. The first document (cover slip) was stamped with handwritten information about the records included completed with the following information: THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES - BOUNTY LAND FILES - ACT OF 55-80-29651 - VETERAN Joseph Williams 1812 - GRADE Private - SERVICE Capt Minton Ga Mil - CAN NO. 191 - BUNDLE NO. 111.
My attempt at citing these records is (following 11.28 of EE (third ed)) is:
Joseph Williams (Private, Capt. Minton's Georgia Militia, War of 1812), bounty land warrant file 29651 (Act of 1855, 80 acres); Case File of Military Bounty-Land Warrant Application; Can no. 191, Bundle no. 111; National Archives & Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
I'm not sure what the Can and Bundle nos. refer to (and if it is proper to include it) and wonder if my citation is a complete reference or if there is other information I need to consider, given how the records were provided to me.
Any help is appreciated.
Nolan, if you were onsite at…
Nolan, if you were onsite at NA, using the records for yourself, you'd have exact information on collection, series, record group, etc. for an exact citation. Since you ordered it, you can only cite what you have been given--and that does not include some of the information called for in NA's own suggested citations.
Given what you have, EE would do this:
Joseph Williams (Private, Capt. Minton's Georgia Militia, War of 1812), bounty land warrant file 29651 (Act of 1855, 80 acres); ordered from U.S. National Archives via Form 85C; received with the citation "Can No. 191 - Bundle No. 111" without identification of series or record group.
We should not guess at what the missing information would be, or just rotely copy some citation example because we have no way of knowing that the record actually was in the most-common place.