Citation of microfilmed Serbian Census and Tax Books

Hello all!

My research to find as much as possible finally led me to visit State Archives of Republic Serbia here in Belgrade. It is the main Archives in my country so I must say I was little nervous before entering the institution.

I read on the internet their guides for researchers of family heritage, it was great. Also found out that Archives made microfilms of all available Books for those researchers. Those books (their microfilms as well) are divided in two major groups. First one is group of Tax Census Books, in which only Householder was mentioned with number of his property (since many of my people in Serbia was landworkers and cattlmen it was number of heads of cattle owned. It was from period 1822-1848. Second group was more detailed. It contains Census Books in Serbia in period 1840-1863. Books in that group, especially from year 1863 and further, contains all names in one household, their age of life, and detailed property (what exactly household own - how many houses, buildings, acres, etc.) 

I must say that it was my first ever time in life to see microfilm roll and to move it forward and backward. It was hard and I was grateful for clerk in Local Municipal History Archives in my birth city which made scanned and DVD edition of each microfilm, so it is easier for researchers to search and also to make each picture or frame larger and more readable. On microfilm reader in Archives of Serbia it is not possible at all to zoom in or zoom out frame.

There wasn't any way to see number of any frame at all (I searched for it, since I recall previously that in properly citing any microfilm one part of that citation is frame number). Also there is not page number on any page I went through 3,5 hours looking into microfilms.

So my question is how to cite that microfilmed. After reading EE, especially part of Archives, chapter 3, I think best way is to use In-House film.

I have these elements in the source

Collection - Census Books of Serbia, 1840-1863
Film ID - Ministary of finances, county Uzice, Region Moravica, Municipality Ivanica, place Lisa, Book No. 193, roll. 42
Repository - Archives of Serbia

In the reference note I would put also

Record No. 43 Household and property of Mladen Delic, landworker (1863

By transcribing of some records, I would cite as follows

Source

Census Books of Serbia, 1840-1863. Ministary of finances, county Uzice, Region Moravica, Municipality Ivanica, place Lisa, Book No. 193, 70 rolls. Archives of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia.

First Reference note

43. "Household of and property of Mladen Delic, landworker," 1 March 1863; FILE, Census Books of Serbia, 1840-1863; Ministary of finances, county Uzice, Region Moravica, Municipality Ivanica, place Lisa, Book No. 193, roll. 42; Archives of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia.

Short note

43. "Household of and property of Mladen Delic, landworker," 1 March 1863; FILE, Census Books of Serbia, 1840-1863.

In those reference notes I have issue how to determine part FILE in my citation.

Also, any suggestion of making my citating skills better are most appreciate.

Sincerely yours,

Fr. Ivan Delic

Serbia

 

Submitted byEEon Sat, 01/17/2015 - 09:44

Hello, Fr. Ivan. Yes, in-house film does seem to be the appropriate choice and you've done an excellent job of distilling the essential elements. Let's focus now on a couple of issues involving arrangement of the elements. 

(1) If you use the specific household as the lead element in the citation, then you will end up creating many different source-list citations for the same census. Is this your intent?  A more concise approach would be to use the basic author/title approach we use for books and manuscripts, in which the agency that created the census is the author, and the name (or generic ID) of each year's census is the "title." That way, you would need only one source-list entry for, say, the 1863 census nationwide. Your individual reference notes would then add, at the end, the specific data for the household.

(2) Bear in mind that your citation is identifying two different things: A-the original census; and B-the microfilm created by the archive. From that perspective, details for the original census would go in one citation layer; details for the microfilm (including the film number and its name/title/in-house ID) would go in the second layer where you identify the film and the archives that created it.

Submitted byFr. Ivan Delicon Sat, 01/17/2015 - 15:56

Hello Elizabeth. Thanks for your quick answer. You're right about concise approach and I certainly don't want to put household as lead element. I got confused with E. E. QuickCheck Model PRESERVATION FILM: IN-HOUSE FILM where Record title is lead element in the First Reference Note.

In ARCHIVED MATERIAL: MANUSCRIPT RECORDS (Series as lead element in Source List there is something that could match my intent.

So, my Source List entry and Reference citations would be

Source List Entry
Census Books for Republic of Serbia nationwide, 1863. 70 rolls. Local Archives, Belgrade, Serbia.
 
First (Full) Reference Note
Republic of Serbia, Ministary of finances, Census Book for Uzice County, Ivanica Region, Ivanica Municipality, city Ivanica, village Lisa, Household and Property of landworker Mladen Delic, 1 March 1863; Roll 42, Book No. 193; Census Books for Republic of Serbia nationwide, 1863. Local Archives, Belgrade, Serbia.
 
Short Note
Republic of Serbia, Census Books for village Lisa, 1 March 1863; Roll 42, Book No. 193; Census Books for Republic of Serbia nationwide, 1863. Local Archives, Belgrade.
 
Any suggestions further?
 
Sincerely grateful
 
Fr. Ivan Delic
Serbia

Submitted byEEon Sat, 01/17/2015 - 18:11

The one "further thing" that is worth mentioning is the replacement of the period that makes your full reference note and your short reference note appear to cite two different things. Because reference notes are written "sentence style," the period-that-ends-the-sentence should come after all detail about that source has been given.

 

Submitted byrworthingtonon Sun, 01/18/2015 - 10:26

Dear Editor,

I know the software that Fr Ivan is using and have attempted to craft a Reference Note with my software.

Here is my attempt:

Uzice County; Region of Ivanica; Municipality of Ivanicay: City of Ivanica; Census Book No. 193; Roll: 42; Household of Mladen Delic; Republic of Serbia, Ministry of Finances; Census and Tax Books of Serbia 1863; Archives of Serbia, Belgrade.

Thank you,

Russ