City directory. How to cite when city directory comprises other cities in them

By Anonymous on Mon, 10/31/2016 - 19:11

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I have been wrestling with this issue and just can't find how to resolve it. In my particular city directory (Lakeland, Florida, 1925), it comprises of other smaller cities of which Winter Haven is one of those cities and the person of interest is on page 39 of Winter Haven city directory. I of course using Ancestry database. "U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995," database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 31 Oct 2016), entry for Robert H. Bolen household; citing "Lakeland, Florida, 1925 (Jacksonville, Florida: R. L. Polk & Co., 1925)," Winter Haven city - page number 39. Is that correct or is there a more correct way of citing city directories which comprises of other cities?? Thanks, Thomas

Submitted byEEon Tue, 11/01/2016 - 10:30

Thomas, is it your intent to cite just Ancestry's database entry (trusting that its tidbits are extracted and identified correctly) or is it your intent to cite the image that you can actually view through this database? 

Your format is correct for citing a database, when you have no image to cite. This is the format we show on our QuickSheet: Citing Ancestry.com Databases & Images under "City Directories: Databases." However, if it is your intent to cite the image, then you need to use that QuickSheet's next format "City Directories: Images."  

In short: the database entry, which Ancestry created, is a different thing entirely from the original directory that R. L. Polk created.  (EE itself covers several different options for citing city directories at 12.55-12.58.)

When we run the search at Ancestry for "Robert H. Bolen, 1925," we find a database entry for a Robert H. Bolen said to be in "Bartow" rather than Lakeland or Winter Haven.

When we click on the "View" option, we see an image of an actual directory page that  is headed "Winter Haven City Directory (1925)   [p.] 39." It is Ancestry's image no. 494 for that collection. When we go back to “p. 1” of that directory (image 475), we see a conventional title page:

Typically that is the page from which we take our identification for a citation to the directory.  However, this particular directory has two complications:

(1)

That title page does tell us that 10 other towns are included. When we study the directory itself, we see that there are not separate sections for each town. All individuals in all towns are included in one alphabetical list. Those who don't actually live in Winter Haven—they live in one of the other towns named on the title page—have that town identified within their individual listing.  This format leaves us with just one city directory to cite: Winter Haven.

(2)

If we go all the way back to Image 1 of this particular Ancestry database, the situation gets more complicated.  There, we see this title page.

This title page tells us that the directory includes eleven other towns—including Winter Haven. On the next set of images we see an explanation of how the “Bartow” directory is organized.

In essence, R. L. Polk in 1925 published one bound volume that covered all towns in Polk County, Florida. Each larger has its own separate directory.  Bartow being the county seat, all the directories are bound together and sold together with the Bartow directory.

So what do you cite?  All things considered: your person is identified as a resident of Winter Haven, and Winter Haven has its own directory with its own full title page and copyright notice. You can simply cite the Winter Haven directory.

If you were viewing the printed directory,  you would cite it in basic book format

Author, Title of Book (Place of publication: Publisher, Year), page.

EE 12.58 provides an example of a city directory with an overlong title such as the one you're working with, with more detailed guidance about how the title might be truncated. 

Because you are viewing online images of the book, you need to add a second layer to your citation to identify the website and database through which you accessed this:

...; imaged in "U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995," database with images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com) > Florida > Bartow > 1925  Bartow, Florida, City Directory, 1925), image 494, with title page at image 475.

It would also be wise to add a note calling attention to the fact that the Winter Haven directory was published as a separate part of the Bartow directory. Thus, Ancestry’s inclusion of the Winter Haven directory under the Bartow label is correct; however, Ancestry’s database errs in placing the Robert H. Bolen household in Bartow itself.

Whew!

Submitted bytomvilfroyon Tue, 11/15/2016 - 22:41

 

I didnt see the Winter Haven title page (obviously needed to go back one more page!) but yes he did live in Winter Haven.  And yes I wanted to get to the actual volume page that he is listed, not how Ancestry cited him.  Ancestry is good on some items, but I didn't like how they sourced when I wanted the actual image.

And thanks for answering my supplementary questions, since I chose this directory entry in particular, since the "city" directory is basically a directory of most of the county.  And thus had some particular items in it.

I look this over the coming days (Darn life keeps getting in the way of genealogy!!) and see if I have any other questions.  I'll probably also do the book citation, just so I can make sure I am doing it correctly, since this one was a "biggie" and as I replied above, I didn't see that Winter Haven title page since I didn't go back one more page.

Thomas

Submitted bytomvilfroyon Wed, 11/16/2016 - 12:18

Okay have digest what you have said.   Still trying to grasp some items since this city directory is not "normal" :)

So let's make this simple.  If I was citing the book, it would be (assuming the title page is correct, since the Ancestry image set doesn't have the outside book image) :

R.L. Polk & Co, Bartow and Polk County Directory 1925 (Jacksonville, Florida: R&L Polk & Co, Publishers, 1925), page 39.

But that just doesn't look "right" since we are not refering to the Winter Haven section (plus I believe there are probably numerous instances of page 39 for each city).  Thus would it be this then :

R.L. Polk & Co, Bartow and Polk County Directory 1925 (Jacksonville, Florida: R&L Polk & Co, Publishers, 1925), page 39 in the Winter Haven City Directory section.

Submitted bytomvilfroyon Fri, 11/18/2016 - 15:45

Okay, now to tackle the online Ancestry image citation.

 "U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995," database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 31 Oct 2016), entry for Robert H. Bolen household; imaged in "U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995," database with images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com)  > Florida > Lakeland > 1925  Lakeland , Florida, City Directory, 1925), image 492, with title page at image 473.

(I went back to Ancestry and I am seeing Robert's image on 492 and the title page on 473 of the dataset - thus why the images are different)

I presume the need to state database with images is due to referencing them in the citation, correct?  In other words if we reference pages vs image, there would be no need to "with images" after the word database.   And if we did use pages, would then this be that citation :

 "U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995," database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 31 Oct 2016), entry for Robert H. Bolen household; imaged in "U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995," database with images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com)  > Florida > Lakeland > 1925  Lakeland , Florida, City Directory, 1925), page 34 in Winter Haven city directory section.

I have noticed that we have a closing ) after Directory, 1925) but I don't see the open ( for it.   So where would that open ( be placed?

I am just trying to wrap my head about the reason for the extra citation of U.S. City Directories.  Since I can see from the first half of the entry before the semicolon that we still need to cite where Robert Bolen's household is located in the city directory but seems the 2nd part after that ; is a lot more than I would think it to be.   Plus city directories are my downfall but alas at that point to having to cite them plus trying to do it correctly the first time (or close to it!) vs trial and error.

Thomas

Submitted bytomvilfroyon Fri, 11/18/2016 - 16:00

Guess one can't edit one's post...sorry for double post.

Looking at my copy of citing Ancestry.com for city directories with images quicksheet (my quicksheet is 1st revised edition copyrighted 2010) that Ancestry made a change to the city directories and put them all into one database.   Is that correct?   If that is the case, what is the current edition of Ancestry quicksheet?  The reason I ask is that I looked through all of the quicksheets examples of image citations and none seem to use "image #" in the examples. 

Going back to the 2nd part of using the "U.S City directories" part, and since Ancestry put "every city directory into 1 database" with images, one has to reference which year and city directory that is being referenced out of that large database.  And why one has to recite the U.S City directories - or am I missing something totally?!?

Thomas

Submitted byEEon Sat, 11/19/2016 - 08:03

Tom, I'm running out the door now for an all-day seminar, but I'll leave you with this thought in the meanwhile. Citing a city directory is no different from citing any other book. You cite all the basic parts. If that city directory is online, then (in Layer 2) you cite the database and website in which you found it. Look at your citation above from that perspective and you'll see duplication you don't need.

As for editing your own post, yes, you should be able to--in plain type or HTML. Look below the screen in which you are typing and you should see an option that says: Text format. Full HTML gives you the most options.

Until later ...