Find a Grave Citations

By Anonymous on Mon, 11/09/2015 - 21:06

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"Find a Grave", database, Find a Grave (http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 11 Octr 2015), memorial page for Bertha M Plunkett Minder (1877-1937), Find A Grave Memorial no. 22720566; citing Salisbury Cemetery, Salisbury, Sangamon, Illinois, USA;  the accompanying photographs by Gary L Otten; created originally and maintained by Marge, and are materially informative, but do not provide a legible image of the inscribed data.

 

Shoud I say no tombstone has be set?

Submitted byEEon Tue, 11/10/2015 - 11:02

Sandy, your research notes are your research notes. You can add anything at all that you feel is useful to your research.

As auxiliary considerations:

  • If the page you are citing does not say that the gravestone is not set—if this is something from your own personal knowledge—then you would not place that bit of information in the citation sentence that cites the memorial page.
  • If you cite photographs by so-and-so, and then add that no stone has been set, then many readers of your citation will be puzzled. Checking the memorial page itself, I see that the photograph is only a marker for the cemetery itself.  If you use that photograph, then it would be appropriate to cite that marker. If you don't use that photograph, then that part of the citation is unnecessary.

There are three other technical issues that we might discuss:

  • Find A Grave doesn't have to be cited four times. Above, its name appears as the database title, the website title, the URL, and the memorial ID.  The only instances that are needed are the website title and the URL.
  • Website titles, like the titles of books, journals, and other standalone publications, are italicized.
  • Because Marge is the creator of the memorial page, her identification needs to be attached to the data for the memorial page—after which you would say what she is citing.

All things considered, EE's citation to this Find A Grave page would use this pattern:

Find A Grave (http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 11 October 2015), memorial page 22720566, Bertha M. Plunkett Minder (1877–1937), created by "Marge"; citing Salisbury Cemetery, Salisbury, Sangamon, Illinois, USA. No gravestone exists; personal knowledge of Sandy Barnett, granddaughter of the deceased.