Title vs. Generic Description

I've noticed that generic descriptions for a birth/marriage/death certificates used in citations rather than the titles of those certificates.

For example the image of the death certificate used in EE 9.33, Oneline Databases & Images (County Level), example (3) shows heading "State of Tennessee, State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Certificate of Death".

It's cited in EE 9.33 like this:
Shelby County, Tennessee, death certificate no. 114 (file no.) 116 (reg. no.), "Infant Day," ...

Why would one not cite it like this:
Shelby County, Tennessee, Certificate of Death no. 114 (file no.) 116 (reg. no.), "Infant Day," ...
(or perhaps)
Shelby County, Tennessee, "Certificate of Death" no. 114 (file no.) 116 (reg. no.), "Infant Day," ...

It would seem that the certificate is an unpublished document with a title, so the usage in EE 2.22 would apply.

It's clear that use of a generic description makes citations more uniform (otherwise "Death Certificate", "Certificate of Death" and possibly other titles would appear). 

Are there other reasons to use (or not use) a generic description? Is what's on the certificate not considered a title?  (Perhaps the real question is - "Is the title the whole heading or just the bit I selected myself"  oops?)

By the way, I have no confusion about the use of titles for registers (as in EE 9.32).
 
Thank you!

Brian

Submitted byEEon Thu, 05/14/2015 - 09:02

Brian,

Either approach would be acceptable. Your "perhaps the real question is ..." does get to the heart of the issue in this case, given that the words "Certificate of Death" do not appear until line 4 of the document's header.