Citation Issues

Ancestry & NARA

Dear EE,

I am making my first draft registration card citation. I have consulted 11.1 and 
https://www.evidenceexplained.com/node/1887. In my case, I'm unable to establish that the record is on microform; and at Ancestry, I find the following alert:

  • Not Yet Digitized. This Series contains records, none of which have been digitized.

My citation draft:

England, marriage certificate

Hello,

I have reviewed previous submissions on this forum and also consulted Evidence Explained 9.48.  This is what I have come up with for a copy of a marriage certificate that was ordered from the Registrar office.  My concern is I didn't need to know if I needed to at that the marriage was solemnized at the Register office.  I have attached a copy of the marriage certificate. 

Thank you as always for your help,

Linda Rogers

 

Source List Entry (EE)

Repository and document name changes

When the name of a repository changes, e.g. from Office of Vital Statistics to Bureau of Vital Statistics to Division of Vital Statistics, etc., should our citation use the repository name on the document or the repository name as it was when we visited or wrote to the repository?

I have a similar question regarding changes of names for vital records; a generic death certificate might be preprinted with terms such as "certificate of death" or "medical certificate of death." Do we use the generic term or the term on the certificate? 

Format - Document vs Database approach

Dear Evidence Explained, 

I am new to the world of citations.  I am quickly learning that it is a study all on its own. I have your Evidence Explained book, 3rd edition and have also read numerous postings (several times) on this forum. All of which are very informative.  I have to admit my head is swimming in information at the moment.

Citing ChatGPT

This is purely for fun. No comments as to WHY someone would cite ChatGPT (or any of the others). But as a little lite humor, let's see if we can put one together. I'm using here 3.42 the Instant Message format.

ChatGPT (https://chat.openai.com) with David Grawrock [USERID FOR PRIVATE USE], chat, "Age of majority in 1837 Tennessee" (https://chat.openai.com/chat/651470ab-ba4d-4dc9-b279-e02947a8cc4e [password protected]); privately held by Grawrock, [(E-ADDRESS), & STREET ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE], Ivins, Utah, 2023.

Bureau of Indian Affairs Citations

Hello,

I'm knee-deep in research with the BIA (RG 75).  Nara has index cards on their website, which give tidbits of information, and some cards reference other records. 

I know we don't typically use indexes as sources, but these index cards have a wealth of information on them.

If I use the index card, would I only cite the online card information, then when I get the actual file, then cite the details of where that file came from?

For example 

Citing Session Laws digitized on Internet Archive

Our study group met and created this citation for a session law that was published in a book, and subsequently found online at Internet Archive. In drafting this citation, we considered the first layer following section 13.13, p. 748, in Evidence Explained. We drafted the second layer as an online source.  We have two questions:

1. Is the sequencing right for the first layer? 

2. For the digitized images, does the title "Indiana acts, 1822-23, 7th session," belong before or after the description "digitized images"?