Forums
OK, another one. I have a digital image received from a mailing list subscriber (the Lovelace list on Rootsweb) of an original marriage license, complete with affixed stamp. The subscriber received the image from his daughter. His daughter works with the woman who is in possession of the certificate. She took the photo on a smartphone when the co-worker brought the certificate for her to look at. The happy couple are the co-worker's great-grandparents, and the co-worker found the certificate "while she was going through some of paternal grandmother's things." The happy couple were not Lovelaces, but the minister performing the ceremony was. The location was Franklin, Simpson County, Kentucky, and the certificate is dated 28 January 1915. Of course, we are interested in the minister, since he shares our surname. So my question is: How to cite this original marriage certificate? Do I cite it as a digital image stating how I came by it, and then providing the chain of custody? Or do I cite it as a family artifact in possession of the co-worker, whose name and address I have? We have a website with a library of documents and photographs, and I want to post this photograph in the appropriate folder for the state and county where it was issued. With, or course, the proper complete source citation attached. Any suggestions?
Greg,
Greg,
You do, indeed, have a family artifact passed down in the family of the co-worker. That's how it should be cited--as an image copy of a family artifact, for which you would append the "provenance information" to explain the chain by which the original passed down and the image then passed to you.