West Virginia Delayed Birth Certificate Citation

By Anonymous on Tue, 01/13/2015 - 20:08

Forums

Is the Citation Correct I don't have your book, Just used information I have read on here and else where. West Virginia, Department of Health Divison of Vital Statistics, Delayed Birth Certificates, 65173, (1958). Bertha Mae Abbott, Digital Image, Accessed on 13 Jan 2015. http://www.wvculture.org/vrr/va_view.aspx?Id=3445113&Type=Birth; west virginia archives, Charleston.

Submitted byEEon Wed, 01/14/2015 - 07:39

bhuffmanjr,

Before we can answer your question, we need to know your intent: Are you crafting a citation for a source list entry or a reference note (i.e., footnote or endnote)? There are basic differences in how we structure those two needs (EE 2.38 covers this), but your draft above seems to do a little of one and a little of the other.

 

 

 

Submitted byEEon Wed, 01/14/2015 - 23:02

Billy,

Admittedly, you're at a disadvantage without a working copy of EE. You have captured most of the elements that identify what you've found. Your problem lies in putting the elements together in a fashion that makes your citation intelligible and appraisable to others--and to yourself after your recollection of the site has gone cold. The purpose of EE is to help researchers do that. The book is not just a collection of citation formats. The first two chapters cover basic principles of both citation and evidence analysis that apply to all kinds of sources. The initial pages of each chapter cover fundamentals that are essential for the types of sources treated in that chapter. There is really no substitute for studying these fundamentals. You ask whether your citation above is "correct," but it I were to try to "correct" your draft above, I'd have to explain several of those principles at length in this message or else you would face the same problems with every other citation.

The best assistance I could give you right now is to refer you to all the free pages this site offers. Over 100 of EE's pages are posted here at this site--including quite a few of the fundamental pages. Also, if you'll type "birth certificate" into the search box, you'll find several of our forum discussions where others (and I) have discussed special considerations with this particular kind of source.  I know this isn't as quick for you as just asking "Will this citation work?" But, to be realistic, one lone author can't help millions of researchers craft citations on an individual basis. The purpose of creating EE was to provide that help. Here at this site, I do try to help researchers who have used EE and still have a problem.

Best wishes,

Submitted bybhuffmanjron Wed, 01/14/2015 - 23:32

I ended up buying the digital copy today. Which has got me more confused then ever. He is what I have no if you could tell me if I close. This is after help from a group on facebook,

 

West Virginia State Department of Health - Division of Vital Statistics - Charleston, Delayed Certificate of Birth for ABBOTT Bertha May, dated 10 March 1959, attesting to birth on 22 September 1882; digital image, West Virginia Division of Culture and History (http://www.wvculture.org, accessed on 13 January 2015), #651739.

Submitted byyhoitinkon Thu, 01/15/2015 - 01:59

Just my two cents because I know the editor is very busy:

  • You say that you want a source list entry but what you now created looks more like a reference note. You might want to read section 2.4 for clarification on the difference between these two and when to use which.
  • Section 9.35 gives an example of how to cite a delayed birth certificate. You can get a lot of inspiration from that for he first part of your citation (the part which cites the actual record, not the way you accessed it, which would be the second layer of your citation after the semicolon).
  • The book has ubiquitous examples of how to cite online sources, including how you separate the URL and the access date with a colon instead of a comma, how you should name the actual page or database you use and italize the name of the website.  

Submitted byEEon Thu, 01/15/2015 - 08:06

Billy, Yvette has offered several good suggestions. I'll add just one more in the form of a question. What does the number after the website ID represent? Is that a location number assigned by the website or is that the document number on the original certificate? If the latter, then the number should be placed in the layer that identifies the certificate rather than the layer that identifies the website.

Submitted bybhuffmanjron Thu, 01/15/2015 - 09:45

Yes its a reference note. When I was first asking the question I did not know the difference.
Thank both of you for your help

Submitted bybhuffmanjron Thu, 01/15/2015 - 10:21

After reading everything several times here is what I come up with.

 

West Virginia, State Department of Health - Divison of Vital Statistics, Delayed Birth Certificates, digital image, West Virginia Division of Cultre and History {http://www.wvculture.org : Accessed on 13 Jan 2012}, entry for Bertha May Abbott, dated 10 Mar 1959, attesting to birth on 22 Sep 1882, Certificate #651739; west virginia archives, Charleston.