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Hi,
Please bear with me, I am trying to tidy up my source citations and I am relatively new to Evidence Style.
I am having trouble getting my head around the citation of information regarding Birth/Baptism/Marriage/Death records found at Rootsireland.ie .
I have the book 'Evidence Explained, Citing Sources from Articles to Cyberspace' and the 'Quicksheet, Citing Online Historical Resources', however, I am still confused as to which template to apply in the case of Rootsireland.ie .
I have attached a copy of a Civil Birth Record as an example.
I have read section 9.52 'Ireland: Vital Registrations', p.479, which is what I would have used if I had obtained the actual/original Civil Birth record from the General Register Office (GRO) Dublin.
However, as I am relying on the database/transcript from Rootsireland.ie. I am confused and I am still not convinced that I have understood compeletely where each party fits into the Basic template. So far using a combination of the information found on p.479 and the Basic Template from the Quicksheet - I have come up with the following -
Source List Entry
Urban 4, Belfast District, Ireland, Civil Birth Records, 1896, transcript?/database?, Irish Family History Foundation, Rootsireland.ie (http://www.rootsireland.ie: accessed 28 May 2012),
First Reference Note
Urban 4, Belfast District, Ireland, Civil Birth Records, 1896, transcript?/database?, Irish Family History Foundation, Rootsireland.ie (http://www.rootsireland.ie: accessed 28 May 2012), [Female] Mulholland, 22 Oct 1896. citing Civil Parish Birth Registers, 1813-1900; General Register Office, Dublin.
Subsequent Reference Note
Urban 4, Belfast District, Ireland, Civil Birth Records, 1896, transcript?/database?, Irish Family History Foundation, [Female] Mulholland, 22 Oct 1896. citing Civil Parish Birth Registers, 1813-1900; General Register Office, Dublin.
You will note that I have questioned whether to use transcript or database as the item. Could you please clarify the correct term to use in this case? I am leaning towards the use of database, but again I am not sure.
Btw, I found that there is a list of Genealogical Sources Available for Co. Antrim Online at the Rootsireland.ie website and from the list, I determined based on the Registrar's District - Urban 4, Belfast, that I should possibly also include 'Civil Parish Birth Registers, 1813-1900' in the citation. I have included a section of that screen showing the information. You will note that the table uses the term Baptisms in the column Header, however, the attached record is headed 'Civil Birth Record', I realise there is the Baptism date on the attached record, and again I am confused.
| Civil Parish / District | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Parish | Baptisms | Marriage | Burials |
| Antrim | 1884 - 1885 | ||
| City Cemetry, Belfast | 1784 - 1900 | ||
| Civil, Belfast Urban 1 | 1802 - 1913 | ||
| Civil, Belfast Urban 2 | 1864 - 1902 | ||
| Civil, Belfast Urban 3 | 1818 - 1900 | ||
| Glenalina Cemetry, Belfast | 1924 - 1998 | ||
| Urban 1, Belfast | 1860 - 1900 | ||
| Urban 2, Belfast | 1765 - 1900 | ||
| Urban 3, Belfast | 1772 - 1900 | ||
| Urban 4 Civil, Belfast | 1774 - 1900 | ||
| Urban 4, Belfast | 1813 - 1900 | ||
| Urban 5, Belfast | 1804 - 1900 | ||
| Urban12, Belfast | 1891 - 1920 | ||
I do apologise, the table copies into here ok, but when I preview this message the table structure is removed and the listed items are jumbled together, So I have highlighted the item from the list that I chose.
Could you please advise as appropriate?
Thank you for your assistance !
Geoff
Geoff,
Geoff,
You are wise to recognize that you are not citing the official birth record. Rather, you are citing a modern database entry—an entirely different creation. The "Vital Records" model provided in the QuickSheet you have at hand ("Citing Online Historical Resources") is the one to follow. The elements and their order, for a Reference Note, would be this:
Creator of Database, "Database Title," abstracts, Website Title (URL : date of access), [specific essential details that identify the party in the database entry]; citing [put here whatever source information the database gives you].
Going past the database to learn more about the registrar's district and other things that affect our analysis and interpretation of a record is always a wise move. However, sometimes record sets are much more complicated than we anticipate and, when we think we have identified the source used by our derivative source, we may actually have identified a similarly titled set whose content is quite different. For that reason, the best approach for source-of-the-source data is to reproduce what the derivative tells us. If we then want to add an explanation in our notes—to help others or ourselves at a later date after our recollection of this source has gone cold—we would put that in a separate sentence or two or three, worded in a way that makes it clear this additional information comes from a different source rather than the derivative we first cited.