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I wish to cite the 1895 Wisconsin state census found at Ancestry.com.
The image of the page (that has no number) that I wish to cite has a heading that is not filled in:
"Enumeration of the Inhabitants in the ________________ of __________________ in the County of _________________, State of Wisconsin, on the 20th day of June, A. D. 1895.
Based on the information that Ancestry.com provides, my citation is:
1895 state census, Dane County, Wisconsin, population schedule, Madison, line 19 (unnumbered), W. A. Tracy [indexed as W. R. Tracy], database and digital images, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 11 Feb 2015); citing "roll v226_11", "Wisconsin State Census. 1895 Microfilm, 10 reels. Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin."
Does it matter that the heading doesn't show Madison or Dane County? That is, should this cause me to change my citation (1) to put Madison and Dane County in brackets or (2) to add a comment about the heading at the end of my citation or (3) to add "Madison" and "Dane County" to the "citing" portion of the citation.
Only the first few census pages at the beginning of the filmstrip have the headings filled in with Madison and Dane County.
Dennis
That's an interesting
That's an interesting question. I tend to not worry about that if I can step from the image of the page that was filled in to the image of the page I want to use. That allows me to be confident that the information in the image I'm using is indeed from the location etc. on the page that was filled in. I don't mention a missing caption, etc. if it's been entered elsewhere in the document.
I'll be very interested to see what other comments/advice you get!
A few miscellaneous comments, and I hope they're helpful:
I didn't find a citation to a roll v226_11 on the Ancestry image so I wouldn't use that number unless I could identify where it came from.
The Ancestry image is really hard to read. You might want to use the image on Familysearch.org instead (it's free!). That image is much better quality.
There are a few other things to recommend using the Familysearch image. The online catalog for the Wisconsin Historical Society says their microfilm was produced by the GSU in 1979 and gives an OCLC number. That OCLC number on worldcat.org shows that copies of the film are in a number of libraries and at the FHL.
So, the WHS and FHL microfilms are copies and the image at Familysearch is an image of what you'd see if you went to the WHS and looked at their microfilm. Not only that, but by using the OCLC number someone could look at a copy in a library (not just at the WHS or FHL).
The Ancestry image on the other hand may be a film of a film, or a separate filming that's different from what the WHS has. It's harder to determine the real provenance of the Ancestry image and it's only available through Ancestry.
So, after all that, I'd recommend you take a look at the discussion on "State Census, digital image at FamilySearch" on this forum in Sept., 2014. That has a really good discussion about citing the 1855 Wisconsin census.
Hope that helps!
Brian Gross
Brian, thanks for the
Brian, thanks for the background on the filming history of this record set. You've given everyone issues to consider.
Dennis,
Dennis,
It this were my problem, I would do enough contextual study to reassure myself that Ancestry's locational identification is correct. (It isn't always.) Once reassured,