Lead element: Original record or Database?

Dear Editor,

I know you've addressed this several times, within the pages of EE, the QuickLessons, and in the forum, but I'm still not getting it.

We do so much of our research online now, viewing images of original documents.

The question:  Do we try to cite the original document as the first part of the citation, followed by the website information, or is it the other way around?

Or is either acceptable, or does it "depend?"

Trying to ascertain the full citation details of an online image is at the least somewhat difficult, and can be very difficult as exemplified in QuickLesson 12, "Chasing an Online Record into Its Rabbit Hole."

QuickLesson 19, "Layered Citations Work Like Layered Clothing" provides examples of both approaches.  I will comment on the section there entitled "Online Records at State-Agency Sites."  In the "Points to Note" second bullet states, "In the digital age . . . our data entry is often more efficient if we first identify the online database . . . Using that as our source list entry, we can easily select that source from a pick-list."  The software I use is flexible enough to use the name of the online collection in the Master Source pick list, but also allow a citation to be constructed with either the online collection, or the original document listed as the first element.

Typically online sites will provide some sort of citation with the online database (of images) most often, if not always, as the lead element.

Following the advice in EE (1st ed.) 9.6 "Basic Formats: Online Resources," p. 439, "Online Images" which states "When you cite a digital image of a record, you are citing the record-albeit in surrogate form.  With local records, you may cite that digital image in the same manner you would the original.  Then you append the identification of the web publication . . ."

This (9.6) is the format I've tried to use consistently, almost regardless of how much or how little I can ascertain about the original source details such as register title, volume, page, etc.

This is an example of a citation I'm trying to construct now.  The collection of images is at Ancestry.com, "Massachusetts, Mason Membership Cards, 1733-1990."

EE 4.25 "Membership Card Files" shows an example which causes me to create this:

Stephen Willard Pierce (Easthampton, Massachusetts) data card; document images, "Massachusetts, Mason Membership Cards, 1733-1990," Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=5061 : accessed 3 September 2015); citing "Massachusetts Grand Lodge of Masons Membership Cards 1733-1900," New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston.

(Note that my preference for citing URL's is to cite the collection, not the main site and not the individual record.)

It seems the preference would be to cite the original document (if of course viewing the image), but for "less flexible" software, the online collection may be cited first.

And, in my example, should I identify the Massachusetts Grand Lodge of Masons as the creator in the first element, although that would be somewhat redundant to the rest of the citation.

Any additional insight would be appreciated.

Thank you,

Jeff Hodge