Citing online church databse

Websites are such fun to figure out—or not! It's enough to make one yearn for days of yore when most publishing was done by professionals who knew what information needed to be provided for an adequate identification and understanding of their work. 

In the absence of this, you are doing an excellent job of thinking through the issues and searching for the information. You have identified the best model to use. Unfortunately, all the information you need to cite and understand this source does not seem to be there—not at the Lutherans Online site or the Swedlanda Church site to which it links, and not under any link or tab at either site. Given what is there, the answers to your bullets above would seem to be these:

• The creator of the site is the self-titled Lutherans Online; the creator of that particular page seems to be the Swedlanda Evangelical Lutheran Church (Hector, Minnesota).
• There is no date of posting or creation.
• There is no identification of the source of this list.
• Long URL? Yes, maybe.

A few issues need addressing more fully:

Creator of Web Page: The reason EE concludes that the page was created by the local church is this: On the Lutheran Online home page, a "Website" tab gives the public the option of creating a web page under the auspices of Lutherans Online. That seems to be what the church has done.

Name of Web Page:  At the URL you provide, the page title is "Swedlanda's Confirmation Classes." The phrase "Confirmands of Swedlanda Luthern" does not seem to appear there. To find that phrase we have to click on a link that takes us to the Swedlanda Church's own website. But the phrase links back to the page that's titled "Swedlanda's Confirmation Classes." EE would cite the latter page, using that actual title.

URL: Yes, this one is obnoxiously long. Sometimes, in lieu of a long URL, it's simpler to cite to the website's home page—as you have done in your second message—and then add a path. In this case, the exact page is extremely hard to find from the home page of Lutherans Online. The easiest way to locate the site, other than using the long URL, is to Google for it; but, as noted above, to find it through Google we have to use Lutherans Online's page title "Swedlanda's Confirmation Classes" rather than the variant title given on the church's page. EE would, in this case, sigh and then use the long URL. If someone who retypes our URL were to make a typo or if the website's administrator were to change the link, then the page can still be found through Google, so long as we use the right title.

Source: Considering that Dr. Norelius's second term ended in 1911 and the list extends through 2006, we would have to conclude that this list is drawn from some other source or sources. Typically, someone in the church will go through the sacramental registers and compile lists of this type. Ideally, that person will provide some explanation of the source, but that did not happen here. An inquiry to the church would seem appropriate.

Citation: In the citation that you give in your second message, EE would do the following:

• Change the document creator to the name (location) of the church
• Identify the web page, "Swedlanda's Confirmation Classes," and the website Lutherans Online, remembering the precept that when we have a smaller item (article, chapter, database, etc) appearing within a larger publication (book, journal, website, etc.), the title of the smaller item goes in quotation marks while the title of the larger publication is italicized.
• Change the description of the cited item from "database" to "list."  The item in this case is static, not a dynamic database.
• Give the full URL because, from the home page, the list is virtually unfindable.
• Drop the phrase "citing ..." because your source doesn't cite anything. The phrase should be replaced with a statement that the compiler of the list does not cite the source(s) from which the list was compiled.

Results:

Swedlanda Evangelical Lutheran Church (Hector, Minn.), "Swedlanda's Confirmation Classes," list, Lutherans Online　(http://www.lutheransonline.com/servlet/lo_ProcServ/dbpage=page&mode=display&gid=20053335185829224201111555&pg=20053347146633498501111555 : accessed 17 July 2012), entry for Hulda Ryberg Peterson, 1908; the compiler of the list does not identify the source(s) from which the list was compiled.

Final thought: Whew!  But, after all this, we do understand what we're dealing with a whole lot better. We also have a good idea of where we need to go to find the original 1908 list on which our person of interest appears, so that we can verify that the details are correct and then search that source for additional information. That's infinitely better than just having a name on a list and wondering, So, what now?

MRiley,

One citation covering all the Rybergs on the list is the appropriate choice for the narrative construction you use above.

One other general principle might be mentioned: When we place a reference-note number in the text, the standard location to place that number is at the end of the information that comes from the source—not at the first mention of the source. A list such as yours can pose a special consideration. A little reference-note number at the end of a list whose items have a ragged right can be easily overlooked. The alternative here would be to place the reference-note number at the end of the sentence that introduces the list. In that position, the reader understands that all the details in the list came from that source.