Date to use when vital event is recorded in following year

By Anonymous on Sat, 08/20/2016 - 18:05

Forums

I have run into several cases in which a birth, marriage, or death occurred in late December and was not recorded until the following January. It makes sense to me to include both the event year and the year the event was recorded in a citation. What is the usual practice?

Also, is it acceptable to include the full date of the event in these cases, as I'm inclined to do?

Thanks.

Lesley 

Submitted byEEon Sun, 08/21/2016 - 13:36

Lesley, if I understand your question correctly, it seems that two different issues are being conflated here: the source and the information that comes from the source.

When we do research and find something useful, we have two tasks:

  1. Capture the information that the source offers—every shred of information.
  2. Capture the details about the source itself, so that we can (a) evaluate the quality of the source; and (b) relocate the source at some point in the future, if and when necessary.

To accomplish Task 1, we extract all essential details. Typically, we do this by making an abstract, making a full transcript, or entering each piece of data into the appropriate field of a database. What we are creating here are research notes.

Then there's Task 2, in which we create a reference note (aka source note). Each time we make a research note we attach a source citation, typically in reference note form. This is where we identify the source itself—not the information within the source—and evaluate its quality.

EE's Chapter 9 demonstrates many different types of birth, marriage, and death registrations and show the essential data to capture for source citations to each type.  EE does not address the issue of what information you'd want to record in your research notes because EE assumes that you would record or preserve every essential piece of information the source offers.

 

Submitted byACProctoron Sun, 08/21/2016 - 15:19

The question was a general one, and it doesn't identify the associated country. If this is related to civil registration in England and Wales then I would add one small detail: the year (and quarter) in which the event was registered are some of the essential details required if a reader wants to obtain a copy of the same certificiate from the General Register Office (GRO).

Tony

Submitted byLKCon Sun, 08/21/2016 - 15:42

Tony, the specific instances that come to mind in which I have encountered a January registration for a December event involve U.S. and Italian civil records, though I suspect it occurs more widely. In the Italian records, citing the year is sufficient.

Elizabeth, it's helpful to refer back to the distinction between the source and the information gathered from it. I was thinking that including the event year in the citation might help avoid confusion, but perhaps not.

Thank you.

Lesley

Lesley, as we frequently say here: in our own research files, we can add to a citation anything we want to add that we feel will help us as we continue with the project. When we publish, post, or distribute copies of our research, then following standard practices is the best way to ensure that we don't confuse others.