Citation for "Manifest U.S. Department of Labor Immigration Service" record.

By Lo on Sun, 03/21/2021 - 22:08

Forums

Dear Editor

I need help in creating a citation for “Michigan, U.S. Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists 1903-1965,” database with images, Ancestry, (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 20 February 2021, Goodman Hugh Saunders, age 48, born Port Ewing, Scotland; arrival to Port Huron, Michigan, 6 August 1924. last resided Toronto, Ontario, Canada, accompanied by wife. Destination Long Beach, California. One of my problems is incorporating the title of the record,which is "Manifest U.S. Department of Labor Immigration Service," Then the source of the source - what NARA info should be included? Any of the following? Department of Labor, Immigration Service, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.,National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Washington, D.C.; Manifests of Alien Arrivals at Port Huron, Michigan, February 1902-December 1954; Record Group: 85, Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service; Microfilm Serial: A3441.

Your help will be much appreciated.

 

Submitted byEEon Mon, 03/22/2021 - 10:20

Lo,

Would you supply a link to the record (exact URL) or the path by which we can go from the home page URL (which you cited) to that exact record?

Submitted byEEon Mon, 03/22/2021 - 19:12

Lo,

Thanks for the URL.  You might approach this in one of two ways:

CITING THE EXACT (& LONG) URL:

        1.  “Michigan, U.S. Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists 1903-1965,” database with images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.ca/imageviewer/collections/1247/images/31054_174580-04015 : accessed 20 February 2021), Form 548, “Manifest [card], U.S. Department of Labor, Immigration Service,” Goodman Hugh Saunders, age 48, born Port Ewing, Scotland; arrived Port Huron, Michigan, 6 August 1924; citing "Manifests of Alien Arrivals at Port Huron, Michigan, February 1902–December 1854, [U.S. National Archives] microfilm publication A3441, 41 rolls, ARC ID: 4492484."

CITING THE SHORTER DATABASE URL, PLUS PATH

        1. “Michigan, U.S. Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists 1903-1965,” database with images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.ca/imageviewer/collections/1247 : accessed 20 February 2021), Port Huron, Michigan > Card > S > All > image 350 of 21805, Form 548, “Manifest, U.S. Department of Labor, Immigration Service,” Goodman Hugh Saunders, age 48, born Port Ewing, Scotland; arrived Port Huron, Michigan, 6 August 1924; citing "Manifests of Alien Arrivals at Port Huron, Michigan, February 1902–December 1854, [U.S. National Archives] microfilm publication A3441, 41 rolls, ARC ID: 4492484."

You were concerned about where to position the "title" that appears at the top of the individual card. That card is your specific "item of interest," so its identity goes in the "item of interest" field that follows the publication data. The title of the card is placed in quotation marks because we are quoting it exactly.

Aside from this, I tinkered with a few other points:

  • The title of the website should be italicized. Ancestry is a standalone publication; it is not part of a bigger site.
  • Database titles are not italicized. They are not a standalone publication. That database is just one part of Ancestry, the standalone publication.  Parts of a publication are placed in quotation marks.

For both of these points, turn to EE’s chapter Fundamentals of Citation (chapter 2), then to the section for “Stylistic Matters.”  EE 2.22 provides the basics for how to format titles. The manner in which a title is formatted communicates to readers certain important points about the title and what it represents.

  • For the example that cites the long URL instead of the path, I added the word card, in editorial brackets, after the word "Manifest." I did this so that the citation would note the fact that these are individual cards, not the more-familiar format of a long list of passengers that can be searched for potential relatives and travel mates.
  • I’ve deleted the comma between the website title and its parenthetical publication data. This is not an EE point. This is standard punctuation for all types of writing. A comma is not ever placed before parenthetical publication data. The purpose of parentheses is to say that the data in these parentheses modify what has just been mentioned. The point of a comma is to separate one thing from another. Parentheses are intended to connect. Commas splice.
  • I added a “close parenthesis" after the publication date.
  • All the relevant personal details from the card do not have to be included in the citation—only the basic details that enable users to distinguish one card from another when there are multiple cards for same-name people. All the information from the card should be transcribed into your research notes or your database. If or when you write a paper based on this research, the relevant information from the card would then be discussed in your text, with a citation crafted to identify the source.
  • The source-of-the-source layer selectively chooses from what Ancestry offers because Ancestry's citation "mixes peas and apples." Ancestry created these images from NARA film, not from the originals in Record Group 85 at the archives in D.C. If we were using the originals at NARA, then our citation would need to include many more pieces of information (file, collection, series, subgroup, etc.) as well as the RG number (and name, which is also missing here), in order for the record to be located.