Citing images from the Holbrook Collection

I am once again stumped by a Massachusetts Vital Record. I would like to cite the image of the birth record for Thomas Judd, who was born in Charlemont, Massachusetts, on 4 September 1812. I found the image of the town register on Ancestry "Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988." Browse to Charlemont > Town Records > image 51 (you can also find it by searching the database for Thomas Judd, born in 1812).

I feel pretty good about the beginning of my citation: "Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988," database with images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2495/ : accessed on 6 July 2021), > Charlemont > Town Records > image 51 (p. 92 of unnamed register), Thomas Judd, born 1812; citing ...

But what am I citing?

 I know that I am looking at a digital image of a microfiche that was made by the Holbrook Research Institute.  They filmed Massachusetts vital records from almost every town in the state. The first image on Ancestry gives me a printed title page which I could cite as Jay Mack Holbrook, Massachusetts Vital Records, Charlemont 1765-1899 (Oxford, Mass.: Holbrook Research Institute, 1987). The second image on Ancestry gives me more information about the Charlemont Vital Records, telling me they include 7 volumes of data.  But I cannot figure out which one of the volumes listed (and there seem to be 9 volumes, not 7) contains the image that I want to cite. To my, perhaps untrained eye, the image could have come from Fiche 2, 7, 11 or 12. 

I was also able to find the image at FamilySearch in "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001." But not by searching this collection. For some reason the only items from this page of the town register that are indexed are the marriages. However, looking at the images on FamilySeaarch did not make me any wiser.

Some of my ideas:

...; citing Charlemont Town Records.

...; citing "Charlemont births and deaths, 1803-1843," in Jay Mack Holbrook, Massachusetts Vital Records, Charlemont 1765-1899 (Oxford, Mass.: Holbrook Research Institute, 1987).

Thank you so much for taking a peek at this.

 

Kristine

 

 

Submitted byEEon Tue, 07/13/2021 - 19:21
kristine, I will be out of the office for another couple of days. Hope it doesn't inconvenience you to wait until then for an answer.

Submitted byEEon Wed, 07/14/2021 - 17:16

In reply to by kristine.smets…

Ah, Kristine. We love that records are delivered to our desktops today, but the delivery mechanisms and the data provided by the suppliers (or lack of it) definitely complicate our work!

You've done a good job of analyzing what you're using, via Holbrook's preface to his fiche publication that Ancestry imaged. The set of records is almost certainly the ones on Holbrook’s fiche 2. His description of fiche 2 says that "vital and town records" for 1765–1832 end on p. 102. Your record is on image 51 (being p. 93). Image 56 (which is numbered p. 102) ends that set of VRs; and the rest of the old register consists of town records only. Following the pagination for the rest of the register, we can match that to fiches 3–10 which end at p. 156 (renumbered as 458, thereby matching the end of Holbrook's fiche 10).

All that aside, we still don't know what title is on the register itself because the cover wasn’t filmed. Holbrook, at image 2, has a list of record sets; and the record set that appears on fiches 1–10 is called by him "Charlemont Town Records 1765–1826, 102 + 458 pages," but we don't know that there exists a volume at Charlemont titled "Charlemont Town Records 1765–1826."

The "102 + 458 pages" that he added to this description, in other circumstances, might suggest there were two books involved; but in this case, it seems to reflect the fact that 102 pages were numbered in one direction, then the book was flipped and 458 pages numbered in the other direction (or vice-versa). Still, we don't know what label is on the cover because he gives another secondary label for the 56 pages that cover your record.

Your Layer 1 and your second "idea" for Layer 2 will handle the situation well, with just a bit of tinkering.

After Layer 1, in which you cite the Ancestry database that delivers the images, EE would not say "citing ...."  When we identify a database and a website provider and then say "citing ...," we are saying that the provider is doing the citing. In this case, Ancestry does not cite anything in particular.

“Citing …” is a bridge word between layers, used to explain the connection of one layer to the next. There are other bridge words that apply in other cases. In this case the appropriate bridge word would be “imaging … ,” after which we say what is imaged by that Ancestry database we've just cited.

All points considered would give us this:

"Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620–1988," database with images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2495/ : accessed 6 July 2021), > Charlemont > Town Records > image 51 (p. 92 of unnamed register), Thomas Judd, born 1812; citing imaging "Charlemont births and deaths, 1803-1843," in Jay Mack Holbrook, Massachusetts Vital Records, Charlemont 17651899 (Oxford, Mass.: Holbrook Research Institute, 1987), unnamed register, p. 92; Holbrook’s foreword identifies the record set as “Vital & Town Records 1765–1832,” a subset of “Charlemont Town Records 1765–1826.”

Clean copy would be this:

"Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620–1988," database with images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2495/ : accessed 6 July 2021), > Charlemont > Town Records > image 51, Thomas Judd, born 1812; imaging Jay Mack Holbrook, Massachusetts Vital Records, Charlemont 17651899 (Oxford, Mass.: Holbrook Research Institute, 1987), unnamed register, p. 92; Holbrook’s foreword identifies the record set as “Vital & Town Records 1765–1832,” a subset of “Charlemont Town Records 1765–1826.”

Submitted bytylerchillon Mon, 02/13/2023 - 20:29

Hi Elizabeth,

Regarding this same Ancestry database, I'm still a bit confused how to cite Holbrook's images of the original.

This is my Ancestry citation so far:

"Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620–1988," database with images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2495/ : accessed 13 Feb 2023), Mendon > Births, Marriages and Deaths > image 920 > #6 Marriage of Newell Tyler and Sybil Bates, 19 Oct 1841;

These records made three stops. The original, Holbrook's microfiche, Ancestry's database of images. 

The actual documents are probably in various courthouses in Massachusetts or more likely archived somewhere. Holbrooks microfiche are wholly owned and stored by Ancestry and not available to the public.

My understanding conceptually is that should Ancestry go offline someday we could consult the fiche, failing that the original archived records.

Specifically in my case:

https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/7089592:2495?tid=7369317&pid=-1108184017

The original is page 29 of a handwritten book of Mendon, Massachusetts marriages and intentions with pages numbered from 1 to 68 and no identifying front page. 

Should I use Ancestry's source information below if nothing more specific is available?

Town and City Clerks of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Vital and Town Records. Provo, UT: Holbrook Research Institute (Jay and Delene Holbrook).

Much speculation above please correct wherever you think is needed.

Thank you, you've helped put hard edges on an often very fuzzy subject.

-Tyler

Submitted bytylerchillon Tue, 02/14/2023 - 11:38

Correction: Holbrook's microfiche are at the New York Public Library https://www.nypl.org/research/research-catalog/bib/b12045042