German Records from Microfilm

Deb,

Using records created in another country or culture can be intimidating, but you've confronted it well and included almost everything needed.   EE might make a couple of tweaks.

(1) Your citation begins with the name of the town. You'll note at EE 7.40, the example begins with the name of the church. That's because the church was the creatir, not the town.

(2) The title of the register tells ust that it is not the original register but, instead, a duplicate. Where is this duplicate held? When GSU did the filming, they created a "target" which they filmed at the start of the roll (or the specific item on the roll) and that target will typically tell us the location of the record at the time the filming was done. In this case, FHL's cataloging also provides that data.

(3) "np," as its used above, is not a standard abbreviation. We suspect you mean it to mean unpaginated. But what page should one look for? Presumably (although not always), the records are in chronological order--in which case, what date in 1857 should one seek, given that births are not always recorded promptly?

Interesting. FHL's cataloging also tells us the location of the Duplikate you actually used. You would want to note that, of course, because transcribed "duplicates" often have differences from the original; but adding a known location for the original would certainly make your citation more useful.

I am struggling with a citation for an entry from a German Family Table record found at Ancestry. The original book is from the church of Bronnholzheim ad is in alphabetical sections; however, on Ancestry it is combined with three other church districts. Then after investigating it a bit further I discovered that Ancestry used a microfilm from FamilySearch. FamilySearch gave more information regarding the record. Here is what I have written for my citation. I believe I have the first two layers correct, but the third layer from FamilySearch has me befuddled.

Bronnholzheim Familien Register (Crailsheim, Gröningen u. Oa, Germany), January 1808, section B, folio 13, entry for Johann Bernhard Beging and Maria Catharina Beging [Johann Leonhard Belschner and Maria Catharina geb. Hornnug]; imaged in "Württemberg, Germany, Family Tables, 1550-1985", database with digital images, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : downloaded 21 May 2021), path Crailsheim, Gröningen u. Oa > Familienbücher u. Familienbuch 1808; imaged from Evangelische Kirche Gröningen (OA. Crailsheim), Kirchenbuch, 1550-1957, (Stuttgart, Germany : Haupstaatsarchive Stuttgart, 1991), FHL microfilm 1858937

Tami, would you give us an image number? The path you give leads cleanly to FHL microfilm 1858937. However, there are 828 images and, as you say, there are multiple items and sections.

Yes, the image number is 553. 

Tami, you’ve “struggled” well. There are just a couple of points on which EE would handle this differently, as indicated in red, below:

      1.  Bronnholzheim Familien Register (Crailsheim, Gröningen u. Oa, Germany), January 1808, section B, folio 13, entry for Johann Bernhard Beging and Maria Catharina Beging [Johann Leonhard Belschner and Maria Catharina geb. Hornnug]; imaged in "Württemberg, Germany, Family Tables, 1550-1985", database with digital images, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : downloaded 21 May 2021), path: Crailsheim, Gröningen u. Oa > Familienbücher u. Familienbuch 1808 > image 553; imaged from FHL microfilm 1858937.

First, the image number needs to be included. 

Second, one statement in your Layer 3, “imaged from Evangelische Kirche Gröningen (OA. Crailsheim), Kirchenbuch, 1550-1957, (Stuttgart, Germany : Haupstaatsarchive Stuttgart, 1991), is misleading—though it is not your fault. You say that you got this from the FHL cataloging data for FHL microfilm 1858937. There, we find this:

The labels used in FHL's cataloging data reflects standard (meaning consistent) "fields" that the catalog database uses for all types of material, whether published or not.  When cataloging a published book, the FHL catalog enters the actual publication data in that field. When material is not published, but filmed, the filming date and place also go in that field. In this case, the “Publication” field is followed by the date and place of filming, rather than publication.

Despite its own cataloging label, the Family History Library has always cautioned us that materials of this type are not published. Its contracts with the owners of the material do not allow then to publish it. Even today these records are not “published online,” as indicated by the lock-and-key icon telling the world that we must go to FHL or a Family History Center to use it.

For this reason, EE is dropping that part of your citation. If you want to include when and where the filming took place, then the citation might be adapted this way.

      1.  Bronnholzheim Familien Register (Crailsheim, Gröningen u. Oa, Germany), January 1808, section B, folio 13, entry for Johann Bernhard Beging and Maria Catharina Beging [Johann Leonhard Belschner and Maria Catharina geb. Hornnug]; imaged in "Württemberg, Germany, Family Tables, 1550-1985", database with digital images, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : downloaded 21 May 2021), path: Crailsheim, Gröningen u. Oa > Familienbücher u. Familienbuch 1808 > image 553; imaged from FHL microfilm 1858937, created at Haupstaatsarchive, Stuttgart, 1991.

Thank you for your response and thorough explanation of layer three. There is so much to learn when creating a citation. Inserting the image number into the citation has me questioning something I thought I read about images found at Ancestry.com and other like databases. I understood that an image number was not necessary in a citation because these images move within the database and image numbers change just as a URL address might change for a particular image; have I misunderstood? I believe this was in my reading regarding census records.