Citations to "Georgia, U.S., Property Tax Digests" on Ancestry

By FindingAnyRoots on Mon, 11/21/2022 - 20:20

Forums

Hello,

I’ve been working on crafting citations to entries in the Georgia Tax Digests database with images on Ancestry. I have found several counties over a span of years that I need to cite and I really want to make sure I understand the source and how to format my citations correctly. 

No targets or scanned book cover images appear at the beginning of the digital films for any of the records I’ve viewed thus far. The images for each county (Clarke, Oconee, and Walton) are arranged by year and militia district. Each year first lists white taxpayers for all districts, followed by freedmen for all districts—grouped under the name of their respective employers. Since there is no identifying information at the beginning of any of the digital films, I am not quite sure if the images are all from the same book or from different volumes, and so am unsure how to arrange or label the information for the item of interest (bold text in the below examples). 

I’m also not quite sure how to handle the page numbers. Some years are entirely unpaginated. In Walton County, for the years 1877–1882, entries for whites are paginated separately than for freedmen, as seen on the imaged index for 1877 (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1729/images/40881_1220705227_0873-00010 : accessed 21 November 2022), but the page numbers are either not visible or only partially visible in most images for 1877–1878. Page numbers are fully visible from 1879–1882. 

 

Below are the two citations I’ve come up with so far. Have I formatted them properly or would EE suggest any changes I should make?

 

  1. "Georgia, U.S., Property Tax Digests, 1793-1892," database with images, Ancestry (https://ancestry.com/search/collections/1729/ : accessed 21 November 2022)  > Clarke > 1874-1877 > image 109 of 504: Clarke County, Georgia, property tax digests, 1874, Militia District 239, unpaginated, freedman Lem Ridgeway employed by Zach Whitehead; citing "Georgia Tax Digests [1890]. 140 volumes. Morrow, Georgia: Georgia Archives." 
  2. "Georgia, U.S., Property Tax Digests, 1793-1892," database with images, Ancestry (https://ancestry.com/search/collections/1729/ : accessed 22 October 2022) > Walton > 1877-1882, image 1006 of 1017: Walton County, Georgia, property tax digests, 1882, Militia District 454, paginated section for freedmen, p. 15, Lem Ridgeway employed by Hugh A Carithers; citing "Georgia Tax Digests [1890]. 140 volumes. Morrow, Georgia: Georgia Archives."

Thank you for your guidance, 

Ashley

 

Submitted byEEon Tue, 11/22/2022 - 09:05

FindingAnyRoots, you’ve done an excellent job of analyzing what you’re working with and reporting it in a way that it can be understood and relocated. 

The first decision to make when using images at a database such as this is always this: Do we lead with details for the original document or do we cite the database and then stuff the details for the original into the Specific Item field of the database citation?

You’ve answered that question well in your second paragraph:

Since there is no identifying information at the beginning of any of the digital films, I am not quite sure if the images are all from the same book or from different volumes, and so am unsure how to arrange or label the information for the item of interest

Clearly, when using this set of records, as organized by Ancestry:

  • We do not have the same visual and analytical experience we would have if we were there in the Georgia State Archives with the original volume in our hand.
  • Therefore, we cite Ancestry’s database, using its organizational scheme, and then put into the Specific Item field whatever details we can discern.

In the citations you provide, EE would make one tweak. When the militia district number is accompanied by a location, as in

  • High Shoals, 239 District GM [Georgia Militia]
  • Mountain District No. 454, Monroe Post Office

EE would include the place name(s) as well as the district number.