Freedmen's Bureau Register of Colored Persons

Welcome to EE, CSmothers.  Can you provide the link to digital image you want to cite? (Yes, it's behind a paywall, but we carry a subscription.)

CSmothers, the link took me only to an isolated image, without the ability to backtrack to the collection itself or navigate through the menu links or study the "About" information that Ancestry provides for the collection.

That link to an isolated image would enable us to create a citation that tells your reader: "Here's where you can see the image; and you can take our word for it that nothing else matters." But that would not be a reliable or useful genealogical citation.  Every document we use, like all other aspect of research, needs context. That context is then studied from two different standpoints:

• Details that enable others (or ourselves at a later date) to re-find the record.
• Details that enable us and others to evaluate the nature and reliability of the source.

Beyond this, the devil is always in the details. At any single website, different collections have differing reliability and are structured in different ways. Without a usable, navigable link to the collection you’re using, I can't specifically say whether the volume (or collection or series) you are using has other considerations that would affect our identification of the source.

You mentioned initially that EE you did not see an example of the type of record you're working with. Actually, it's there. Several of them. Every edition of EE has had a section for Freedmen’s Bureau Records (EE4: §12.43) as part of the chapter on using records at the National Archives. In that section, you’ll find examples for citing original documents that are used (a) onsite in a federal repository, (b)  on microfilm, and (c) as online images. FB records are also covered in EE’s QuickSheet for African-American research.

In both EE4 and it’s back-pack edition, Your Stripped Bare Guide to Citing & Using History Sources, the template you would follow is Template 5: Complex Website (Multiple Articles or Databases).

Beyond this is a more-important point. Regardless of what type of governmental record we are using, a reliable and useful citation follows the same pattern. The two issues that make the differences in our citation are the form of the source and the means by which we access it. More specifically:

• Whether we are using a manuscript or published material.
• Whether we are using an original document or a less-reliable derivative such as an abstract, extract, transcription, database entry, etc.
• If a manuscript:  Whether we are using it onsite (which calls for a complete citation to locate the record within that archive), on microfilm or CD (which is usually cited as a publication), or online images (where the delivery mechanism or site architecture dictates certain elements we need to include).  
• If online images: Then we are normally citing two different things and need a full citation to both the original and the website. In brief

Layer One : Original Document

This follows the same pattern used by every citation guide for archival documents:

“Title of Document,” date, page within the document, Collection Name and/or number, Series Name and/or number, Record Group Name and Number, Name of Archive, Location of Archive. 

           Layer Two: Website

This follows the same pattern as citing a chapter in a book:

 “Name of Chapter or Website Collection,” Author/Creator (if different from website title) Name of Website or Book (Place of publication = URL : date of publication or date of access) > Specific Location—i.e.: Path & Waypoints > image number.

If you feel free to share a workable link, then we can be more specific about that one image.

Elizabeth