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Dear Editor,
I have a couple of questions about my citations and, in particular, my questions will pertain to the “Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968” collection on Ancestry. Apologies for the length of the post! :)
A little background first …
I’ve been reading EE and searching online to see what I could find about citing this collection. I came across this post on these forums and this post on the Genealogy – Cite Your Sources Facebook page. I have many, many ancestors in various parishes within this collection so have decided to create a template in Rootsmagic for ease of data entry. So far, my template will produce footnotes, short footnotes, and bibliography entries as shown below. I added a path to my template since I am not providing a link directly to the image.
Footnote: "Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968," digital images, Ancestry (Ancestry.ca: downloaded 9 March 2015), baptism, Joseph Edmond Perreault, 4 July 1885, entry B46, image 11 of 25, Civil Vital Register for 1885, St. Theodore de-Chertsey Parish, Joliette registry office; imaged from microfilm identified as "Gabriel Drouin, comp. Drouin Collection. Montreal, Quebec, Canada: Institut Généalogique Drouin." Path Saint > St-Théodore-de-Chertsey > 1885. Incorrectly indexed as Joseph Edmond Pinault.
Short Footnote: "Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968," Ancestry, Joseph Edmond Perreault, 4 July 1885, entry B46, image 11 of 25, St. Theodore de Chertsey Parish.
Bibliography: "Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968," digital images. Ancestry. Ancestry.ca : 2015.
My questions:
- Do you see anything glaringly incorrect with these entries? One thing I’m wondering about is St. Theodore de-Chertsey (parish) versus St-Théodore-de-Chertsey (in the path). The former is taken from the image and the latter is taken from Ancestry. It would seem to me that since they are spelled differently in each place these should be kept different. Would you agree?
- How would I best incorporate the parish into the bibliography entry? Rather than having one bibliography entry for the entire collection, I prefer to have separate entries for each parish within the collection. Would it simply be a matter of treating it like a subtitle as shown below?
"Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968: St. Theodore de-Chertsey Parish," digital images. Ancestry. Ancestry.ca : 2015.
This doesn’t seem quite right though as the parish is more of a subsection (if I think of the collection as a chapter in a book or an article in a journal). Would the following be more appropriate?
"Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968," digital images. Ancestry. Ancestry.ca : 2015, section “St. Theodore de-Chertsey Parish.”
Thanks in advance for your help!
Chris
Chris,
Chris,
No. I don't see anything "glaringly incorrect" with the citations you drafted (aside from the image number which should be "12" rather than "11").
Your handling of the "spelling differences" between the path (which uses the appropriate diacritical) and the document label (which omits the diacritical and standard hyphenation) is one acceptable way of handling the variances. However, if you do copy each exactly, then users of your citation will likely assume that you, yourself, made a typo or were being carelessly inconsistent. This is one of those situations when a "silent correction" is the better choice. (EE 12.25 has more on the subject of silent corrections.)
Unlike the situation Robyn 62 raised today in another thread ("Error on Census"), EE would not recommend a correction in square editorial brackets and then a discussion of what you are correcting and why you are correcting it. To do so would add unnecessarily to the citation and come off as a bit pedantic.
For your Source List Entry, you suggest this:
"Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968: St. Theodore de-Chertsey Parish," digital images. Ancestry. Ancestry.ca : 2015.
EE would tweak this slightly:
"Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968." St-Théodore-de-Chertsey Parish. Digital images. Ancestry. Ancestry.ca : 2015.
When we use quotation marks, we use them only around words we have copied exactly. The title to the database does not include "St. Theodore de-Chertsey Parish," so it should not be included within those quotations. You'll also note that I do use the diacriticals and hyphenation there because that is how Ancestry itself presents it—and is correct for the society being studied.
Hello again,
Hello again,
I am glad to know that I was not too far off the mark! Thank your for your assistance. It is much appreciated. :)
Chris