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I have a photocopy of a birth certificate from the Vital Records section of the Municipal Archives. The photocopy is of the original certificate of birth with certificate number, clearly copied from a book/register, but with no identifying information. According to the Archives website, records for Brooklyn births cover the years 1866-1909. Where do I indicate that the certificate is a photocopy and not a digital image or original? Also, since there is no book/volume/page information, does the exact date of birth suffice? The following is my attempt at citation.
"Certificate of Birth, Brooklyn, 1312, for Andrew Pastor," Vital Records, Brooklyn Birth Certificates, 1866-1909, 30 Jan 1898; New York City Vital Records, The New York City Municipal Archives, New York.
Dear Hiztorybuff,
Dear Hiztorybuff,
This is a very good attempt at a citation. The key elements you need are the borough (Brooklyn), year (1898), certificate number (presumably 1312), and name (Andrew Pastor). The collection of Brooklyn birth certificates at the Municipal Archives does span 1866–1909, but they’re organized by borough and year. There’s no need to include the full span of years in your citation. Referring to page 425 of EE, I come up with the following:
Borough of Brooklyn, New York City, birth certificate no. 1312 (1898), Andrew Pastor; New York City Municipal Archives, New York.
If someone were to visit the archives in Manhattan they’d be able to use the information in this citation to access the record on microfilm. The copy you received from the archives was likely taken from that same microfilm. (In some cases, where the microfilm is illegible, the staff makes copies from originals. But most of the time they’re right there in the reading room, pulling film to fill copy requests.) As an option, you could insert “photocopy provided by” after the semi-colon to indicate they sent you the copy.
By the way, Brooklyn became a borough of New York City 1 January 1898. Before that time it was a separate city. So be careful when using and citing Brooklyn records from before 1898.
With best wishes,
Laura
Thank you, Laura, for your
Thank you, Laura, for your insightful comments! This will help me clean up my vital records citations.