HeritageQuestonline

By Anonymous on Wed, 05/20/2015 - 13:35

Forums

I have used Heritage Quest for a number of years to cite census sources. Since Ancestry is involved the url now reads : ancestryheritagequest.com

Is it advisable to make that change in all of my citations? Are there other items I should look at in the citations as well?

Wayne

Submitted byEEon Wed, 05/20/2015 - 17:00

Wayne,

Yours is a question that each of us have to decide for ourselves, Given the rate that data providers go through mergers and buyouts and name changes, if--every time one such occurred--we go back to our citations and alter them, we might spend half our research time just changing citations and we might change some citations numerous times. An alternate approach that many researchers have adopted for their ongoing projects is to

  • capture the identity fully and correctly at the time the document or information is extracted from the website;
  • retain that citation until it is necessary to relocate the record--at which time an update can be made; and
  • (always!) when you are ready to go to publish your work, recheck every online citation to make sure the URL, corporate identity, database title, and website title are all current.

Submitted byrraymondon Thu, 05/21/2015 - 18:16

>> (always!) when you are ready to go to publish your work, recheck every online citation
>> to make sure the URL, corporate identity, database title, and website title are all current.

Which begs the question (two, really): How many citations are there in EE 3rd ed, and how many weeks of your life have just been devoted to rechecking.

:-)

rraymond,

There are over 1100 citations in EE, but I've not counted the number of URLs. As for how many times the 3d edition had its online citations checked and updated, the first time was July 2014, but the stars did not align for it to go to press then. The second time was November 2014, but the stars did not align for it to go to press then. The third time was late March and early April 2015. That time it made it to press.  (Unfortunately, as I've just discovered, one of those 2014-to-2015 updates left a date reading 20145.  That might be a Freudian slip. By the time that third edition made it to press, I felt like it was the year 20145.)