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Hi. So I created abstracts of several census records for an NGS assignment. In the assignment I had to also include a picture of the evidence I used, which were digital images from Ancestry. When I made my source citation of the abstracts I had created, the grader said that they shouldn't be identified as abstracts and that they should be cited just as the census records I had cited. I disagree with this, because when a person reads my document, they will be looking at an abstract and not the census.In my citation I included all relevant information about the census I abstracted and identified the article as an abstract done by me on such and such a date.
Guidance on this issue is appreciated.
Angela,
Angela,
If you used the original document or valid images of the original, and you make your own abstracts (or extracts, more likely), then the citaton you create to accompany your extracts would reference the original or the images. That was your source. The purpose of a citation is not to describe your own work. It's to identify what you used. When you cite the images, then anyone who reads your extracts will know that the data represents your interpretation of what the original says.
If you use extracts made by someone else, then you cite the other person's work. You would appropriately identify it as someone else's extracts to make it clear that you did not eyeball the original but are, instead, relying upon someone else's interpretation.
Incidentally, to avoid confusion, it's best that researchers not refer to their own research notes as a "document." That word is best reserved for the original and official records that we consult.
Hope this helps.