Passenger Arrival List / National Archives / Digital Image

By Anonymous on Tue, 10/02/2012 - 06:48

Forums

Can someone show me how they reference a Passenger Arrival List (NARA digital image) that was viewed on Ancestry.com?  I want my sourcing to be as professional as possible.  Please be very clear what is the Source Information that goes in the initial template and what is the citation detail and take one step further to show complete reference note output. 

 

Here is what FTM has done automatically for me as the output in the Reference Note section.

"Philadelphia Passenger Lists, 1800-1945", digital image, The National Archives (www.ancestry.com), Manifest SS Freisland, arrival in Philadelphia, PA, List 6, Line 22, Mary Alice Hill age 2 yrs/6mos. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1883-1945. Micropublication T840. RG085. Rolls # 1-181. National Archives, Washington, D.C.

 

After reading and re-reading EE it seems like this is not organized correctly, I am obsessing over getting as perfect as possible and not actually moving forward!  Input please.  Thanks. 

Submitted byEEon Tue, 10/02/2012 - 13:20

Amy:

You are correct, FTM's automated citation-creator has garbled the data.  A database at a website is cited the same way as a chapter in a book:

Database/Chapter Author [if one is named], "Database or Article Title," Author/Creator of Website, Title of Website or Book (Publication Place/URL : date), specific item.

The one difference for websites is that we insert, after the "Title," a word or two to identify that  "Title" as an article, a database, or a set of images.

When we compare the FTM-created citation to the basic model, we see only one element in the place where we should have Author/Creator of Website and Title of Website. That one element is "The National Archives." Yet the National Archives did not create the database or the website; and the URL (place of publication) is not that of the National Archives. In fact, the National Archives didn't even create the original record. It's just the place where the original record was eventually archived.

Also, the FTM-created citation is a citation "mutt." It's half reference note and half source-list entry. Everything down through "2yrs/6mos" follows the reference note format, in which all elements of the citation are part of the same "sentence," with a period (full stop) at the end. Past that point, the citation presents 6 more "sentences" (i.e., words + a period) in which each element of the citation is a "sentence" into itself.

As EE 2.4 explains, in a reference note, all the elements that identify one source are presented in the same sentence. If you start a new sentence to add more elements, then you're telling the reader that you're now describing a new source. It's only in the source list that you put periods between elements (there's a logical reason for that, of course, but I won't get into it here).

EE's Ancestry QuickSheet offers a model that fits your needs exactly. https://www.evidenceexplained.com/content/quicksheet-citing-ancestrycom-databases-and-images-4-pp.

EE 11.17 offers an Ellis Island model for "Passenger Manifests: Online Images" that fits most of your needs. Follow it as far as it goes. Then, after the identification of the specific item, you would add "source of the source information" to say what it is that Ancestry is citing. For example:

"Database or Article Title," Author/Creator, Title of Website or Book (Publication Place/URL : date), specific item; citing .......

In this "source of the source" section, if Ancestry's citation is succinct, you could copy it exactly with quotation marks around it. If (as Ancestry usually does) it scatters the parts of the citation across multiple paragraphs of its discussion about the source, then you would reconstruct the citation in proper form, as the Ancestry QuickSheet examples (and many EE examples) show. This "source of the source" section, of course, is where the reference to the National Archives should be.

Submitted byrworthingtonon Tue, 10/02/2012 - 13:57

Amy,

Did you convert your Source into the Template format or just use the free form / generic format for the Source?

 

Russ

Submitted byrworthingtonon Tue, 10/02/2012 - 14:30

Amy,

In Family Tree Maker Version 2012, you might want to go to the Sources Workspace, Add, New, and enter "pas" into the Keyword Search field. ("pas" for Passenger) and select Online Image, National Archives (Online) as the Template.

Fill in the fields, and here is the Reference Note based on the data you posted.

 

"Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1883-1945", digital image, The National Archives (www.ancestry.com), Manifest SS Freisland, arrival in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; List 6, Line 22, Mary Alice Hill age 2 yrs/6mo; accessed; 02 Oct 2012; citing: Micropublication T840. RG085. Rolls # 1-181. National Archives, Washington, D.C.;.

 

Does that help?

 

Russ

Submitted byEEon Tue, 10/02/2012 - 19:29

Russ, if we understand you correctly, the "Reference Note" you generated using FTM's template recreates the same problems that EE addressed at length above. Yes?

Submitted byAmy Stenlake Martinon Wed, 10/03/2012 - 07:13

How to Eat an Elephant:  #1. Read the first two chapters. Reread them. Learn them. These are the basic principles that apply to almost everything. Knowing these principles will serve you well through all your research and citation issues.  I have not yet managed to re-read the 1st 2 chapters enough time where the principles are sticking!  Thank you for the guidance. 

I only have a few minutes so first things first, the Source List entry.  IN FTM 2011 I cannot find a template for digital images except for the one created for NARA documents.  I am choosing this one (even over the default template) to use b/c the other templates I have tried do not put the name of the database first when creating a title.  This is what I get as output when FTM automatically fills the reference note box after clicking "OK"

"Philadelphia Passenger Lists, 1800-1945", digital image, The National Archives (www.ancestry.com).

 

Now, I have to adjust the reference note box so this Source list entry is proper according to the downloaded cheat sheet (which is very helpful, thank you).

"Philadelphia Passenger Lists, 1800-1945." Database and images.  Ancestry.com. www.ancestry.com : 2006.            (right?)

In either case shown above my TITLE of the source as listed in the Source List in my program and in any generated Bibilography or Source Usage Report will be "Philadelphia Passenger Lists, 1800-1945" - which allows me to use this source several time over if needed b/c it is not specific to one occurrance, (i.e. the arrival of the SS Friesland, rather to one database.

I have not yet entered any citation detail or citation text.  I am breaking it down for understanding, plus I have to get to work! 

- A

 

 

Submitted byEEon Wed, 10/03/2012 - 11:04

Amy wrote: Now, I have to adjust the reference note box so this Source list entry is proper according to the downloaded cheat sheet (which is very helpful, thank you).

"Philadelphia Passenger Lists, 1800-1945." Database and images.  Ancestry.com.www.ancestry.com : 2006.            (right?)

 

Amy, this is right if it your intent to create an entry in a source list. If you want to create a reference note (i.e., endnote or footnote), then you should use the Full Reference Note example--the one that provides explicit information about the ship and the person, as well as the source or the source.

 

So I will continue to follow the guidance of the download and complete my task.  I feel more confidant now about databases and images and the proper sequencing of a reference note.  Thank you.