Forums
Dear Editor;
I have a number of Canadian documents to file. The organization of the Canadian provincial level administration is a bit different than the American analog. This is making it a bit difficult to follow the "STATE-LEVEL RECORDS VITAL-RECORDS CERTIFICATE" QuickCheck Model.
Maybe trying to literally "fill-in-the-blanks" is the wrong approach. Should I just list as much identifying info as is present, proceeding from the country down to the certificate identification?
The certificate header says:
"Province of Ontario"
"Form 28"
"The Vital Statistics Act"
"Marriage Certificate"
The footer shows the signatures of the Deputy Registrar General and the Registrar General, the embossed seal of Ontario and "Certified Extract from Marriage Registration".
This means that the Jurisdiction is "Ontario", but neither the issuing agency nor the repository is stated.
I'll include my standard documentation form here, because it captures the background info as well as the three standard citation components:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Filename:
1948-05-22 Marriage Certificate (civil) - Gauthier, Joseph Albert & Murison, Jessie Cousland.tif
Filing Tags:
#Gauthier #Murison #Marriage #1948
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Description:
Original government issued marriage certificate in excellent condition.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Extraction:
Joseph Albert Gauthier married Jessie Cousland Murison on 22 May 1948 in
Ottawa [Ontario, Canada]. Joseph Albert Gauthier was born in Ontario,
while Jessie Cousland Murison was born in Alberta. The marriage was registered
on 25 May 1948.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Notes:
29 January 2019
1) This certificate was issue on 10 October 1973.
2) It bears a printed number, MZ 19964.
3) The number "732771 TM" was stamped in the lower margin.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Questions:
1) Why was this certificate issued in 1973, which was 25 years after the event?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source List Entry:
Canada. Province of Ontario. Birth Certificates. Registrar General. Toronto.
First Reference Note:
Canada, Province of Ontario, marriage certificate 1948-05-012319 (1973),
Joseph Albert Gauthier (bridegroom) and Jessie Cousland Murison (bride);
Office of the Registrar General, Toronto.
Subsequent Note:
Canada, Ontario marriage certificate no. 1948-05-012319 (1973),
Joseph Albert Gauthier and Jessie Cousland Murison
History-Hunter, just for the…
History-Hunter, just for the record, there is no one “American analog” for for how marriage records are created here in the U.S.—or even how local/regional governments are organized. That's why EE’s formats come with discussions of variations researchers should be aware of. EE's citation “models” are a base line that identifies the types of information that might be found and usually need to be recorded in order to (a) relocate the exact record, with the same exact data; and (b) evaluate the information and the evidence derived from it.
That said, can you supply an image copy? For EE to attempt to “approve” a citation without seeing the actual record would be folly. The devil is always in the details and, in this case, the details are taken out of original context and rearranged to fit what you refer to as your “standard documentation form.”
One other issue seems to exist. You state that the certificate was issued on 10 October 1973 and you ask yourself (on this form but not in the citation) why the certificate was issued 25 years after the event. In earlier queries you’ve stated that you’ve inherited a number of documents from older family members and are now recording them. If this certificate is one of those you’ve inherited, then it would be best to cite it as a family artifact. Doing so would also eliminate potential errors in assumptions about what administrative office in the past might have issued the certificate. In many places across time, local offices often used certificates preprinted with the name of the larger government jurisdiction to which they belonged, but the data would be based upon what was on file in the local office.
Citing the certificate as an family artifact would also allow your citation to explain the “(1973)” that now appears in parentheses after the certificate number, without explanation, and will likely puzzle anyone who uses your research and attempts to appraise the strength of the evidence on the basis of your citation.
Dear Editor; I realize that…
Dear Editor;
I realize that one can't provide examples for each situation. This is why I added, "Maybe trying to literally "fill-in-the-blanks" is the wrong approach. Should I just list as much identifying info as is present, proceeding from the country down to the certificate identification?". This was my way of saying that I felt I should set aside the QuickCheck form and concentrate on what was trying to be achieved. That would mean examining the discussion of the various formats you noted.
I'll take a look at the ebook again and see if I can figure this out myself. I must say that I find ebook format to be extremely difficult to use, unless everything one needs is on a specific page. To consult various sections, as your response implies, is not a trivial exercise. That is an issue with ebooks in general, not the EE ebook in particular. My next purchase of any reference book will be a physical copy, so that I can flip back and forth to needed sections and visually mark/flag the ones I use often.
Dear Editor; I am working…
Dear Editor;
I am working on a trial citation for the marriage certificate as part of a collection. I will upload that citation and an image of the original document once I get it done. (I learn best by working through examples of similar situations.) I am hoping that completing one item in a collection will make the remainder less of a struggle.
However; I need a bit of clarification regarding citing a Marriage Certificate. I am presuming that the citation should provide enough information to permit ordering a copy.
To order a copy of a marriage certificate, in Ontario, one is required to provide:
(ref: https://www.orgforms.gov.on.ca/eForms/eForms_faq/start.do?lang=en#marriageInfo)
The subject of marriage certificates is not specifically addressed by EE examples under the topic of privately held artifacts. I presume that this is because they must be considered a published document. So; I looked at marriage certificates in the balance of the book and noticed the use of registration number as an identifier.
The registration number is not required to order a certificate in Ontario, but the date and city are required. Would I then simply substitute the date and city for the registration number portion, when trying to unambiguously identify the Marriage Certificate in a citation? Or; would I add that information in addition to the registration number?
History Hunter, I am just…
History Hunter, I am just now seeing this addition that you made to an older thread. Sorry. (This new Drupal 8 system doesn't handle postings the way Drupal 7 did and some things. It's not alerting me to every new posting on older threads. It does in some cases, but not in others; and I haven't yet figured out its sense of rhyme and reason.)
In another posting on another page, you asked about citing marriage certificates, but asked from a different standpoint. I'll address here the issues that you didn't bring up there.
You write: "The subject of marriage certificates is not specifically addressed by EE examples under the topic of privately held artifacts. I presume that this is because they must be considered a published document."
No, non, nyet! A marriage certificate is most definitely not a published source. See the discussion of certificates at 9.31–37. You won't find certificates discussed in the chapters that deal with publications (chapters 12-14). If the marriage certificate is a family artifact, then Chapter 3 ("Archives & Artifacts") covers it. If the marriage certificate is issued to you by a government agency, so that you know exactly where it came from and where the original is housed, then your models will be in the chapters that deal with government agencies—specifically, Chapter 9 "Local & State Records: Licenses, Registrations, Rolls & Vital Records."
But you're right that the Canadian section of Chapter 9 does not specifically include a Canadian marriage certificate. We're back to the basic problem with a guidebook like this: including every permutation of every type of record for every country would create a reference work the size of the OED, instead of the current, mere, 892 pp. However, comparing your Canadian certificate against the U.S., UK, and other examples that do appear should help you identify the essential elements you need to cite. (And obviously it did, considering the quality of the citation drafts that you posted in the other thread.)
Dear Editor; Thank you…
Dear Editor;
Thank you. Between the time I posted in this thread and the time I made the later posting, I came to realize what you noted above. Using EE is a bit like using a cookbook and not having all the specified ingredients. You have to do a little searching to see if you can substitute what you do have and get the desired result. :>)
Great analogy, History…