Citing Announcements from sites like Newspapers.com

By History-Hunter on Sun, 06/09/2019 - 17:53

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Dear Editor;

I've tried to follow the lead of the example for, "Newspaper Articles (Online Images)," p. 808, 3rd ed., Evidence Explained.

However; I have some questions about citing the situation in which there is no author, an inadequate title and no parent collection.

Here is my attempt at citing such a case:

Source List Entry

Ontario. Ottawa. The Ottawa Citizen, 1898-2019. 

First Reference Note

Obituary of Albert Gauthier (d. 9 November 1999), The Ottawa (Ontario) Citizen, 12 February 1999, p. D18, col. 6; image copy, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com : downloaded 6 June 2019). The identifier, 219921, is shown below obituary. 

Subsequent Note

Obituary of Albert Gauthier (d. 9 November 1999), The Ottawa (Ontario) Citizen, 12 February 1999.

1) I believe it is permissible to construct ones own title, when there is no title. In this case there is a title of sorts, simply "GAUTHIER, Albert." In my opinion, it is not sufficiently descriptive for use as a title. Is it permissible to substitute ones own title, providing it is not put between double quotes?

2) The source, Newspapers.com, is searched as one large collection. Unlike the example in EE, there is no collection name to append to the end of the first reference note. I believe this should be acceptable. Is it?

3) I have the concern that the subsequent note might not be unique, if I just used the title of the item (there is no author to add). In my collection of articles, I also have an obituary for Albert Gauthier from another paper. As such, I added the balance of the first clause of the first reference note to ensure uniqueness Is this acceptable. Is there a better way to address this issue? 

Submitted byEEon Mon, 06/10/2019 - 18:19

History-Hunter:

In answer to your three questions:

Q1. I believe it is permissible to construct ones own title, when there is no title.  

Yes. See EE 2.22 & 2.62.

Q2. The source, Newspapers.com, is searched as one large collection. Unlike the example in EE, there is no collection name to append to the end of the first reference note.

EE does not illustrate the site Newspapers.com (which is a site, incidentally, rather than a source). However, the EE 14.22 example for "Newspaper Articles (Online Images)" on p. 808, shows an Ancestry citation that reflects the same situation. Just leave off the note at the end.

Q3) I have the concern that the subsequent note might not be unique, if I just used the title of the item (there is no author to add). In my collection of articles, I also have an obituary for Albert Gauthier from another paper. As such, I added the balance of the first clause of the first reference note to ensure uniqueness Is this acceptable. Is there a better way to address this issue? 

Definitely we want a shortened citation to clearly reference just one full cite. Your approach works. Incidentally, you could shorten the citation for both the first ref note and the subsequent note by dropping the death date from the descriptor you're using in lieu of a title. That is information you will report in your text. In a ref note, it is not needed to locate the source or to evaluate the source.  When citing registers or registrations, civil or church, it is commonly necessary to cite the date of death to ensure the correct individual; but for newspapers, you have the paper's issue date. If there were multiple same-name individuals whose deaths were reported in the issue, then there would be a need to include something more in the descriptor to identify the right person.

 

Dear Editor;

Thank you for your feedback. I think that I now have a sufficient understanding of the principles to attack the remainder of the Newspapers.com citations I need to construct .

With respect to your response to Q2:
I used the noted Ancestry example as the starting point for the citation I was trying to construct. My apologies, if my wording implied otherwise. And; yes, In the heat of trying to correctly phrase my question, I actually used incorrect terminology.  Sorry for that.

With respect to your response to Q3:
By way of an explanation... In the interests of processing my backlog of draft-quality material into formalized notes, I have tried to utilized  file titles that are similar to the titles in my citations. I sometimes have items that have identical citation titles. Electronic filenames, however, need to be unique and this sometimes requires the addition of extra information. As you noted, that extra information is not required in the actual citation. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.

Thank you, Doug, for catching that. I did indeed miss changing February to November.

At the moment, I am doing a massive number of citations per day and therefor tend to do them in batches of a given type. This means a lot of cutting and pasting and sometimes I miss something. 

Submitted byRobynRon Tue, 06/11/2019 - 02:45

Ah I now see that Doug Williamson has added a proofreading correction - that the newspaper date should be 12 November 1999. No wonder I could not find it in February. But now that I have located the record, the obit is clearly listed under the "ANNOUNCEMENTS" title, then under that the "DEATHS" title.

I would probably be sourcing this as:

"Announcements," Ottawa Citizen, 12 November 1999, p. D18, col. 6, death notice for Albert Gauthier; digital image, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/466543769/ : downloaded 6 June 2019.

RobynRon, I understand what you are trying to do and went through the same logic, until I realized that I  depend upon the title to provide a mini-synopsis of the rest of the reference. Most titles do. Technically; the actual "title" of the article would be "GAUTHIER, Albert". Again, by itself, not very informative.

Newspaper classified ads, like the one we're examining, tend to have no standard way of being organized or named. I keep a sorted list of my citations in my research notes and often refer to them in creating new ones. Introducing some regularity in the titles, EE rules permitting, helps me sort and search them quickly. 

So; I opted for trying to create a slightly more descriptive title, which I understand is permissible.

Submitted byRobynRon Tue, 06/11/2019 - 02:59

"Announcements," Ottawa Citizen, 12 November 1999, p. D18, col. 6, death notice for Albert Gauthier; digital image, Newspapers Publisher Extra (https://www.newspapers.com/image/466543769/ : downloaded 6 June 2019).

Just a point, this death notice I think is only available to view via Newspapers Publisher Extra. Perhaps that should be noted in the website title???

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Newspapers.com (Publisher Extra).jpg

RobynRon, I can understand your concern. I realize that Newspapers.com has two tiers of access. But,  Ancestry has even more. Personally; I'm not sure if I would be wise to formally make this distinction for fear of "opening Pandora's box". I could understand one choosing to append it as a note, if one considers it to be helpful. Actually; the content of a properly constructed citation should be sufficient allow one to locate the source within a different repository, if one does not have the required access rights to the stated site.

HistoryHunter, I agree with you. I had no problem finding your source from your original citation. Except when the initial date posted was incorrect. BUT if I had a dollar for every typo that I have personally made.....we all do I am sure. Happy Hunting.