How to handle changes to Indexing

GlenB, will you draft a citation to an actual record? That will give us specifics to discuss.

Hello, GlenB

The reason you are wrestling with this as a citation problem is that you are trying to cite the record as a book you have not used, in an archive you did not visit.  The most basic principle of citation is this: We cite what we use.

You are using a database at a website. That website delivers you an image that you cannot access in any other form or process. Therefore, you cite the website, you cite what the website has delivered, and then you report whatever the website says is its source.

I understand your frustration with errors in the database and website structures that don't let us access records the way that would help us most. But those are different issues that I’ll discuss later in this response. Handling those issues are easier to deal with once we appropriately identify the source we are using.

Identifying Your Source: The Standard Pattern

From the construct of your citation, I’m uncertain as to what citation manual you are following. It does not follow a structure in any of the major guides I’m familiar with.

Evidence Explained at 9.47 provides a model for citing Canadian birth, marriage, and death records that we access online.  Applying that pattern to your problem would give us this:

“Nova Scotia Births, Marriages, and Deaths,” database with images, Nova Scotia Archives (https://archives.novascotia.ca/vital-statistics/ : accessed 19 August 2022), John Alfred Irvine, b 20 September "18__," Granville, Annapolis County, birth register image; citing "Year 1868, book 1801, page 56, number 5."

To explain the pattern, which applies to all databases we use online:

• Websites, as a standalone publication, are cited the same way we cite a book.
• Databases (or articles) at websites are cited the same way we cite a chapter in a book.
• If we are citing a source that cites something else, then we add a statement saying what our source is citing.

The basic format is this:

Author of Chapter or Database If Shown, “Title of Chapter or Database,” descriptor, Title of Book or Website In Italics (Publication place = URL : date), specific item of interest; citing ……

Handling Errors & Alterations

You ask:

How can I cite the source such that someone else can locate the correct record at some point in the future?

Your goal is worthy. The reality is unsatisfying. Errors exist in every database—indeed almost every source, even the originals. As researchers, we cannot control errors that we do not personally make. All we can do is

• cite, exactly, what we are provided at the time we use the source;
• use the standard structure for that type of source, to ensure that we capture all necessary details and present them in an easily understood format;
• then, in our research notes, explain the error we see.

For example, using your details for a transcription error, we might handle it this way:

“Nova Scotia Births, Marriages, and Deaths,” database with images, Nova Scotia Archives (https://archives.novascotia.ca/vital-statistics/ : accessed 19 August 2022), John Alfred “Irvine” [should be “Irving”], b. 1868, Granville, Annapolis County, birth register image; citing "Year 1868, book 1801, page 56, number 5."

As you have done, we can also contact the record provider or archive and point out the error, but we have no  control over whether or not the provider or the archive acts upon our suggestion.

The nature of alterations in the record delivery process is impossible for us to second-guess. As you note, websites do change their architecture—much more frequently than researchers wish. Realistically, that’s also a problem that has always existed. Even archives have changed their systems; records we once cited to a certain box and file might now be retrievable only by document number that did not exist at the time we used it. Or the collection has been renamed. Or the records have been moved entirely from the archive in which we used it and are now held at a different locale.

All we can do is to thoroughly and succinctly cite what we have used, following standard conventions so that others can easily understand our citation. That gives a solid grounding for others to use. We also cite, as you'll note in the citation I've provided, the date on which we accessed material at that website. In the case of structural changes by the site or the demise of the site, that date (for many websites, but not necessarily this one) will help us locate the material through the Wayback Machine.

Evidence Explained discusses a number of situations in which errors exist, website architectures have changed, or archives have been reorganized—demonstrating ways to handle the problems, depending upon the situation.