Citing an image of an index page, unsure about who what whereis when wherin

By angelah100 on Thu, 04/11/2024 - 17:02

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Am going crazy trying to do this right. Trying to create a citation for a page from an index book, the index book has no title and no information on the spine. The film title is "Arizona Terr Court Index to Naturalization Records Pima County Part 2 Vol 1".  Am showing the image in a report and am not referring to anything specific on the image. So "Who" is nothing. I think "What" is "Index of Naturalizations 1864-1911" which is the "film note" on FamilySearch. "Whereis" is the online image? and "Wherein" is the NARA in Laguna Niguel? Am I doing this correctly? TIA for any guidance!

Pima County, Arizona, Index of Naturalizations 1864 – 1911, unidentified volume, unpaginated; image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS9Z-6R1M : accessed 9 April 2024), digital film 7797205, image 42; citing Arizona Naturalization Records, National Archives Pacific Southwest Region, Laguna Niguel, California.

Submitted byEEon Fri, 04/12/2024 - 12:30

Angelah100, you write:

> the index book has no title and no information on the spine

No title or other information on the spine is common for slender courthouse and church registers such as this one.  As with published books, we then turn to the first inside page (called “title page” for published works) to see what identification is provided there.  There, we see this:

 

 

Thus, the title is  “Index of Naturalizations in the District Court, Pima County, Arizona, Compiled in September 1908.” It’s a long title that could be shortened, as I’ll demonstrate later below.

>Am showing the image in a report and am not referring to anything specific on the image. So "Who" is nothing.

No. In Layer 1, in which you cite the original volume that you are eyeballing onscreen, the citation building block we call who? is the authority that created the volume: Pima County, Arizona.

> I think "What" is "Index of Naturalizations 1864-1911" which is the "film note" on FamilySearch.

No. The What? In Layer 1 is the actual title of the volume.  You are citing the website FamilySearch in Layer 2. All FamilySearch identifiers go in that layer. To quote EE4’s Rule That Has No Exceptions at 3.16:

THE RULE THAT HAS NO EXCEPTION: The mix-and-match nature of citations to online images has one cardinal rule: Details that describe one entity must not be attached to a different entity.

If someone goes to courthouse or archive that holds the original volume, they cannot find it by using FamilySearch’s descriptor. Therefore, your layer that identifies the original volume must identify it by what one would see if they were using that original. In your citation to FamilySearch (Layer 2), you provide any necessary FS identifiers.

> "Whereis" is the online image?

In Layer 1, where you are citing the original, you report where the original is. In Layer 2, where you are citing the website image, you report where the image is at that website.

> “Wherein” is the NARA in Laguna Niguel?

No, “wherein” (a term used by Thomas W. Jones’ citation workbook) or “where within” (the term used by EE to reference the specific item) refers to the page, chapter, or other item within the source. 

The new Chapter 3 in EE’s fourth edition should help you understand how citations are constructed and the seven building blocks used. Template 10, of the new 14 universal templates, specifically covers this type of source.

The citation you’ve drafted is this:

Pima County, Arizona, Index of Naturalizations 1864 – 1911, unidentified volume, unpaginated; image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS9Z-6R1M : accessed 9 April 2024), digital film 7797205, image 42; citing Arizona Naturalization Records, National Archives Pacific Southwest Region, Laguna Niguel, California.

There are four other issues to discuss here:

  • Use of Italics: I don’t know whether you intended to italicize everything or whether it was done accidentally, but the only part of a citation that should appear in italics is the title of a standalone publication: book, journal, website, etc.  (See EE4 2.65 Italics: Publication Titles)
  • “Unidentified Volume": As discussed above, the volume is identified on its first page.
  • "Unpaginated": When we cite a specific page in an unpaginated book, we state that it was unpaginated but we must also find another way to identify the specific page.  (See EE4 2.17.)
  • The Citing ... Layer:  You cite “Arizona Naturalization Records, National Archives Pacific …”  However, NA-Pacific Southwest does not have a collection called “Arizona Naturalization Records.” Naturalizations occurred in many different courts. To locate naturalization records—at the courthouse or NA—we must identify the court. FamilySearch’s  film target does that. It cites “Arizona Terr. Court" records at NA-Pacific SW.

All things considered, a clearer citation to this source (with alterations in red) would be:

Pima County, Arizona, “Index of Naturalizations in the District Court, Pima County, Arizona, Compiled in September 1908," unpaginated, first page; image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS9Z-6R1M : accessed 9 April 2024) > digital film 7797205 > image 42; citing Arizona Territorial Court, National Archives Pacific Southwest Region, Laguna Niguel, California.

Or we could shorten the title by eliminating repetition:

Pima County, Arizona, “Index of Naturalizations in the District Court, … Compiled in September 1908,” unpaginated, first page; image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS9Z-6R1M : accessed 9 April 2024) > digital film 7797205 > image 42; citing Arizona Territorial Court, National Archives Pacific Southwest Region, Laguna Niguel, California.

Submitted byangelah100on Fri, 04/12/2024 - 12:40

Thank you so much, I was re-reading EE but was still so unsure. I know citations come with practice but the problem is that I practice but don't know if I actually did it correctly. I wish there was a really extensive "self quiz" with an answer key to check my work!

Angelah100, I realized last night (during the can't-sleep-because-my-mind-is-replaying-everything-I-did-that-day stage) that I misunderstood your intent for citing the unpaginated page. I have revised that section "Unpaginated" in my response above.  My apologies.

I'm just very grateful for your help. Also, I didn't realize that there was a 4th edition of EE until you referred me to it in your response. I've been referring to the 3rd edition but find the 4th edition is great in how it explains everything, especially chapter 3 "building a citation".

The new Chapter 3 also addresses those Who? What? When? Where? Wherein? questions that researchers hear about but are bumfuzzled over—in addition to that critical sixth "W": Why? Hope it helps!

Submitted byangelah100on Fri, 04/12/2024 - 12:42

Also, the italicization of the entire citation was an error, I had it as a caption on the image and Word automatically italicizes the captions and I hadn't changed it yet.

Angelah100, I'm glad you explained this.  The term "caption" is common for images we see in magazines and books and websites; but it is not the same as a "document label."  A caption is typically a few words describing the image, but almost never is it a full citation. 

When creating a brief description of an image, as a caption, we can put that in italics if we wish to set it off from regular text that might be below it or beside it on the same page. But the label that researchers attach to a document must be a full citation, and we follow the same format and rules that apply to a full reference note. Italics still should be limited to the title of a standalone publication.  See EE4 3.1 Citation Structures  or the Glossary for  "Document Labels."

Put another way: If we apply italics to everything in he citation, we remove the reader's ability to identify which exact words represent the title and we remove the ability to discern what has been published and what has not.

If our software is automatically altering what we type, then we have to find a work-around.  Are you using a pre-formatted option on the Styles Panel called "Caption"? I work in Word daily and have done thousands of pages of research reports in Word. I've had no problem typing normal reference notes attached to embedded images.

 

Submitted byangelah100on Sat, 04/13/2024 - 21:51

One other question - 

In EE 4th edition, I notice that some of the online citations include the Item number along with the IGN, but some don't, and I'm not sure when it should be included and when it shouldn't. Is the Item number only included when I'm not citing a specific image number?

Submitted byEEon Sun, 04/14/2024 - 09:54

angelah100, sometimes FamilySearch films or image groups have multiple items (registers, etc.) on that film or in that set, each of which is prefaced by a target with a big 1, 2, 3, etc., that help us locate the needed image.  Sometimes, the film or the image group contains only one register or set, etc.  When item numbers exist, we cite them. When they don't, we don't.