Confused by Pension Record Example

Hello, Obsessed_Genie:

You ask "What is it that goes in this third layer?"  When we are citing archived records (the original documents) the words we put in the third layer—or the first, second, fourth, fifth, or sixth—depend upon the specific record set and how many organizational layers there are for that record set. 

You reference "Case Files of Approved Pension Applications" cited at 12.35 and say "the only thing [you] can find in the National Archives that is similar to this is "General Index to ..."  The case files referenced at 12.35 and the index to the case files are radically different materials.

This brings up a related issue: when you say "the only thing [you] can find in the National Archives that is similar to this," are you referring to a search you made at the National Archives itself (the physical facility) or are you referring to your search of the NARA website, which has only a small fraction of the documents that exist physically within NA? The website also uses a newer identification system and the website has its own architecture (which we identify in terms of path and waypoints). All of this is why we have to cite exactly what we use and don’t borrow citations from elsewhere that are likely not to fit what we have at hand.

In each EE example, the descriptive title for the file  unit, the collection, the sub-series (if one is involved), the series, and the record group are all the exact titles assigned by NARA for the original files. When you are at the National Archives doing research in these original documents, the needed information will appear on the boxes and files that you receive for examination. When we report those lengthy labels, we do not deviate from the exact wording or try to truncate a long label; doing so will usually cause problems when someone attempts to relocate the record.

If you have a professional researcher or record retriever obtain these records for you at NARA, then they should provide the specific details for the file unit, collection, series, and record group.

This hierarchical data also appears in the NARA inventory, preliminary inventory, or NM (non-published manuscript) inventory that NARA has created for that set of records. If you have gone to the NARA website to consult its guide to Record Group 15 (https://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/015.html), you will note that throughout the discussion, as each category of records is presented (a highly selective list of record types that represent only a fraction of the whole), the discussion also identifies a "finding aid" that gives more information. That finding aid—which NARA staffers use to retrieve the records for you—also identifies the specific labels on the collections, series, and record groups in which each file is archived. Most of these inventories are now imaged online at Archive.org, FamilySearch.org, Google Books, or HathiTrust.org.

Th holdings of the National Archives are mammoth and complex. Some are available online at the NARA website. Some are available online at FamilySearch. Some are available online at the websites of commercial providers.  Wherever we find them, we cite exactly what we use.

If we cite the online providers, we should never attempt to cite those materials as though we are using the original documents at NARA itself. That is why EE gives specific examples for both the originals and online offerings.  It's also why EE's chapter 12: National Government Records begins with a discussion of how these records are organized and how a citation follows that organization. See particularly EE12.2.  Also, in Chapter 14: Legal Works & Government Documents, at 14.36 through 14.42, you will find a lengthy discussion of all these different types of NARA finding aids.

Given all this, let us back up to the beginning and ask: What are you trying to cite and where did you find it?

Obsessed_Genie, you also write:

The 4th example has a series of "Case Files of Rejected Pension Applications, Indian Wars", with "Records of the Bureau of Pensions and Its Predecessors". This makes even less sense to me, as the Bureau of Pensions was a predecessor agency to the Department of Veterans affairs.

Many government agencies had former names. Each agency, at the time it created a record set, organized its content in some fashion so that the individual records could be retrieved when needed. Labels for file units, collections, or series were created by them in order to do that. When agency names changed, no file clerks went back and changed the labels on the earlier files to reflect the new name of the agency. 

Obsessed_Genie:

You write:

> What I am trying to do is to understand your examples by comparing them to what I find in the catalog. This is how I understand what to do.

The online catalog (which covers materials online) is different from the catalogs that cover the original documents that are not yet online.  The inventories, preliminary inventories, and NM (non-published manuscript) guides are the catalogs to the original documents. They are what we use to find those original documents. If we go to NARA and put in a request for something, the NARA staff will use those INVs, PIs, and NMs to find the original records we want.

And then you say:

> Yes, I have looked at the Record Group 15 Guide, though I don't understand the significance of its hierarchy. 

That's because the online guide is a guide that discusses selected collections or series of common interest and cites the filming that has been done from that collection or series,  as well as the finding aids that have been prepared.  It is not a catalog of all holdings in Record Group 15.

You also write:

> "Records of the Bureau of Pensions and its Predecessors 1805-1935" appears as section 15.2 of the RG15 guide, but "Civil War and Later Pension Files" doesn't appear anywhere in that guide.

Again, the series label "Civil War and Later Pension Files" (which points to the arrangement of the original files) does not appear in the online guide because the online guide is just that: a guide, a narrative discussion that introduces us to selected records within RG 15.

What you are using is not a full catalog for RG15. There is MUCH more in the bowels of NARA than what the online discussions cover. Indeed, there is so much that there are several different catalogs to RG15, each covering a particular type of records.

The bottom line is this: We cite what we use. 

• If we find the documents online, we use the citation details that accompany it online.
• If we get an original file from NARA, a file that is not online, then—in order for it to be relocatable by the staff and others—we cite the path that leads to that original file.

For records not imaged online, we don't cite an online description that may very well be something else quite different, even though it seems similar to us because, like most who are not NARA archivists, we have not had the opportunity to explore the maze of records in their stacks and digest all that's there.

You ask:

>Does that mean that in the examples you give in 12.35, "Civil War and Later Pension Files" and "Records of the Bureau of Pensions and Its Predecessors, 1805-1935" are subgroup names?

The parts of all NARA citations in EE are labels for collections and series (and sometimes sub-series and sub-groups) that divide the hordes of materials within the cited record group.  Let's use one of the examples from 12.35, with coloration for the different layers:

(Civil War widow, approved application, citing one document)
       2. Deposition of Claimant, 16 May 1902, Mary Scoville, widow’s pension application no. 748,632, W.C. certificate no. 543,796, service of Frank Scoville (Pvt., Co. M, 22d N.Y. Vol. Cav., Civil War); Case Files of Approved Pension Applications ..., 1861–1934; Civil War and Later Pension Files; Record Group 15: Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs; National Archives, Washington, D.C.

The elements here are these:

• Document: Deposition of Claimant, 16 May 1902
• File: Mary Scoville, widow's pension application no. 748,632, W.C. certificate no. 543,796, service of Frank Scoville (Pvt. Co. M, 22d N.Y. Vol. Cav., Civil War)
• Collection (or sub-series): Case Files of Approved Pension Applications ..., 1861–1934
• Series: Civil War and Later Pension Files
• Record Group: RG15: Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs
• Repository: National Archives, Washington, D.C.

We should think of each of these elements as a WAYPOINT on the PATH to where the record is stored:

• The document is stored with in the file.
• The file is stored within the collection.
• The collection is stored within the series.
• The series is stored within the record group.
• The record group is store at the repository.

Then you ask:

> Wouldn't subgroup names appear somewhere in the catalogue entry? 

Yes, indeed. The file unit, collection, sub-series (sometimes), series, sub-group (sometimes), and record group labels appear in the catalog to those records. This puts us back to the basic issue. We have to use the right catalog. In sum:

• When we use online records, we use the online catalog.
• When we use the original documents that are not online, we use the catalogs (INVs, PIs, and NMs) that were created for those original records.

And that puts us back to the last question I asked in the long response yesterday: How did you acquire the file you now need to cite?  Whether you have (1) a file that is imaged online; or (2) photocopies or personal images of an original file buried in the bowels of NARA will determine the path and waypoints that you cite. That question also determines the catalog you need to use to understand the parts of what you are citing.