Named database with images question

Hello, mbcross.

Let’s back up a bit and rethink this.  You are working with FamilySearch images of original documents and you want to feature the FamilySearch database.  That calls for two layers:

• LAYER 1: We present all details in the standard order:  “Title of Database, Title of Website (URL/place of publication : date), item of interest.
• LAYER 2 (the “citing …” layer), we report any additional information the website provides about the source and its location.

It’s also important to remember  EE 3.16, “The Rule That Has No Exception: Details that describe one entity must not be attached to a different entity.”

Your draft citation is this:

FamilySearch, "Massachusetts State Vital Records, 1638-1927," database and images(https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1928860 : accessed 4 May 2025); Frank A. Joy death certificate, 19 January 1922; citing "Deaths 1922 Leominster to Longmeadow Vol. 39," p. 21.

You also state that Image 1 presents the cover of the original book—i.e. “Deaths 1922 Leominster to Longmeadow Vol. 39.” That information goes in Layer 1 where you provide details for the original record, your item of interest. 

You would not put details from the image in Layer 2 where you report additional information the website provides about the source and its location, Nor would you put the page number there.  FamilySearch does not cite a page number.  FamilySearch presents an image number that is different from page number.

Bottom line: The book title, the page number, and the certificate details are all details that you glean from the image. 

EE’s suggested citation for this document would be this (with alterations in red):

FamilySearch, "Massachusetts State Vital Records, 1638-1927," FamilySearch, database with images (https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1928860 : accessed 4 May 2025), “Deaths, 1922: Leominster to Longmeadow, Vol. 39,” p. 21, Frank A. Joy death certificate, 19 January 1922; citing “Massachusetts State Archives.”

EXPLANATIONS:

• Citing Creator vs. website title.  If you cite a database, then you have to cite a website. A database is not a standalone publication. (As a corollary, if you’re citing a chapter in a book, would you cite Author and Chapter Title without citing the title of the book? No.)  In this case, given that the creator of the database and the creator of the site carry the same name as the website, we don’t have to cite the “two” creators. But we do have to cite the website, which we place in italics because it’s a standalone publication.
• Title descriptor: database and images versus database with images. To be technical, the database and the images are not two separate things (i.e., this and that). The images are part of the database. It is a database with images.
• The item of interest field that follows the publication data. Here is where we cite the book title, the page, and the content of that page. See Template 9: Government, Church, or Corporate Office (Record Book).
• Punctuation for item of interest.  You placed a colon after the publication data. If you were citing a publication in book form, you would cite Author, Title (Publication Data), page number or other item of interest. You would not separate the page/item from the publication data with a semicolon—thereby moving the page number/item into a separate layer. Nor would you do so here.  The same pattern applies.
• Citing layer.  Here it is appropriate to say citing “Massachusetts State Archives” because that is indeed what FamilySearch is citing.