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I am hoping you may be able to help me to properly cite a record I have in my possession.
The record is the personal copy of the probate court record for the adoption and name change of my grandfather. It is from Wayne County, Michigan. I now possess the original copy that was given to my grandfather in 1956 (his adoption was in 1931). I am writing a research project to try and document the parentage of my grandfather and how I arrived there. In this report I have included a scan of this record. My confusion is in how I cite this properly.
As Michigan is incredibly secretive of adoption and original birth records, I do not know if anyone would be able to obtain this record by contacting the county. Would it be best to cite the record as part of a personal collection? If so, would I cite the original and where it is filed or would I cite the digital record I have created and the location of the digital copy?
Oh, how fortunate you are to…
Oh, how fortunate you are to have that family copy of the probate order!
No, you don't try to cite it to a county office. That's not where you got it and you have no idea the book, page, or file in which it is recorded in that office.
You have a family artifact. In EE4, §4.33 offers a sample citation for unrecorded family copies of legal documents. (If you have an earlier edition, it's at 3.34.) Basically, after you answer the who, what, when, where of the document itself (Creator, place, date, person(s) involved) you add the provenance (where the document now is and how how that person acquired it). If someone else has it, and you made a digital copy from that, then identify that person by name and locale and add something such as "digital copy made by Your Name, City, State, on Day Month Year.
Given that the project you mention sounds like a course assignment, we should not attempt to craft the exact citation here. But EE4's 4.33 and Template 7 for Private Holdings will guide you safely.