Record Usage and Interpretation

Source naming conventions

Hello,

    I am struggling mightily with source list names. On one hand everything I read says source names should be generic. Generic, to me, means......book, census, birth certificate, grave marker, etc. When I look at the souce names in FTM facebook groups and EEv4 I'm getting conflicting input. Many examples in EEv4 use the name of the book, name of the database from a webiste, etc. as source names. My problem with using descriptive souce names is that they then appear in my source/citation twice.

Determining the location name for a church-related event

I'm still mulling over how to document marriages that refer to "The Parish Church", as in the following:

First Reference
England, “Certified copy of an entry of Marriage”, Co. of Middlesex, Par. of Tottenham, entry no. 135, Thomas Wells & Hannah Martin, married 30 Apr 1857, in the Parish Church, after Banns; certificate MXB 990699, issued 10 Mar 2005, General Registry Office, Southport. Based upon the date, the “Parish Church” appears to refer to All Hallows Church, Church Lane, Tottenham, London N17 7AA.

Derivative source masquerading as an original record

Hi EE!

I'm several types of confused. I've had both EE editions 3 and 4 in front of me for the last 2 hours, and I'm still stuck, so I give up.

One of my branches leads back to Stephen F. Austin's "Old Three Hundred." I used the experimental AI tool at FamilySearch and found an unindexed partition deed for the seven heirs of Martin Allen, one being Archibald T McCorcle on behalf of Martin Allen's daughter, Elizabeth E.M.C. McCorcle.

Birth certificates: unnamed children and amendments

Hi again Elizabeth,

I found a birth certificate on Family Search for the birth of an unnamed son of EJ Smith and Lillie Parsons on 8 April 1912 in Stacy, McCulloch County, Texas. The unnamed son is my great grandfather, "Davey/Davy Stirman Smith." Here's the citation for it:

"Texas Birth Certificates, 1903-1935," database with images, FamilySearch(https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-61D9-3G2 : accessed 27 October 2023), certificate image, unnamed Smith, 8 April 1912, certificate 49589; Texas Department of Health, Austin.

Need for retention of cover letters for sourced information

In 2003, my mother applied to the Alberta Registries for the death records for her uncle. The resulting information packet contained a cover letter, a certified photographic print of the "Medical Certificate of Cause of Death" and the "Registration of Death". I inherited this material in 2018 and am still trying to address its documentation and filing.

"Citation on Bond" - What is this??

Hi, I was reading a quarterly newsletter and found my person of interest in a section called "Odds and Ends." The "title" of the section is "Citation on Bond." What in the world might this be. If I can verify this information with an original source, it would help me prove a death date. Here is a link to the newletter: https://www.familysearch.org/library/books/viewer/519389/ . It's on image 20. 

 

Thanks so much!!

Confusion about a WWII Draft Registration Card: Signed by a registrar of one draft board and stamped by a different one.

I can't find my great grandfather, Davey Stirman Smith, in the 1940 census. I thought his WWII Draft Registration Card could help me find him, but I'm left with more questions than answers. Why are there so many different locations on his draft card: