Citing original church records

By Ohiogirl48@gmail.com on Thu, 07/18/2019 - 13:52

Forums

The church records I want to cite were digitized and compiled by a professional genealogist, copyrighted and put on his website for personal use.  I'm confused about whether to use QuickCheck Model Image copies:  digitized online with the church and series as the lead element or Derivatives Church Records Database, online with the compiler as the lead element.  These are digitized copies of original church records, so are they considered derivative?

Submitted byEEon Fri, 07/19/2019 - 09:40

Ohiogirl48, your description sounds like you are using image copies rather than a database consisting of abstracts, transcriptions, or mere index entries. If so, the QuickCheck Model for "Image Copies: Digitized Online" is appropriate. However, your doubts suggest that something else may be involved and your statement that the material was "compiled" by a professional genealogist suggests that you may be dealing with something other than an exact reproduction. Can you post a link so that we can see exactly what you are dealing with?

As for whether online image copies are considered derivatives, it depends. Perhaps this blog post will help you: "Image Copies: Originals or Derivatives?"  As stated there, after it depends: "It is a judgment call we make on the basis of a thoughtful evaluation of what we're using. That judgment is a lot more meaningful than a label."

Ohiogirl48, yes, the link offers images of the original. And yes, the QuickCheck Model for "Image Copies: Digitized Online" is appropriate. The first layer of the citation will cite the original. The second will cite Bob Fout's website as the provider. Given the organization of his site, it would be appropriate to add the path after you cite Creator, Title of Website (Place=URL : date of access) ...

Submitted byOhiogirl48@gmail.comon Fri, 07/26/2019 - 14:49

Is this correct?

Evangelical Lutheran Church, (Frederick, MD).  Baptism Records, 1742-1768.  Digital images.  Creator, Bob Fout Genealogist.  http://www.bobfoutgenealogy.com (The Bob Fout Collection of Frederick County, MD Church Records  :  accessed 24 Jun 2019.

 

 

Submitted byEEon Mon, 07/29/2019 - 09:53

Ohiogirl48, I've pasted your citation into your query for the benefit of others and removed the attachment.

May I ask why you've used the Source List format—i.e., what one normally uses for a "bibliography" at the back of a book—rather than the Reference Note format that we use to document each individual assertion?

Working with what you have, for a Source List, EE's tweaks would produce this:

Evangelical Lutheran Church (Frederick, MD).  Baptism Records, 1742-1768.  Digital images. "Evangelical Lutheran, Frederick, Maryland." Bob Fout Genealogist.  http://www.bobfoutgenealogy.com  :  24 Jun 2019.

The specific issues, in the order in which they appear in your citation—not order of importance—are these:

  • a comma never goes before a parentheses.
  • Prefacing an author's or creator's name with "Creator" is not necessary.
  • The title of the website needs italicizing. It's a published, standalone source the same as a book or journal.
  • The title of the database at the website should not be put where the URL goes. The title of the database, like an article in a journal, goes in quotation marks before the name of the website.