Attributed compiler of family information

I want to cite a single handwritten page of family information. It is one of three loose pages that were found in a Bible and sent to me. The owner had information about the compiler of each page – his grandmother, his mother, and let’s call her Mabel, a distant cousin. Mabel’s page is the most complete and the only one that contains the information I want to cite. It seems to me that Mabel may have had access to an older family Bible with specific birth, marriage, and death dates as well as spouse names for nine children (born between 1795 and 1816). The page of interest is labelled “Smith Family History.”  I question whether to name the attributed compiler, who lived from 1887-1977, and also whether to use the label as the source title. The way I initially crafted the citation, using the name of the probable compiler and the label she used, seemed to mislead readers to think there was more to the source than the single page.

My initial version:   Mabel Jones “Smith Family History,” supplied by [Name Withheld], Small Town, New York, 2017

I am now pretty certain the quote marks were a mistake. But would this revision be better?.

Smith family record (manuscript, one page, no date), privately held by [Name Withheld], Small Town, New York, 2017.  A photocopy was supplied to the author in 2017. The owner attributed the handwritten page of information to Mabel Jones, a descendant of John Smith. The page is labeled “Smith Family History,” and provides precise dates and spouse names for nine children of John and Sybil Smith, indicating the compiler may have located a family Bible. Birth dates and most marriage dates cannot be found in any other source, but the information generally checks out.

Additional information about all three pages and how each compiler descends from John Smith may go in the narrative or in the footnote.

Submitted byniteowl1851on Sat, 03/19/2022 - 13:29

Very nice.  I have a family document produced by my grandmother's sister in the 1970's but it was based on a document compiled by a previous relation.  So I also added information about it to the end of the reference.  I've removed names below in favor of initials just for this post. In my case, my grandmother's sister is still living so I was able to ask her about it.

 

The M Family (MS, ca. 1975), photocopy privately held by [me], [Address for private use]. Photocopies were distributed to descendants of the FM family about 1975. The information was revised and updated by MEMK based on a document by MRMvS. MRMvS was a grand-daughter of WM and HAW. The location of the original document is unknown.