Citing Canadian Voters Lists

By History-Hunter on Sat, 04/09/2022 - 17:45

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Canadian Voters Lists are available on microfilm at the Library and Archives Canada (LAC), but they are far easier to access via Ancestry. Ancestry has imaged the LAC microfilms and has cited the LAC film numbers. The imaged pages, bear a stamp indicating the "page" [microfilm frame number]. This is consistent with the way LAC has catalogued the material on its site. In short; the film number and frame number uniquely identify a page within a jurisdiction and year.

As I didn't see a particularly close example in the EE book, I created the following based on the generic citation form for an item in an Ancestry collection. I tried to avoid the use of Ancestry's image numbers, for much the same reason as one avoids them in citing a census imaged online. I should note that the proposed solution should make it possible to find the same image on the actual LAC microfilm.

Would the following be acceptable?

First Reference Note: "Canada, Voters Lists, 1935-1980", database with images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.ca/search/collections/2983 : downloaded 9 April 2022) > Saskatchewan > Humboldt > 1949, list of electors, Rural Polling Division No. 68, Spalding, p. 2 (stamped seq. no. 52008), no. 296 (Schloendorf, Fred, blacksmith – Spalding) & no. 297 (Schloendorf, Mrs. Fred – Spalding); citing Library and Archives Canada microfilm M-4868.

Submitted byEEon Sat, 04/09/2022 - 19:12

History Hunter, your URL > path takes me to image 1 of 182 images for the printed list of 1949. From that point, where do I go to find "Polling Division No. 68, Spalding p. 2 .... [etc.] ?   (Short of thumbing through every image or jumping around in a trial-and-error search for the right image?)

When the path of a database leads to multiple images, the image number needs to be the last item in the path. Then we proceed to describe what that item is at that image.

 

I appreciate your feedback, but I think there is a quintessential aspect of citing the Canadian Voter's Lists that has not been addressed. Please bear with me while I work through the logic to highlight what I mean.

There really shouldn't be any "thumbing through every image or jumping around in a trial-and-error search".

The "trail-of-breadcrumbs" intentionally points to the start of a particular film for a good reason. The Library and Archives Canada stamped the pages of each year of voter's lists with a sequential number (see the 1949 index at, https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census/Pages/1949-federal-general-election.aspx). Ancestry has simply sequentially imaged the whole set of films as one entity. It did not rearrange the images. Once one has Ancestry's start point for a film, there is no more "jumping around" to finding the correct image than there would be in accessing the original film. That is why the stamped sequence number was considered adequate.

I remember reading the EE book's caution against using image numbers to locate census pages. It wasn't clear if the context was for any citation structure of for a particular citation structure. I assumed that it meant any citation structure and that may not have been what was intended.

I've just examined an American census example provided to see how record images would be located from the information contained. I must admit; I found it very difficult to locate records in the corresponding online source. Layer 1 provided a citation devoid of any reference to the medium on which the information was presented and relied solely on the indexing inherent in the original document to locate a record. Layer 2 only identified the website URL from which the information was obtained, which means it had no ability to locate the record within the site. Both the American census and the Canadian Voter's Lists are published works and not limited to a single repository. In short; the two document sets seem to share similar characteristics and organization. Despite the difficulty experienced in locating specific images, it appears that the general structure of the census example could be appropriated to create a citation for the Canadian Voter's Lists and yet not contain image numbers.

So; perhaps your comment stemmed from the choice of citation structure used and the standard elements defined for that structure. If I had structured the citation in a similar manner to that used in the EE book's American census example, would that be considered an appropriate solution?



 

History-Hunter, you wrote:

"I've just examined an American census example provided to see how record images would be located from the information contained. I must admit; I found it very difficult to locate records in the corresponding online source. Layer 1 provided a citation devoid of any reference to the medium on which the information was presented and relied solely on the indexing inherent in the original document to locate a record. Layer 2 only identified the website URL from which the information was obtained, which means it had no ability to locate the record within the site.

This is an EE example? Would you identify which example, so that we can clarify what seems to need clarification?

I looked for an example pertaining to citing a generally available microfilm that has been fully reproduced online. I found the following examples of population census that were from an online version of a NARA microfilm. In my case, I'm dealing with Library and Archives Canada microfilms, instead.

(Mills, Elizabeth Shown. Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace: 3rd edition revised (p. 290). Genealogical Publishing Compay. Kindle Edition.)

In reference notes 1–3, there is no website layer for what is stated as an online image citation. (This is simply an observation.)

With respect to reference note 4; I should note that I have seen instances in which the specific online census database name has not been cited in layer 2, but only the website. Presumably; this happens when the user-created title leaves little doubt in locating the correct database. I, typically, prefer to drop the specific name and include a URL for the relevant website collection. But, I see that as a choice, not a requirement.

More specific to the issue; the above are examples of citations to widely available microfilm that happen to be fully imaged online. The Canadian census and the voters lists are a similar situation.

I am quite happy to use the shorter form of citation, but it does take a bit more effort to locate the relevant item. The benefit is that it avoids detracting from the material actually cited and avoids confusion when sites reorganize their access to the information. Every time I include more website information than absolutely necessary, I run that risk.

History-Hunter, p. 290 of the third edition presents examples for two different ways we use NARA's microfilm censuses: microfilm and online. 

  • Examples 1-3 focus on the microfilm.
  • Example 4 treats on online images.

More specifically, that section (EE 6.39) treats "U.S. Military Population Schedules," which are an entity separate from the general population schedules.

As for whether we should cite the title of the census database into which a provider has lumped all the censuses, it may or may not be needed, depending upon the provider and the architecture of its offerings.  For example,

  • When we go to the Ancestry website to use a census, we do not have to go to the catalog and choose a specific database title. Instead, census options are displayed right on Ancestry's landing page, where we can merely click on the year.
  • When we use FamilySearch, the landing page has no census search option (other than the newly introduced 1950 census). We have to go to Search > Records > and then we're specifically asked for a collection title or given the option of browsing collections. Including the exact collection title in our citation is important so that the collection can be easily relocated amid its tens of thousands of collections.

EE's 6.37 uses a FamilySearch example. On the next page, 6.39 uses an Ancestry example. For consistency, the collection title is shown in both.

 

 

 

History-Hunter, you also wrote:

I remember reading the EE book's caution against using image numbers to locate census pages. It wasn't clear if the context was for any citation structure of for a particular citation structure. I assumed that it meant any citation structure and that may not have been what was intended.

That caution appears at EE 6.8, in the census chapter, as part of the discussion of page numbers. It cautions against using the image number, in lieu of the page number, when providing the details for the census itself. The censuses have page numbers or sheet numbers.  Image numbers are created by the website provider, they apply only to that website, and thus they are cited as part of the identification of the website, not the census itself.

Thank you. That confirms what I understood when reading the section. I believe that the real issue with which I am struggling is the actual value of citing website information when a widely available item is also fully imaged online.

Submitted byHistory-Hunteron Sun, 04/10/2022 - 11:33

Here is my attempt at a Canadian voters list citation styled to closely follow the structure of the American census example in the EE book:

First Reference Note: 1935-1980 Canadian voters lists, Humboldt, Sakatchewan, list of electors, 1949, Rural Polling Division No. 68, Spalding, p. 2 (stamped 52008), no. 296 (Schloendorf, Fred) & no. 297 (Schloendorf, Mrs. Fred); image, Ancestry(https://www.ancestry.ca/search/collections/2983 : downloaded 9 April 2022); citing Library and Archives Canada microfilm M-4868.

Subsequent Reference Note: 1935-1980 Canadian voters lists, Humboldt, SK, list of electors, 1949, Rural Polling Div. 68, Spalding, p. 2 (stamped 52008), no. 296 (Schloendorf, Fred) & no. 297 (Schloendorf, Mrs. Fred).

Source List Entry: Canada. Sakatchewan. Humboldt. 1935-1980 Canadian voters lists, list of electors. 1949. Database with images. Ancestry. https://www.ancestry.ca/search/collections/2983 : 2022.
 

I believe I could shorten the subsequent reference note to:

Subsequent Reference Note: 1935-1980 Canadian voters lists, Humboldt, SK, 1949, Div. 68, p. 2, no. 296 (Schloendorf, Fred) & no. 297 (Schloendorf, Mrs. Fred).

Submitted byEEon Mon, 04/11/2022 - 08:16

History-Hunter,

We're definitely reacting differently to the functionality of this proposed citation.  When we use the URL you give, we hit the landing page for collection 2983. The options there allow us to choose Saskatchewan, then Humboldt, then 1949. Doing so puts us at stamped p. no. 51905, Polling Division 1 (not 68), which is Ancestry's image 1 of 182.

Going back to your citation to figure out where to go from there, after "1949" your citation states "Rural Polling Division No. 68, Spalding, p. 2 (stamped 52008) ..." 

So we need to do addition/subtraction to calculate a need to add 103 to our image count to get from p. 51905 to p. 52008, which is at image 104.  The citation would be much more useful (and much less frustrating to those who have to figure out the "numbering system") if we just specify image 104 after the URL.

As shown in the example you requested and to which I posted a reference, the EE book does what I have done (see citation 4 on p. 290). As noted in that response, I provide the landing page. In the EE example the collection name and the root URL for the site is provided. The two are essentially equivalent and neither provides an image number.

Yes; finding ones way around a document does require some knowledge about how it is organized. That, I think, is something that comes with understanding the organization of the document a researcher is consulting.

I believe that the real issue is that at some point one has to view some items, like NARA and LAC films as just being in an "electronic library", rather than in a physical one. If I borrowed an imaged book from the library to read on my Kindle, I would not view that any differently than viewing the original at the library. I would not typically cite a library location and call number for the print book any more than I would do similarly for the electronic version. The key is that one is an image copy of the other.

Despite the utility of a more specific citation to the Ancestry representation, it leads the reader to the conclusion that the images from the LAC microfilm are only available on the Ancestry subscription site. In actual fact, the more "original" form is freely available to any researcher at the LAC in its original microfilm form, just as are NARA films. As one purpose of a citation is to allow readers to locate what was consulted, and we accept image copies as equivalent, I'm not sure that implying that the document is only available at one location is a good approach.

History-Hunter, I do see two of your issues differently:

  • (Your para. 2) If we use an electronic version of a book via, say, Kindle, EE would not recommend citing it as though we had used the physical book at our local library. The electronic edition is a different publication, it's a different edition, which may have different material and different pagination. Differences can also exist with microfilm editions.
  • (Your para. 4) the layer in which we cite the-source-of-our-source informs the reader that the original is available at xyz. It's quite clear from that portion of the citation the online version of the record is not the only one available.