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I have spent the last week or two trying to analyze a 55 page pension file for the minors of a Civil War sailor on the National Archives website. The pension is strictly for the minors - neither the sailor nor the widow applied for a pension. It's a complicated file and has presented me with some questions that I am hoping you can help me with. As I think about putting citations together, I am afraid that it might get quite complicated and don’t even want to attempt one just yet.
Bundled in the original pension, is a supplemental pension for one of his disabled minors. Documents are presented in no particular order and some appear to be within their own “wrapper” and others appear to be loose. It is difficult to in some cases to determine exact where some of the documents belong.
Given that I have the following questions:
- Both the pension and supplemental pension application and certificate numbers are the same. Some documents reference the application number, some reference the certificate number and others do not have a number associated with it at all. In a citation would one include both numbers at all times or just the number shown on the document if there is one?
- For documents that are within the supplemental pension file, do I need to state somewhere that it is packaged with the original pension ? I suspect that the duplicate numbers might get confusing.
- For documents that are contained within their own wrapper, do I need to mention the name of the wrapper? Typically the document and the wrapper have similar names with varying degrees of specificity.
Here is the pension in case you need to see it.
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/92387523
I hope I am not over complicating things but I want to be sure I have the correct elements before attempting a citation.
Thanks!
What a wonderful file you've…
What a wonderful file you've found, Hendrickson. If I had just received this (and you may have already done so), I would transcribe each document, then rearrange those transcriptions into chronological sequence. As you noted, the files have no logical sequence, not by date and not even by packet or individual certificate numbers. Complicated files of this type are so much easier understood if we put them into chronological sequence. The worrisome question of what file belongs to what internal packet or certificate number is often resolved in this process.
All that aside, your citation problem has a different root and can be more quickly resolved.
It seems to me that the issues you are struggling with stem from the mode by which you obtained this file. It’s causing you to try to put a square peg in a round hole. That square peg, the basic but complex and longstanding format for citing U.S. National Archives material, is still valid when using the original materials at NARA. However, NARA’s creation of an online site at which images are posted has rounded off the corners of the original square hole.
The present delivery system—which is likely to be the prevailing one for years to come—is best handled by shifting the focus
The result does not require the citation to identity which document belongs to which certificate number or which document belongs in what package. It’s also a simple two-layer citation—though still long.
Layer 1: Creator, Title of Website (URL : date), Specific Item.
The imaged file is the specific item, which we cite by using the name and NAID that NARA assigned to it. If we’re citing just one document from the file (which we typically do), we simply add on, at the end of layer one, a phrase such as “particularly, image 15, “Titled Whatever,” date; then we add layer 2.
Layer 2: the “citing …” layer
Here, we report whatever NARA identifies as the series and record group this was taken from.
Below, I’ll present two examples, first for citing the file as a whole and the second for citing one individual document from the file. Shading distinguishes Layer 1 from Layer 2.
First Reference Note
(To cite an entire case file)
1. U.S. National Archives, National Archives Catalog, database with images (https://catalog.archives.gov/id/92387523 : accessed 8 June 2023), NAID 92387523: “Approved Pension Application File for Dependents of John V. Hendrickson (Certificate No. 7076),” 55 images; citing Case Files of Approved Pension Applications of Widows and Other Dependents of Navy Veterans ca. 1861–ca. 1910, Record Group 15: Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, National Archives.
(To cite an individual document from a case file)
2. U.S. National Archives, National Archives Catalog, database with images (https://catalog.archives.gov/id/92387523 : accessed 8 June 2023), NAID 92387523: “Approved Pension Application File for Dependents of John V. Hendrickson (Certificate No. 7076),” 1890–1904, 55 images, particularly image 15: “Brief for Reduction, Dropping, or Continuance,” 28 June 1900; citing Case Files of Approved Pension Applications of Widows and Other Dependents of Navy Veterans ca. 1861–ca. 1910, Record Group 15: Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, National Archives.”
Subsequent Note
(To cite an entire case file)
11. U.S. National Archives, National Archives Catalog, NAID 92387523: “Approved Pension Application File for Dependents of John V. Hendrickson (Cert. No. 7076),” 1890–1904, 55 images.
(To cite an individual document from a case file)
12. “U.S. National Archives, National Archives Catalog, NAID 92387523: “Approved Pension Application File for Dependents of John V. Hendrickson, image 15: “Brief for Reduction, Dr0pping,” 28 June 1900, 28 June 1900.
Source List Entry
(To cite the pension file in a personal or family grouping)
Hendrickson, John V. “Approved Pension Application File for Dependents of John V. Hendrickson.” NAID 92387523. U.S. National Archives. National Archives Catalog. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/92387523 : 2023.
(To cite the website/database)
United States. National Archives. National Archives Catalog. Database with images.
I haven’t transcribed the…
I haven’t transcribed the documents but have created a spreadsheet and put them in chronological order which still doesn’t entirely clarify it. It seems there was an initial examination of the disabled child before the declaration was made. So I am not sure which file it belongs in but this might be me not understading all of the steps involved in the process for being able to file the claim.
Thank you for providing some perspective and examples. It does seem that I am over-complicating things. The supplemental pension and the presentation of it is what threw me off. I have been lucky enough to have found another pension at the NARA website and cited it as you just showed, but wasn’t sure if I would be missing any of the details by presenting it like that.