Citing an official in a record

By cryptoref on Wed, 02/26/2025 - 19:07

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My target, William C Parker, has been playing hard to get for decades. I've nailed down some of his life, but except for a chunk of time in Itawamba, Mississippi, I don't know his birthplace, parents, or death. Knowing where he was at a certain date is helpful. 

Our new, wonderful, friend, the full-text search at FamilySearch found some records that put William in Itawamba in an interesting timeframe. The issue is that William is only on those records as the person who attested that the parties on the deed personally appeared in front of William. 

Itawamba County, Mississippi, Deed Record 12: 134, Thomas Ragland to J. W. Livingston, 3 June 1853; imaged, "Itawamba, Mississippi, United States records," images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSL5-4SMX-Q : Feb 27, 2025), file number 008201843 > image 79 of 643. William C Parker, as a member of the Board of Police, personally certified that the deed participants personally appeared and acknowledged the deed.

I'm using 9.40 as the basic template and then adding the sentence to indicate William's role. My thought process was that to find this again you would want the real deed and that has to be the main thrust of citation, Williams role, while important to the overall report, is not a major role in the deed.

 

Submitted byEEon Thu, 02/27/2025 - 09:57

Cryptoref, that works. Or, you might do this:

Itawamba County, Mississippi, Deed Record 12: 134, Thomas Ragland to J. W. Livingston, 3 June 1853, certified by William C. Parker as a member of the Board of Police; imaged, "Itawamba, Mississippi, United States Records," images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSL5-4SMX-Q : Feb 27, 2025), file number 008201843 > image 79 of 643.

BUT, there's another problem.  When I take the words you have in quotation marks, in the named collection/database field of the citation, and paste them into FamilySearch's query box for collections, I get this:

 

You are not using a named database or collection. You are using an image group (formerly a roll of film) that is not in any named database or collection.

Template 10 in EE: "Online Image (No Named Database)" is what you need. EE4's 9.40 "Deeds (aka Conveyance) Books" gives two types of examples:

  • original document in the courthouse (for which you use Template 9: Government, Church, or Corporate Office."
  • imaged document online (for which you are told to use Template 10). Template 10 exists in two versions: one for when we have a named database; the other for situations in which there is no named database and we have to navigate differently to find the record.

9.40's example for online images uses the template for a named database. But that's not your situation.  You need the Template 10 example for unnamed database.  Go back to the fundamentals chapter where the templates are introduced. The two versions of Template 10 are on facing pages, 128 and 129. You used the first one, on p. 128. You need the one on p. 129.   

Using the template for images not in a named database would give you this, if you have just one entry to cite:

Itawamba County, Mississippi, Deed Record 12: 134, Thomas Ragland to J. W. Livingston, 3 June 1853, certified by William C. Parker as a member of the Board of Police; imaged, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSL5-4SMX-Q : Feb 27, 2025), image group number (IGN) 008201843 > image 79 of 643.

You also state that you have numerous instances in which Parker served in this capacity. To cover all those in one citation, this same image group could be cited this way

Itawamba County, Mississippi, Deed Record 12: 134, xxx, xxx; and Deer Record 13: xxx, xxx, various deeds certified by William C. Parker as a member of the Board of Police; imaged, FamilySearch  (https://www.familysearch.org) : Feb 27, 2025), image group number (IGN) 008201843 > images 79,  xxx, xxx, xxx, xxx of 643.

With this approach, the user of the citation would have to search the catalog for the specific image group.

A second approach would be to cite the specific URL for the first image in that image group:

Itawamba County, Mississippi, Deed Record 12: 134, xxx, xxx; and Deer Record 13: xxx, xxx, various deeds certified by William C. Parker as a member of the Board of Police; imaged, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSL5-4SMD-P : Feb 27, 2025), image group number (IGN) 008201843 > images 79,  xxx, xxx, xxx, xxx of 643.

Within Chapter 9, which you are using, go back to 9.21 Basic Pattern: Online Images, and look for the discussion "CITING URL & PATH."

 

Submitted bycryptorefon Thu, 02/27/2025 - 12:19

First, thank you so much for your efforts to help those who ask. It's amazing the time and effort you apply to answering questions. If possible, I'd nominate you for a medal as a true global resource. But then maybe a better reward would be a new built-in bookcase.

Yep, I grabbed the wrong title when I found these through the full-text search. 

As I dug into the details of each one, I discovered that the date of the deed didn't always match the date of certification. So, I added just a bit more:

Itawamba County, Mississippi, Deed Record 9: 100, Swepsom Taylor to A S Hamilton, [undated] 1852, certified by Wm C. Parker as a member of the Board of Police, certified on 13 August 1852; imaged, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3QY-NSCH-Q), IGN 008567163 > image 53 of 346.