Using quotes or not...Census records

By thesleeplessge… on Sat, 05/02/2026 - 16:51

Forums

Dear Ms Elizabeth,

I recently had a discussion with someone about whether or not to use quotes for the Census Title.

1870 U.S. census, Hardin County, Iowa… vs “1870 United States Federal Census,” Hardin County, Iowa 

EE 3rd ed p 137 (gray page) says digital image – and has no quotes around the census id, and references Ancestry. I found references to both ways throughout all the listed census examples. I will just use 1790 for clarity.

For 1790

  • At the top of page 268 subtitled Online Database entries, the title is in quotes. And also references Ancestry.
  • At the bottom of 268 and top of page 269 subtitled online image, the title is not in quotes,
  • At the middle of page 269 subtitled Online image (Library subscription site), the title is not quotes, and references Proquest website.

This continues on throughout all the census years, with some online references not having the title in quotes and others having the title in quotes.

When I look at EE 4th Ed, p 241 Online database entries

  • (template 5), the title is in quotes and references the website, but the online images
  • (template 13) is not in quotes, with a reference to the website.

It appears from the template notes, the difference of using or not using quotes is between template 5 Complex Website (multiple Articles or Databases) and template 13 Census (Preservation Microfilm).

When I read the notes on each template, my line of thinking is if I use ancestry and use the data set collection of census records, I will use Template 5 and using quotes, but if I am only viewing a single image of a census outside of the database, I could use Template 13 and not add quotes. Am I interpreting the difference correctly? I want to keep all my census citations the same if possible, and I can say I typically get them off of Ancestry record collections, or Family search Record collections.

I know they both give pretty much the same information, I just need this bit of clarification.

 

Thanks for all your insight,

Sleepless in Charlotte

Submitted byEEon Sat, 05/02/2026 - 18:53

Hello Sleepless. The basic rule for titles, for any kind of material, is at EE4 §2.27. Briefly:

  • When we cite the exact wording of a title, we put quotation marks around it because we are quoting.
  • When we cite a record generically, not using an exact title, we capitalize it but use no quotes because we're not quoting.

Therefore, with the examples you cite:

  • EE3 p 237 (you say, "p 137 gray page" but 137 is not a gray page and not in census chapter), no quotation marks are used because 1850 U.S. census is a generic identity.  The formal title of that census is "Seventh Census of the United States."  In everyday usage, both genealogical and historical researchers shorten and clarify that with a generic i.d.: 1850 U.S. census.
  • p. 268 (top), the title is in quotes because we are quoting the exact title of the database.
  • pp. 268–69, the "title" is not in quotes because, again, we are not quoting anything. We are generically identifying the census in the first layer as 1790 U.S. census ...., and then, the second layer, citing Ancestry or HeritageQuest as the source of the images.
  • Template 5, the title of the online database is in quote marks because we are quoting the exact name of the database title, word for word.
  • Template 13, no quotation marks are used because we are not quoting the name of the census. We are generically saying "1850 census."

In short, we use quote marks when we're actually quoting something.