Examples

[RWells]

Ben

Hope you don’t think I am being critical I am just trying to make sure I understand.

1. In the note about the originator you list George H. Brown. I found it after realizing what I was looking at and went into the book. But I did note that it listed Geo H. Brown not George H. Brown. (This is kinda nit picking on my part…)

2. In order for me to find the book I put the citation into a web search several lines down it showed the link to the book. In the second example I entered the citation into a web search and came up with nothing.

3. I notice that in example 2 you show Publication Facts as FamilySearch although they did not publish the material but only show a digital image of the page of information. In the first example you show the publisher name as the Publication Facts but again I am only seeing a digital image of the actual book. This dose not seem to be consistant? I would think that somehow we must show to the casual genealogist how to find what we are looking at.

4. I think an citation of a census record 1850+ would make a good example.

Roger

[Ben]

Hi Roger.

Rest assured, I’m not taking your questions negatively. We’re exploring this together.

1. I used the full name, George, instead of the abbreviation because that’s how I thought it would most likely be found in a search. Using the abbreviation could work out fine too. Give it a test.

2. This is one of those times where a search of the world-wide-web isn’t necessary; the address of the record is in the citation. If we pretend for a moment that we’re in the future and FamilySearch.org is no more an Internet search may be appropriate. When I just did the search on Google for “Return of Births, Mason Co., Michigan, 1881, Mason County Clerk, FamilySearch” I found that the first result was the lead I needed. It led me to a page for Michigan resources on a site called “Access Genealogy.” I scrolled down to the heading “Michigan Vital Records” then clicked the first link under that, “Michigan Birth Records 1867-1902.” That sent me to FamilySearch.org. I used the catalog to search for resources by place name (Mason, Michigan). Under “Michigan, Mason – Vital Records” the first link is: “Birth records 1867-1919; birth index 1867-1976.” From there I can get the film number for 1881. I could also just search for the person of interest with the location and date information from the source or event in my family file.

3. FamilySearch published the image I looked at in the second example just like Internet Archive published the images of the book in the first example. The difference is that it was easy for me to identify the publisher of the physical book in the first example and I thought it would be more likely to help me or another researcher to find the source in the future. When I’m creating a citation I’m thinking about how the source might be best found in the future. I’m realizing now that I don’t mention that at all in the guide.

4. Thanks for the suggestion; I’ve added it to my list.

[Author]

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