Citing Online Sources: Difference between revisions

Citing online sources is easier than you might think. In this class you will learn how to cite online sources generally. You’ll learn particular examples from FamilySearch.org and from Ancestry.com.  

Citations exist to satisfy two needs. A citation should allow you to locate the source and to judge the quality of the source. You need to be able to find and check sources. Conclusion may look suspicious. (“Was my grandfather really born one month after his parents married?”). Or you may have reached a different conclusion. (“My sources indicate 1821, not 1820.”) You need to be able to judge the correctness of a genealogy by looking at the quality of the sources used.<ref>Elizabeth Shown Mills, ''Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace'', PDF image (Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2007), 10, 43.</ref>  

In forward looking disciplines like science and medicine it is easy to meet these two needs. It is easy to locate cited sources because the sources are journals. The quality of the source is easily determined by looking at the author’s name and the publication date. Is the author a well known expert, qualified to address the subject? Was the journal published recently?  

Genealogists face unique needs in satisfying the two purposes of citations.  

To address these unique needs, Elizabeth Shown Mills published ''Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace''. Since American historians use ''The Chicago Manual of Style'',<ref>“The OAH Magazine of History Style Sheet,” ''Organization of American Historians'' ([http://www.oah.org http://www.oah.org] : accessed 17 July 2010); Diana Hacker, “History: Documenting Sources,” ''Research and Documentation Online'' ([http://dianahacker.com http://dianahacker.com] : accessed 17 July 2010).</ref> Elizabeth Shown Mills builds on it. Because ''Evidence Explained'' meets their unique needs, many genealogists use it.  

Citing online sources adds additional challenges. The World Wide Web is like a great desert covered in shifting sand. Hills and valleys move with the wind. Trees, rocks, and other landmarks come and go. Oases form and evaporate. Trails disappear. The web even has intentional mirages that suddenly appear and then are gone. Citations must account for these possibilities to the extent possible.  

Cite online sources as you would a book.<ref>See ''The Chicago Manual of Style'', 15th ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003), 597; hereinafter cited as CMOS. Genealogists may wish to use Kate L. Turabian, ''A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations'', 7th ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007), 162. The title page of the 7th edition explains that it is “Chicago Style for Students and Researchers.”</ref> Cite FamilySearch.org historical collections and Ancestry.com databases as if they were chapters in a book.<ref>''CMOS'', 661-2 and Turabian, 177-9.</ref>  

When a historical record collection can be searched, the derivative type is “database,” “index,” or similar term. When a collection has digital images, “digital images” is the type of the derivative. Consider this citation to the death certificate of former president, Lyndon Baines Johnson:  

Keep the changing nature of the web in mind as you create citations to online sources. Because web addresses change, it is better to cite the home page plus finding instructions.  

The source of the source is even more important for databases without images. When a database does not have images, you cannot tell if there are indexing errors. The source of the source citation in the following example tells you where to get a photocopy of the original record.  

Unlike the Texas Death example, this source of the source shows the typical practice. Simply “specify whatever the database gives as its source.”<ref>Mills, ''Evidence Explained'', 301.</ref>  

At the present time [2010], the new FamilySearch Tree makes it very difficult to enter sources. Here are some suggestions from users that may help until source entry is improved. I suggest doing what works for you. “Remember that the purpose of source citations is not to create paranoia or anxiety but to eliminate it.”<ref>Elizabeth Shown Mills, ''Evidence! Citation and Analysis for the Family Historian'' (Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1997), 14.</ref>  

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To communicate the quality of a source, a citation needs to specify the source of the source. Sometimes it may be necessary to add a comment. Cite online sources as you would a book. Citations must account for the constantly changing nature of the web. FamilySearch, Ancestry.com, and similar websites publish collections or databases that should be handled like chapters in a book. If a website makes it impossible to add a good source-of-the-source, reuse the citations provided by the website.  

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[[Category:Citations]]