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Saturday Sourcing Sprint Citation Examples

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Contents

These citation examples and tips are drawn from the weekly Saturday Sourcing Sprint thread. See also the Sourcing Primer created by Steven Tibbetts for a visual example of how to use RootsSearch and find the ready made citations provided by FamilySearch.

These tips are not endorsements of any particular source or citation style. Tips are provided to help you learn how to cite the sources you find. There is no requirement to look for sources of any specific type.

Country Specific Sources & Citations Examples

Drouin Collection at Ancestry (29 December 2018)

The Drouin Collection is a massive microfilm collection started in the 1940s by the Institut Généalogique Drouin which contains records pertaining to French Canadian Birth, Marriage, and Death. It is available at Ancestry and the Institut Généalogique, both of which are subscription websites. If you have ancestors in Canada, the databases can be well worth the money.
But how do you know? Ancestry will let you search this collection for free. The results are not enough to remove the Unsourced Template but they can provide clues to the value of a subscription or for later researchers who have access.
A Research Note for the Drouin Index would look like this:
  • Index records for Marcelline Gauvin were found in the Drouin Index at Ancestry. By hovering over "View Record" links with the mouse, additional data appears showing that Dosite Richard is also sometimes mentioned. It is unclear to what these records pertain. Access is needed to for further research:
    • Ancestry, index database, "Acadia, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1757-1946" (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=1110 : accessed 28 December 2018), record for Marcelline Gauvin and Dosite Richard, Acadie (Nova Scotia and New Brunswick)
If a person were a member of Ancestry with access to the Drouin databases and images, they could determine that at least one of the records is for the marriage of Marcelline Gauvin and Dosite Richard. The citation for that record could be designed as follows:
  • Ancestry, database with images, "Acadia, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1757-1946" (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=1110 : accessed 28 December 2018), S > St-Anselme > 1866-1898 > Image 1 of 197 "Register of Baptisms & Marriages for the Parish of St Anselme of Peticodiac 1866-1898"; Image 6 of 197, pg 6, record M13 for marriage of Marcelline Gauvin and Dosite Richard, 12 Nov 1866; Gabriel Drouin, comp. Drouin Collection. Montreal, Quebec, Canada: Institut Généalogique Drouin.
Note that I cited two images, the first from the title page of the register; the second, from the page on which the marriage appears. Ancestry's database descriptions and breadcrumbs can be used to find the record in their databases. Providing the name of the register may help someone who has access to the Institut Généalogique databases. The links to the images were created using the information in the Links to Ancestry FAQ.

FamilySearch Unindexed Images (15 December 2018)

FamilySearch is digitizing more records every day and making the images available for browsing. That part can be done rapidly because it's all based on technology. Unfortunately, those images often do not have an easily copied citation. I was working with one of those this morning and thought I would share the citation I created.
The first part of the citation is all about the image I was looking at:
  • Union County, North Carolina, Standard Certificate of Death no 187, Mrs. Lillie Genetta Thomas, 13 December 1938
Next, I created a link to the image so that anyone could review it:
  • Union County, North Carolina, [https:/ /www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9PL-Z9YW-7 Standard Certificate of Death no 187], Mrs. Lillie Genetta Thomas, 13 December 1938
The next thing to include is where anyone could find the record if it was no longer online. This information was found by clicking the information tab at the bottom, then clicking the link for the Catalog Record (I usually open it in a new tab). Review the page, looking for information about where the originals can be found, like this sentence "Microfilm of originals in the North Carolina Department of Archives and History in Raleigh, North Carolina." The location information is what gets added:
  • Union County, North Carolina, [https:/ /www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9PL-Z9YW-7 Standard Certificate of Death no 187], Mrs. Lillie Genetta Thomas, 13 December 1938; North Carolina Department of Archives and History in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
The last part is where I found the information. Since FamilySearch hadn't provided a citation, I had to create one using the same basic information that they usually provide:
  • Their business name with double quotes to italicize it
  • The kind of record
  • The name of their database
  • The link to that database and when I accessed it
  • The breadcrumbs to the specific record
All of that information gets added to end of what I had already created for a full citation:
  • Union County, North Carolina, [https:/ /www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9PL-Z9YW-7 Standard Certificate of Death no 187], Mrs. Lillie Genetta Thomas, 13 December 1938; North Carolina Department of Archives and History in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA; ''FamilySearch'', database with images, "Death certificates,1906-1994 and indexes 1906-1967; still births,1914-1953; fetal death indexes,1950-" (https ://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/63904 : accessed 15 December 2018) > Film # 004219380 "Death certificates file no. 2075-2076 1938" > image 629 of 891.
When that citation is saved on the profile, it will look like this:
  • Union County, North Carolina, Standard Certificate of Death no 187, Standard Certificate of Death no 187, 13 December 1938; North Carolina Department of Archives and History in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA; FamilySearch, database with images, "Death certificates,1906-1994 and indexes 1906-1967; still births,1914-1953; fetal death indexes,1950-" (https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/63904 : accessed 15 December 2018) > Film # 004219380 "Death certificates file no. 2075-2076 1938" > image 629 of 891.

Government Civil Registration Databases (8 December 2018)

Government registration of births, marriages, and deaths can be found in many places. Sometimes there are images of the actual documents; other times only an index is provided. The citations should provide enough detail to help the reader understand what was viewed. Examples:
  • NSW Government (https://familyhistory.bdm.nsw.gov.au : accessed 7 December 2018), "Justice Registry of Births Deaths & Marriages," marriage database entry for John O'Neil and Sarah A Watkins, Waterloo [New South Wales, Australia], Registration no 7308/1900.
  • ScotlandsPeople (https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk : accessed 4 Nov 2018), birth database entry for Alberth William Dick (age at death 81; Mother's Maiden: Proudfoot, Died 1993, Ref 350/849; RD Name Dundee).
  • Mecklenburg County [North Carolina, USA] Register of Deeds Web Access (http://meckrod.manatron.com/Marriage : accessed 8 December 2018), marriage database entry for Frank NMN McGee and Pattie Lee Biggers, 18 July 1934, License # Book-Page 000286.
  • Duval County [Florida, USA] Public Records (https://oncore.duvalclerk.com : accessed 28 September 2017) > Book 7320, Page 1569, image 2, Florida Certificate of Death, Harry Ottis Dowling, 24 June 1988. Death Certificate and Affidavit recorded 30 April 1992 by Kent A Dowling, son of Harry Ottis Dowling, as part of the estate process for Ila H Dowling, widow of Harry O. Dowling.

New England Historical and Genealogical Register (1 December 2018)

I ran across a profile with the following source. It is a good source by itself with plenty of detail to help another researcher find the information:
  • New England Historical and Genealogy Society, New England Historical and Genealogical Register, v. 40 pg 208.
I would like to have seen a little more information though. For instance, the title of the article and a note about what evidence was being used from that source.
  • New England Historical and Genealogy Society, New England Historical and Genealogical Register, v. 40 pg 208, item 2, "Notes and Queries - Facts gathered from the Town Record of Norwich Ct." [Identifies Hannah's father's name, her marriage date, husband's name and his father's name, and the names and birth dates of their 11 children.]
One other nicety would have been a link to the Space page which has been created for the NEHG Register. A lot of work has been put in to that page which includes direct links to images of the various issues at Archive.org. To add that link, the Wiki code would look like this:
  • New England Historical and Genealogy Society, [[Space:NEHGR|New England Historical and Genealogical Register]], v. 40 pg 208, item 2, "Notes and Queries - Facts gathered from the Town Record of Norwich Ct." [Identifies Hannah's father's name, her marriage date, husband's name and his father's name, and the names and birth dates of their 11 children.]
and would look like this in use:
  • New England Historical and Genealogy Society, New England Historical and Genealogical Register, v. 40 pg 208, item 2, "Notes and Queries - Facts gathered from the Town Record of Norwich Ct." [Identifies Hannah's father's name, her marriage date, husband's name and his father's name, and the names and birth dates of their 11 children.]

Email (24 November 2018)

A member asked for my help this week in crafting a citation for an email received from an archivist. The email was relevant to their current research question and was the current source for a bit of information on the ancestor. Here is the citation format we came up with:
  • Sender's Name, Sender's title, department, and library, [(email address for private use)] to Member's name, email, "date of email", "Subject Line of email," "where you have stored the mail"; privately held by Member's Surname, Member's city and state.
In practice, this citation would look something like this:
  • Jane Doe, Research Specialist, Government and Heritage Library, North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, [(email address for private use)] to Debi Hoag, email, 31 February 2012, "Reed Gold Nugget location," Smith Family Files, Shinn Folder; Privately held by Hoag, Leesburg, Florida.
The [(email address for private use)] portion is used because Jane Doe did not give permission to share her email address. If she had, it would be located in that place in parenthesis like this (JDoe at madeup.com). The square brackets, used to indicate that it is a note written by the member, would not be included.
If this citation was being used outside WikiTree, the WikiTree ID of the member would be replaced with space for the receiver's email address and street address. It would look like this:
privately held by Hoag [(email address), & street address for private use], Leesburg, Florida.
This citation example was crafted using Elizabeth Shown Mills' Evidence Explained, 3rd Edition Kindle, pg 154-155, 3.42 "E-Mail & Instant Messages > E-Mail > First Reference Note."

DigitalArkivet (National Archives of Norway) (17 November 2018)

A member asked about citing specific Parish Church records. He was comfortable citing the details and was including a link to the digital image. This is an example (not his record but similar):
  • Voss (Vangen) Parish Church (Voss, Norway), Voss: 1823-1837, Ministerialbok A 12, Deaths and Burials, Page 324, item 93, Anna Sjursdtr of Gjelle
He wondered if there should be more. The main thing it left out was how to find the record if the specific link no longer worked. A reader would be left wondering where the record might be found. I discovered that the link was to an image in the digital database at the Archive of Norway (DigitalArkivet). Adding the following would let the reader re-do the search if the original link ever degrades:
digital images, Artkivverket DigitalArkivet Scanned Church Records (http://www.arkivverket.no/URN:kb_read 
accessed 12 December 2013).
This shows information regarding:
  • what kind of record (a digital image)
  • where it was found
  • what was found
  • the URL of the website
  • when it was accessed
This sample was found at Genea-Musings
Randy Seaver, "Sample Source Citations," Genea-Musings, last updated 5 September 2014 (https://www.geneamusings.com/p/sample-source-citations.html : accessed 16 November 2018), "1) Vital (birth, baptism, marriage, death, burial) Records: item 10 *Norwegian church record on DigitalArkivet website"

US National Parks Civil War Soldiers & Sailors Database (10 Nov 2018)

This source is US-centric and was used because the only note on the profile said that the man had served in the US Civil War with the PA 42nd Volunteers.
Several years ago, volunteers and the US National Parks Service worked together to create a database of all soldiers and sailors from both the Union and Confederate Armies. It can be searched in a number of way and results can help narrow unit in which the man served. That's important when trying to find further records.
Unfortunately, a copy/paste citation is not included with the records. This is what I created for the record I found:
  • National Park Services, "Soldiers," database, Civil War Soldiers & Sailors System (https ://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-soldiers-detail.htm : accessed 9 Nov 2018), entry for [https ://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-soldiers-detail.htm?soldierId=B78AE99A-DC7A-DF11-BF36-B8AC6F5D926A John English], Pvt., Co E, 13th Regiment, Pennsylvania Reserve Infantry (42nd Volunteers/1st Pennsylvania Rifles), Union.
When you save the record, the entry looks like this:
  • National Park Services, "Soldiers," database, Civil War Soldiers & Sailors System (https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-soldiers-detail.htm : accessed 9 Nov 2018), entry for John English, Pvt., Co E, 13th Regiment, Pennsylvania Reserve Infantry (42nd Volunteers/1st Pennsylvania Rifles), Union.
By the way, they are now working on a similar database for those who served in the US Mexican War (1846-1848). I think it is only for US soldiers and I haven't heard if it will be regular Army only or will include the Volunteer regiments sent by many states.
This citation example was crafted using Elizabeth Shown Mills' Evidence Explained, 3rd Edition Kindle, pg 596-597, 11.32 "Military: Compiled Services Records - Online database - First Reference Note (Civil War Service Database)."

Newspaper.com clippings (3 Nov 2018)

Newspapers.com can be an excellent source of birth, marriage, illness, death, and probate records as well as other contextual clues: When you find an article, you can clip it for others to see, even if they do not have a subscription.
A brief citation is created automatically but it is important to add a few items to make it more useful in the future ... just in case that link breaks. The parts in black are the default citation. What I added is in blue:
  • Clipped from The Gazette (Montreal, Canada), 23 Jun 1915, Wed, Page 3, column 2, "Two Sudden Deaths," Charles St. Louis (https ://www.newspapers.com/clip/25053740/the_gazette : accessed 2 October 2018); Newspapers.com, database with images.
There are six newspapers at Newspapers.com titled "The Gazette" as of 2 Nov 2018 so Indicating which Gazette is critical.
Once you find Montreal, Canada's version of The Gazette for 23 June 1915, page 3, how do you know which article is being referenced and who was it about. Adding the column and article name points the reader to the correct article but two men are referenced, so adding the name of the person of interest is important.
The last part is to show what, when, and where you accessed the newspaper.

Canadian Census Records (27 Oct 2018)

1871 Census at Canada's Library and Archives website:
  • Census of Canada, 1871, Ontario, Northumberland West, Hamilton (township), page 27, dwelling 90 (under construction), family 92, Emily Jane in the household of Henry St Louis; Government of Canada, Library and Arhives Canada, RG31 - Statistics Canada, (http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census/1871/Pages/1871.aspx : Accessed 8 October 2018).
1871 Census at Ancestry:
Note: The Ancestry Image template uses the database number and the image number to create a link to the image of the source.
  • Emily Jane St Louis, 1871 Census of Canada, Year: 1871; Census Place: Hamilton, Northumberland West, Ontario; Roll: C-9983; Page: 26; Family No: 84; Library and Archives Canada. Census of Canada, 1871. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Library and Archives Canada, n.d.. RG31-C-1. {{Ancestry Image|1578|4396622_00124}}
1871 Census at FamilySearch:
  • "Canada Census, 1871," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M47S-WVW : 24 October 2018), Emily Jane St Louis in household of Henry St Louis, Hamilton, Northumberland, Ontario, Canada; citing 1871; citing National Archives of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario.
1881 Census record at FamilySearch:
Note that FamilySearch is citing Ancestry which is citing the Canadian Archive site
  • "Canada Census, 1881," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MVXP-5X7 : 5 October 2018), Emma St Louis in household of Walter H. L. St Louis, Hamilton, Northumberland, Ontario, Canada; from "1881 Canadian Census." Database with images. Ancestry. (www.ancestry.com : 2008); citing Henry St Louis, citing Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, Ontario.

England & Wales General Register Office (GRO) Records (20 Oct 2018)

If you register with the General Register Office, you can search their Birth, Marriage, and Death Indexes. An example citation for a search result would be:
  • England & Wales General Register Office, GRO Online Index - Birth (https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content : accessed 19 October 2018), database entry for Coop, Harold (Mother's maiden Bennett), GRO Reference: 1863 M Quarter in Todmorden, Volume 09A Page 201.
The portion in blue is the index record found using the search screen. The portion in black indicates where and when the record was found, as well as indicating that it is only an index record.
This citation example was crafted using Elizabeth Shown Mills' Evidence Explained, 3rd Edition Kindle, pg 479-480, 9.52 "Note" and 9.53-1 "Online database." Sources outside the US are not within my usual repertoire. Please add comments with additional details if I have missed anything.

FamilySearch FindAGrave Index (6 Oct 2018)

FamilySearch.org is a wonderful resource for Saturday Sourcing Sprints. Using the RootsSearch tool from the profile page, you can quickly get in to FamilySearch, discover a FindAGrave index record, and do a little analysis to make sure it applies to the profile you are working on. If it is a match, please DO NOT stop there; remember, our goal is to add as complete a citation as possible.
Too often, FindAGrave memorial pages contain no sources for the information on them. For instance, the memorial page of Obediah Allen does not have a picture of a headstone nor a source for the included short bio. Another instance is the FindAGrave memorial page mentioned in the Research Notes on the profile of Martha McGee. Her gravestone does not provide information about her parents and the profile does not include information about a husband. These ARE NOT sources; they are clues for more research. For FindAGrave memorial pages like these, add a ==Research Notes== section like the one on Marth's page and include the FindAGrave citation with a note that there are no sources.
FindAGrave memorial pages, like these for Madelyn Rae (Freeman) Cahill and George Freeman, may include sources such as a picture of a gravestone, an image of the death certificate, a transcription of an obituary with the name and date of the publication, etc. In cases like those, the memorial pages ARE valid sources and should be cited. The FamilySearch record can be added to the "See Also" section at the bottom of the page like this:
  • ==Sources==
    <references />
    * Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 05 October 2018), memorial page for George Washington Gibson (19 Nov 1845–17 Aug 1923), {{FindAGrave|142869540}}, citing Evergreen Cemetery, South Amherst, Lorain County, Ohio, USA ; Maintained by astroboy (contributor 47971303).

    See Also:
    *"Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QK1F-ZLSC : 15 December 2015), George Washington Gibson, 1923; Burial, South Amherst, Lorain, Ohio, United States of America, Evergreen Cemetery; citing record ID 142869540, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com.
Note: Capitalization is critical for the FindAGrave template

Source Category (22 Sep 2018)

If you search Google for a name, sometimes you will find a Family History book which provide information about a person. Citing those books can be a bit of a challenge but ... did you know that a lot of those books have Space pages on WikiTree? Those pages usually have a suggested citation already written for your use. To find those space pages, review the Category: Source list, especially the Family Genealogies and Periodicals lists. You can also use the Text search to search for "Space" plus some words from the title of the book. For instance:
That page includes a citation for the book already written for you.

Social Security Applications & Claims Database (15 Sep 2018)

There are a few databases which seem to be exclusive to Ancestry.com. If any of the data in the record is the only evidence for a fact, please be sure to include that information in an abstract.
For instance, the Social Security Application and Claim Index includes data extracted from Form SS-5, the Application for Social Security Number. Those forms, filled out by the applicant and updated at the time of marriage, divorce, and death, can often help find the maiden name of married women (note the data in red in the example). The records can be searched by all the names that a person used. The records can contain a lot of data of interest to genealogists:
Information you may find includes:
  • applicant's full name
  • Social Security Number (SSN)
  • date and place of birth
  • citizenship
  • sex
  • father's name
  • mother's maiden name
  • race/ethnic description (optional)[1]
Citation Template:
  • Ancestry, online database, "U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007," (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=60901 : accessed Date), Name (b-d) {{Ancestry Record|60901|record number}}; Social Security Administration (Baltimore, Maryland, USA), "Social Security Applications and Claims, 1936-2007." [abstracted info]
Citation Example:
  • Ancestry, online database, "U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007," (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=60901 : accessed Date), Laura Rachel McGee (1934-1996) Ancestry Record 60901 #35908285; Social Security Administration (Baltimore, Maryland, USA), "Social Security Applications and Claims, 1936-2007." [Laura Rachel Helms; b 10 Oct 1932 in Monroe, Union, North Carolina; died 17 Feb 1996; SSN xxx-xx-1840; Parents: Martin L Helms and Seena A Baucom; Also Known As: Nov 1950: Name listed as Laura Rachel Helms; Apr 1956 - 26 Oct 1987: Name listed as Rachel Laura McGee; 26 Oct 1987; 24 Feb 1996: Name listed as Rachel L McGee]

Archive Collections (8 Sep 2018)

Archive Collections - Archives all over the world offer great genealogical sources such as census, birth, marriage, and death records. Some offer a pre-formatted citations but most do not so we have to create them ourselves. The needed pieces of the citation can usually all be found on the image and search results pages
Let's look at the Canada Archives 1921 Census as an example. The parts in blue were found on the image itself and detail the specifics of where a family was found. The red characters is the specific URL of the census image. The purple is the name of the website. Green is the specific database and the URL of the search screen. Orange is the date you looked at the record. I have repeated the citation without the colors in case anyone has trouble seeing the colors.
  • Census of Canada, 1921, British Columbia, Victoria (City) (24), Ward 3 (22), [http://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item/?app=Census1921&op=img&id=e002878013 page 18], dwelling 212, family 212, Byron Johnson; Government of Canada, Library and Archives Canada, database with images, RG31 - Statistics Canada, (http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census/1921/Pages/search.aspx : Accessed July 6, 2018).
  • Census of Canada, 1921, British Columbia, Victoria (City) (24), Ward 3 (22), [http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census/1921/Pages/item.aspx?itemid=4781097 page 18], dwelling 212, family 212, Byron Johnson; Government of Canada, Library and Arhives Canada, RG31 - Statistics Canada, (http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census/1921/Pages/search.aspx : Accessed July 6, 2018).
Another site that I like to use is the West Virginia Department of Cultural Affairs. I have used the same color scheme as above and included the all black version.
  • County Name, West Virginia, Marriage Records vol #, pg #, Groom and Bride, Date [imageURL Name of Document]; West Virginia Division of Culture and History, database with images, "Vital Research Records - Marriages" (http: //www.wvculture.org/vrr/va_mcsearch.aspx : accessed date)
  • County Name, West Virginia, Marriage Records vol #, pg #, Groom and Bride, Date ([imageURL Marriage License Application, Parental Consent, License, and Endorsement]); West Virginia Division of Culture and History, database with images, "Vital Research Records - Marriages" (http://www.wvculture.org/vrr/va_mcsearch.aspx : accessed date)

Ephemera (25 Aug 2018)

Ephemera (Personal Collection) -
  1. things that exist or are used or enjoyed for only a short time.
  2. items of collectible memorabilia, typically written or printed ones, that were originally expected to have only short-term usefulness or popularity.[1]
Items in a personal collection can be used as a source. They should have a citation which includes the Date, Place, Name, Event, and where it was acquired just like any other source. Because the item is probably not available anywhere but with you, it should also include either a link to an image of the item or a way to contact you for more information.
For instance, in the United States a document is usually passed out at funerals (memorial cards, programs, etc.). These usually contain a minimum of the person's name (sometimes full, sometimes nicknames, etc) and date of death. Sometimes they provide much more, anywhere from the date of birth to a full biography.
These documents are typically authored narratives containing undetermined information by an unknown informant possibly providing direct, indirect, and negative evidence, depending on the research question.[2] The exception is if you know who provided the information which would change "undetermined information by an unknown informant." The information could become Primary (firsthand i.e. present at the event), Secondary (secondhand i.e. told of the event), or a combination of both (i.e. present at the death so primary but not at the birth so secondary).
To cite the funeral card (fictional persons):
  • Memorial Card, Tom Wilson Jones, 28 July 2010; A B Tetra Funeral Home, La Paz, Indiana, USA, received by Gloria DeSantis while attending the funeral on 30 July 2010; Privately held by Gigi SanMoritz (daughter of Gloria), Two Egg, Florida, USA.
Note that there is not a location before the first semi-colon. This fictional memorial card did not include a location of death, only the location where the funeral occurred. The death location field should not be updated from this type of source. At most, USA could be placed in the death location with the uncertain button selected.
If you hold the item, you can added a link to your profile with a note that you welcome inquiries about the document, such as:
  • Privately held by [[WikiTree-ID|Gigi SanMoritz]] (daughter of Gloria), Two Egg, Florida, USA. [Inquiry via private message welcome.]
If you have uploaded an image of the item, you can added a link to the image. The link can be added a number of way but the easiest is probably:
  • Privately held by [[WikiTree-ID|Gigi SanMoritz]] (daughter of Gloria), Two Egg, Florida, USA. [https://wikitree.com/wiki/xxxxxxx Image of memorial card].
With those additions, the final citation would look like this (links work but go to non-existent pages):
  • Memorial Card, Tom Wilson Jones, 28 July 2010; A B Tetra Funeral Home, La Paz, Indiana, USA, received by Gloria DeSantis while attending the funeral on 30 July 2010; Privately held by Gigi SanMoritz (daughter of Gloria), Two Egg, Florida, USA. [Inquiry via private message welcome. Image of memorial card.]

Wikipedia Articles (18 Aug 2018)

WikiPedia articles are authored works, created and edited by many volunteers (much like a WikiTree profile). The articles should not be relied upon as the only source for facts about a person and are not considered a "good enough" source for removing the Unsourced template or tracking. At the bottom of a Wikipedia page, there will be a list of sources used to compile the article. Review those sources to see if more complete information can be obtained.
If you do not have time to track down better sources, add citations for Wikipedia and the books to the See Also portion of the profile's biography. DO NOT remove the Unsourced template and DO NOT use the Challenge Tracker to count the profile.
For instance, the Wikipedia article on Tom Jones, a British trade unionist, includes his dates of birth and death. The article includes citations for two books (more authored works), each of which includes page numbers. Those books should be consulted to determine where the information was found. Both the Wikpedia article and the cited books are clues as to where to find better sources.
To cite a Wikipedia article, scroll down to the Tools section of the link column under the globe logo. There you will find a "Cite This Page" link which, when clicked, will open a page with all the information needed to cite the article. Take a moment to read the Note at the top of the page.
All the data needed to create your own citation can be found in the "Bibliographic details" section of the page. There are also pre-formatted versions for various style guides although there is not one specific to the "Evidence Explained" (EE) method. Chicago Style was used as the stepping off point for EE and is fine for our purposes:
Wikipedia contributors, "Tom Jones (trade unionist)," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tom_Jones_(trade_unionist)&oldid=719863452 (accessed August 17, 2018).

Funeral Home Obituaries (11 Aug 2018)

A great place to find sources for profiles with death dates since 2000 (and sometimes earlier) is Funeral Home websites. They often include information about parents, siblings, children, and others.
To avoid copyright issues, those obituaries should not be copy/pasted in to the biography. Instead, a citation to the obituary should be used. Key information can be abstracted in to a citation that looks like this:
Funeral Home Name, (Location), "[URL of obituary Name (publication or death date)]," (funeral home URL : accessed Date). {{Blue|[abstracted info]}}
When filled in, it would look something like this obituary found on a local funeral homes website:
Page Theus Funeral Home, (Leesburg, Florida, USA), "[https://www.pagetheusfuneralhome.com/obituaries/Jerry-Wilson-Smith-3194/#!/Obituary Jerry Wilson Smith] (22 December 2009)," (https://www.pagetheusfuneralhome.com/obituaries : accessed 10 August 2018). {{Blue|[Jerry W. Smith, died 22 December 2009, age 66, born 1 April 1913 in Blackford County, IN [Indiana, USA], parents "late William and Mary Smith," US Navy, moved to Leesburg 1951 with brother Gerald, survivors one son, one grandson, and six grandchildren as well as a long term care giver, died before him: parents, wife Louise, grandson Monty Smith. Page-Theus Funeral Home, burial in Hillcrest Memorial Gardens [Leesburg, Florida, USA]}}
When the bio is previewed or saved, that citation will look like:
Page Theus Funeral Home, (Leesburg, Florida, USA), "Jerry Wilson Smith (22 December 2009)," (https://www.pagetheusfuneralhome.com/obituaries : accessed 10 August 2018). [Jerry W. Smith, died 22 December 2009, age 66, born 1 April 1913 in Blackford County, IN [Indiana, USA], parents "late William and Mary Smith," US Navy, moved to Leesburg 1951 with brother Gerald, survivors one son, one grandson, and six grandchildren as well as a long term care giver, died before him: parents, wife Louise, grandson Monty Smith. Page-Theus Funeral Home, burial in Hillcrest Memorial Gardens [Leesburg, Florida, USA.]]
If you worry that the obituary link will no longer work at some point in the future, you can try adding it to the Wayback Machine at Archive.org using the "Save Page Now" feature. Sometimes that will work, sometimes it won't. It all depends on how the Funeral Home has their website designed.
If it does work, a copy as of the date you save it, will always be available if the funeral home link goes down. If it doesn't, the key things found in the obituary have been preserved at WikiTree for others to use in reconstructing one branch of the Smith family tree.

Census Records (4 Aug 2018)

Each census provides different data and has a different citation but they all have some things in common. At a minimum, they provide a time period, a location and a person's name. All of those things should be included in the citation you create. In addition, where you find the census should be identified.
Here are some examples of the minimum which should be included for a census citation. The majority of the information in these examples are as provided by the website:
  • For Ancestry records, the items in Blue were found by by clicking the Left Arrow in the button bar on the right side of the image screen, then selecting the "Source" option. The name, shown in Red, was found in the heading beside the name of the database. The website name, URL, and access date in Green are based on when and where the data was found.
    • Year: 1871; Census Place: York, York East, Ontario; Roll: C-9968; Page: 16; Family No: 52; for Arthur Hogg; Ancestry.com (https://ancestry.com : accessed 2 August 2018)
  • For FamilySearch records, the citation is located on the record screen which is accessed by clicking the paper icon in the "View" column. In the right column, click the down arrow beside "Document Information." Copy the paragraph below "Citing this Record." The word and date in red was added to indicate when the source was found. The other date was part of the copied citation and left in case it has meaning to someone at FamilySearch.
    • "Canada Census, 1871," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M4Q1-PNH : 11 March 2018, accessed 2 August 2018), Arthur Hogg in household of Harriet Hogg, York, East York, Ontario, Canada; citing p. 17, line 15; Library and Archives Canada film number C-9968, Public Archives, Ottawa, Ontario; FHL microfilm 4,396,618.
The image of that census is on the Ancestry website. By looking at the actual image, it was determined that BOTH default citations are wrong, not in formatting but in content. Please review the images, if they are available, and adjust the citations as needed.
  • Changed the page and family number to that show in the image. Added a link to the image.
  • Moved the head of household information to a discursive note and added information about individuals missed in the index. At the end of the discursive note, adding four tildes (~) will add a time stamp indicating who did the analysis and when. The conversion happens when the changes are saved. It does not appear when previewing.
    • "Canada Census, 1871," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M4Q1-PNH : 11 March 2018, accessed 2 August 2018), Arthur Hogg, York, East York, Ontario, Canada; citing p. 17, line 15; Library and Archives Canada film number C-9968, Public Archives, Ottawa, Ontario; FHL microfilm 4,396,618. [Review of the image at Ancestry shows that the head of household was Elizabeth Hogg and a total of seven people were enumerated rather than the four who are indexed. Missing from the index are Elizabeth (21), Alice (16), ?[N?]icholson (19[sic]). WikiTree-ID time, date (time zone)]
While FamilySearch usually makes adding citations easy, sometimes the citation needs a little work. The 1860 US Federal Census is a case in point. The default citation looks like this:
Notice that the enumeration location is completely missing. The information is on the record, so please take a minute to add it to the citations you will place on profiles. The revised citation should look something like this:
  • "United States Census, 1860", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MHR3-L8D : 13 December 2017 : accessed 2 August 2018), Willis Briggs, household 2179, page 243, Sherman, Fairfield, Connecticut, United States.

FindAGrave (28 Jul 2018)

FindAGrave.com provides a citation on every memorial page. It can be found by clicking the "view source" link beside the memorial page number in the heading. A single click on the citation will copy the entire paragraph. That paragraph can be pasted in the edit box of a biography. By default, it will look like this:
Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 26 July 2018), memorial page for Abraham Lincoln (12 Feb 1809–15 Apr 1865), Find A Grave Memorial no. 7376, citing National Museum of Health and Medicine, Washington, District of Columbia, District Of Columbia, USA ; Maintained by Find A Grave .
A couple of edits are recommended. First, change the words in red above to those below to create a link to the specific memorial page at FindAGrave. Second, remove the redundant space before the period at the very end. The result will look like this in the edit box:
Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 26 July 2018), memorial page for Abraham Lincoln (12 Feb 1809–15 Apr 1865), {{FindAGrave|7376}}, citing National Museum of Health and Medicine, Washington, District of Columbia, District Of Columbia, USA ; Maintained by Find A Grave.
When you preview the biography and/or save the changes, the citation will look like this:
Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 26 July 2018), memorial page for Abraham Lincoln (12 Feb 1809–15 Apr 1865), Find A Grave: Memorial #7376, citing National Museum of Health and Medicine, Washington, District of Columbia, District Of Columbia, USA ; Maintained by Find A Grave.
The FindAGrave template is used to make inevitable link format changes easy to manage. With one change by the team in the background, all pages will be updated. Review the FindAGrave help page for a full explanation of the template and how to properly cite a memorial page for someone other than the subject of the profile. For example, if a parent's memorial page includes a transcription of an obituary that names the subject of the profile. If the "sameas=no" parameter is not used, the profile will appear on the following week's suggestion reports.
Note: Capitalization is critical for the FindAGrave template
  1. ↑ Google.com, search result for "definition ephemera," accessed 24 August 2018.
  2. ↑ Mills, Elizabeth Shown, Evidence Explained, "Evidence Analysis - A Research Process Map (Fig 1), 2015, 3rd edition, Kindle version, image 5.




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Categories: Sourcerers Project