Eric Miller's Family Tree

Source: z Source Title Formats

Description

Type Value
Source Title z Source Title Formats
Abbreviation
Authority
Author
Place
Publication
Reference Number
Reference Type

Notes

Source Title Formats

Official Records
Type – Year, Document Name, Location: Who
Examples:
Birth – 1870, Register of Birth, Wirt County, West Virginia: George Washington Bennington
Death – 1945, Index and Register of Death, Roane County, West Virginia: Bush-Bell
Residence – 1860, US Census, Clarksville, Allegany County, New York: Bourne Family
Military – 1942, U.S. World War II Draft Registration Cards: Warren Van Bourne

Non-Official Records
Story – 1854, Ohio Newspaper Article: Eicher Family Emigration to Stone Creek
Info – 8/31/2011, Email from Connie Bourne (White) to Eric Miller: Bourne Family
Family Tree – 2011(date made or found), PDF “Descendants of Henry and Sarah Harris Bennington”
Bible – Bennington Family Bible
Contact - Janna Bennington Larson

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Birth & Death Certificates
Birth - 2011, John Smith, Canton, Stark County, Ohio

Birth & Death Index
Death – 2012, Ohio Death Certificate Index, Canton, Stark County, Ohio, page 283

Census Record
1920 US census, Brookline, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Enumeration District [ED] 174, sheet 8

Family Group Sheet
Family Group Sheet, William M. Crisp - Lucy Cherry, 3 Feb 2001 by Jane Doe

Letter/email
Letter from Patrick Owens to Kimberly Thomas Powell, 9 Jan 1998

Email from Patrick Owens to Kimberly Thomas Powell, 9 Jan 1998, 3:45 PM

Marriage License or Certificate
Marriage – 2003, George Frederick Powell and Rosina Jane Powell, Canton, Stark County, Ohio

Newspaper Clipping
Web Site

Rule One - Follow the Formula - While there is no scientific formula for citing every type of source, a good rule of thumb is to work from general to specific:
Author - the one who authored the book, provided the interview, or wrote the letter
Title - if it is an article, then the title of the article, followed by the title of the periodical
Publication Details
place of publication, name of publisher and date of publication, written in parentheses (Place: Publisher, Date)
volume, issue and page numbers for periodicals
series and roll or item number for microfilm
Where You Found It - repository name and location, Web site name and URL, cemetery name and location, etc.
Specific Details - page number, entry number and date, date you viewed a Web site, etc.
Rule Two: Cite What You See - Whenever in your genealogical research you use a derivative source instead of the real thing, you must take care to cite the index, database or book that you used, and NOT the actual source from which the derivative source was created. This is because derivative sources are several steps removed from the original, opening up the door for errors, including:
handwriting interpretation errors
microfilm viewing errors (out of focus, back side bleeding through, etc.)
transcription errors (skipping lines, transposing numbers, etc.)
typing errors, etc.
Even if a fellow researcher tells you that they found such and such a date in a marriage record, you should cite the researcher as the source of information (noting as well where they found the information). You can only accurately cite the marriage record if you have viewed it for yourself.

Article (Journal or Periodical)
Citations for periodicals should include the month/year or season, rather than issue number where possible.
Willis H. White, "Using Uncommon Sources to Illuminate Family History: a Long Island Tuthill Example." National Genealogical Society Quarterly 91 (March 2003), 15-18.
Bible Record
Citations for information found in a family bible should always include the information on publication and its provenance (names and dates for people who have owned the bible)
1. Family data, Dempsey Owens Family Bible, The Holy Bible (American Bible Society, New York 1853); original owned in 2001 by William L. Owens (put mailing address here). The Dempsey Owens Family Bible passed from Dempsey to his son James Turner Owens, to his son Dempsey Raymond Owens, to his son William L. Owens.
Birth & Death Certificates
When citing a birth or death record, record 1) type of record and name(s) of the individual(s), 2) the file or certificate number (or book and page) and 3) name and location of the office in which it is filed (or the repository in which the copy was found - e.g. archives).
1. Certified transcription of birth certificate for Ernest Rene Ollivon, Act no. 7145 (1989), Maison Maire, Crespières, Yvelines, France.
2. Henrietta Crisp, birth certificate [long form] no. 124-83-001153 (1983), North Carolina Division of Health Services - Vital Records Branch, Raleigh.
3. Elmer Koth entry, Gladwin County Deaths, Liber 2: 312, no 96, County Clerk's Office, Gladwin, Michigan.
From an online index:
4. Ohio Death Certificate Index 1913-1937, The Ohio Historical Society, online , Death certificate entry for Eveline Powell downloaded 12 March 2001.
From a FHL microfilm:
5. Yvonne Lemarie entry, Crespières naissances, mariages, déecs 1893-1899, microfilm no. 2067622 Item 6, frame 58, Family History Library [FHL], Salt Lake City, Utah.
Book
Published sources, including books, should list author (or compiler or editor) first, followed by the title, publisher, publication place and date, and page numbers. List multiple authors in the same order as shown on the title page unless there are more than three authors, in which case, include only the first author followed by et al. Citations for one volume of a multivolume work should include the number of the volume used.
Margaret M. Hoffman, compiler, The Granville District of North Carolina, 1748-1763, 5 volumes (Weldon, North Carolina: Roanoke News Company, 1986), 1:25, no.238.
*The number in this example, indicates a specific numbered entry on the page.
Census Record
While it is tempting to abbreviate many items in a census citation, especially state name and county designations, it is best to spell out all words in the first citation to a particular census. Abbreviations which seem standard to you (e.g. Co. for county), may not be recognized by all researchers.
1920 U.S. census, population schedule, Brookline, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Enumeration District [ED] 174, sheet 8, dwelling 110, family 172, Frederick A. Kerry household; National Archives microfilm publication T625, roll 721; digital image, Ancestry.com, http://www.ancestry.com (accessed 28 July 2004).
Family Group Sheet
When you use data which has been received from others, you should always document the data as you receive it and not use the original sources cited by the other researcher. You haven't personally checked these resources, therefore they are not your source.
1. Jane Doe, "William M. Crisp - Lucy Cherry family group sheet," supplied 2 February 2001 by Doe (put mailing address here).
Interview
Be sure to document who you interviewed and when, as well as who is in possession of the interview records (transcripts, tape recordings, etc.)
1. Interview with Charles Bishop Koth (interviewees address here), by Kimberly Thomas Powell, 7 August 1999. Transcript held in 2001 by Powell (put mailing address here). [You can include an annotation or personal comment here.]
Letter
It is much more accurate to quote a specific letter as a source, rather than just citing the individual who wrote the letter as your source.
1. Letter from Patrick Owens (put mailing address here) to Kimberly Thomas Powell, 9 January 1998; held in 2001 by Powell (put mailing address here). [You can include an annotation or personal comment here.]
Marriage License or Certificate
Marriage records follow the same general format as birth and death records.
1. Marriage license and certificate for Dempsey Owens and Lydia Ann Everett, Edgecombe County Marriage Book 2:36, County Clerk's Office, Tarboro, North Carolina.
2. George Frederick Powell and Rosina Jane Powell, Bristol Marriage Register 1:157, Bristol Register Office, Bristol, Glouchestershire, England.
Newspaper Clipping (Marriage Announcement, Obituary, etc.)
Be sure to include the name of the newspaper, the place and date of publication, the page and column number.
1. Henry Charles Koth - Mary Elizabeth Ihly marriage announcement, Southern Baptist newspaper, Charleston, South Carolina, 16 June, 1860, page 8, column 1.
Web Site
This general citation format applies to information received from Internet databases as well as online transcriptions and indexes (i.e. if you find a cemetery transcription on the Internet, you would enter it as a Web site source. You would not include the cemetery as your source unless you had visited personally).
1. Wuerttemberg Emigration Index, Ancestry.com, online , Koth data downloaded 12 January 2000.