{"id":9824,"date":"2020-03-22T14:39:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-22T14:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/?p=9824"},"modified":"2020-03-22T14:39:03","modified_gmt":"2020-03-22T14:39:03","slug":"we-can-cite-without-all-that-knowledge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/?p=9824","title":{"rendered":"We Can Cite Without All that Knowledge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I read a blog post about citing research process and sources supposedly geared towards a beginner but really seemed to be directed towards a genealogist with quite a bit of experience. The post seemed to miss a key point:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>we don&#8217;t always know all that stuff<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>I understand if I say the will of Barbara Haase in Hancock County, Illinois, mentions her deceased daughter Francis Trautvetter, I need to be clear what I mean by &#8220;will&#8221; and I need to cite clear what version of the will that I used. But someone whose travels into genealogy has just started won&#8217;t be aware of all the possible iterations of Barbara&#8217;s will there are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>the paper original in the courthouse<\/li><li>a microfilm copy of that original paper <\/li><li>a digital image of that microfilm copy of the original paper&#8211;either on <em>Ancestry.com<\/em> or <em>FamilySearch<\/em><\/li><li>the record copy of the will written in the county&#8217;s will record book<\/li><li>the microfilm copy of that will record copy<\/li><li>a digital image of that microfilm copy of the will record book<\/li><li>a reference to the will&#8217;s mention of Frances in an original paper petition by the executor filed at the courthouse<\/li><li>a microfilm copy of that petition<\/li><li>a digital image of the microfilm copy of that petition, either at <em>FamilySearch <\/em>or at <em>Ancestry.com<\/em><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>If I&#8217;ve not researched too much in a certain area, I may not be aware of all the various formats in which local records can be accessed. While I should learn as much about the records as possible, it&#8217;s not necessary to know all those details to create a citation. You can be clear about how you accessed something without knowing all the possible places the information could be available. The essence of citation (particularly for local records) is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>What is this record?<\/li><li>When was it created?<\/li><li>When was it recorded?<\/li><li>Where was it recorded?<\/li><li>Who originally created this record?<\/li><li>In what format was it originally created?<\/li><li>How did this record get to me (how did I access it) and in what format did I access it?<\/li><li>When did I access it?<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>There may be times when a few of these questions can&#8217;t be answered&#8211;especially the exact day for the creation and recording. But if you have these answers you&#8217;re on your way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That&#8217;s true even if the punctuation in your citation isn&#8217;t perfect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I read a blog post about citing research process and sources supposedly geared towards a beginner but really seemed to be directed towards a genealogist with quite a bit of experience. The post seemed to miss a key point: we don&#8217;t always know all that stuff I understand if I say the will of Barbara [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9824\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}