08 April 2013

Shades of Gray and Why We Cite the Site

Most of the National Archives microfilm has been digitized by one of the major genealogical database providers, either Ancestry.com, Fold3.com, Familysearch, Archive.org, among others. When one cites United States National Archives microfilm in the spirit of Evidence Explained, the National Archives and the website where the digital image was obtained is a part of that citation. 

It may seem like it, but website is not included in the citation just to make busy work or create longer citations to make the researcher appear to have done more work. It is because digital images are not created equally. It suggested the date of access be included as the images could be improved after they are initially made and published online.


NARA Microfilm publication M1372, Roll 122 - 01 Mar 1864-30 Apr 1864; digital image, published in  Ancestry.com s "Passport Applications, 1795-1905," 8 April 2013.


NARA Microfilm publication M1372, Roll 122 - 01 Mar 1864-30 Apr 1864; digital image, published on   Fold3.com , 8 April 2013.


Citation reminder: We are a strong believer in citing genealogical source material in the spirit of Evidence ExplainedHowever, we choose not to include properly formatted citations in these blog posts. There's always enough information in the post to create a citation and full citations are included in my how-to newsletter Casefile Clues.