How do I inline cite <ref></ref> a fact with multiple references?

Question

I am starting to see multiple sources that show the same fact for my grand and great grand parents, e.g. birth year from birth certificate and several federal censuses.

Chicago style says to break up footnotes with a semicolon (1. xxxx; yyyy) but that only shows both citations in one line. Separating the references with a comma works also (<ref>1</ref>,<ref>2</ref>) and also accommodates the multiple use of a single reference.

Any ideas or insight is appreciated.

Comments

If you have a birth certificate, that should definitely be with the birth statement.  The year from census is not an exact source because it is calculated based on the given age.  1900 census is different because that one has month and year born, not age, so that can be used as birth source.  I think the other census shouldn't be entered with birth, unless you have no birth source.

Answer 1

Hello Straus.

By using <ref>1</ref>,<ref>2</ref>,<ref>3</ref>, ...

You get

... fact^{[1],[2],[3], ...}

If you use no commas: <ref>1</ref><ref>2</ref><ref>3</ref> ...

You get

... fact^{[1][2][3] ...}

(IMHO, "no commas" looks better)

Comments

I like to use carriage returns between them and a newline for both parts of the ref which looks especially nice in edit. All comes down to personal preference I suppose.

Fact.(newline)<ref>(newline)Source 1(newline)</ref>(newline)<ref>(newline)Source 2(newline)</ref>(newline) etc.

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Ron, you can put them on separate lines, BUT if any formatting was put on the initial line, such as colons to indent it. asterisks, number sign, etc, the supplemental 'references' will not be shown one after the other on the line they are related to.

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Durn it; Thanks for the heads up!

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I daisy chain my sources downwards so it's easy to read in edit mode. It's the only way I can work. I f you use the preview button frequently, you'll soon get used to what does and doesn't work.

John Smith was born in 1843 in London, England.
<ref>
citation 1
</ref><ref>
citation 2
</ref><ref>
citation 3
</ref>

This works well but for indented stuff you need to start on the same line that the stated piece of info ends, thus:

:John Smith
:Birth Year: 1843
:Birthplace: London, England. <ref>
citation 1
</ref><ref>
citation 2
</ref>

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I wonder if this type of formatting will generate the new 872 Suggestion.

Explanation of 872 Suggestion  - reading comments Ales stated that the 'inline references shouldn't be in multiple lines.'