Should I be adding technical references to single source profiles?

Question

I was taking a look at the Sources Style Guide.  My question is whether I should be putting all those widgets in there when I use a single source, which is by subscription only, that being the Drouin collection.  I have on-line access to it.  I sometimes list everything I can find on a person in that database, which can get quite extensive.  The source I quote regularly is  Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1997.

Comments

Danielle, I looked at a couple of your edits and found that you have not been adding the <references/> line after the == Sources == line. without the <references/> line the footnoted sources will not show in the profile. As for using the source multiple times (for each fact) the way to do this is described here http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Sources_Style_Guide with the following information.

Repeated use of a source

Here's how to use the same source citation multiple times.

The first time you use it, include a "name" inside the ref tag, like this:

<ref name="birth certificate">Birth Certificate of George Russell Beebe, Registration 398-5554-428 (1920), Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services - Bureau of Vital Records, Personal copy in the files of [[Beebe-655|Barbara Beebe]]</ref>

In all following references you can just use this:

<ref name="birth certificate" />

Done this way, all subsequent footnotes for this same source will point to the same footnote at the bottom of the page.

Answer 1

There are many people here who are familiar with the Drouin collection. (Unfortunately, I am not one of them)

Not being familiar with the organization of the collection in question I'll answer more generally: typically, within a collection there are many individual sources - the citation should as best as possible help a user find a specific record within a collection (this varies based on how the collection itself is organized, but a specific microfilm number and image, a page number) - simply saying you found the information in a given collection doesn't generally help a future researcher to find the same information - it would be like simply citing "Wikitree" instead of citing a specific profile on Wikitree.

Hopefully someone more familiar with the Drouin Collection can interject with an answer in regards of that specific collection.

If lots of information comes from one record in the collection you will want to use the code mentioned in the source style guide for repeated references

Answer 2

As far as using that as a source and add whatever you can find there I say it is OK. But as Rob states it really does not tell anyone anything about how to find the information even if you are a paying member of that site.  Keep it but try to find the information somewhere else, on a free site if possible, and add other sources whenever you can. The ideal would be 3 sources for each fact, but that is almost never possible.

Comments

The Drouin collection is a collection of church records, quite extensive.  I know that places like Ancestry.com have access to it, as when you look at some of the GEDCOM imports that started with Ancestry, lots of records are quoted as from Drouin collection.  Drouin Institute uses the LaFrance database, and the photographs of the original records are tied into the database, except for the odd one that is missing or illegible.  ALL my data, unless otherwise noted, comes from there.  The only numbering system is that of the database, which is subject to change.  Most of my profiles are my own original research through use of that database.  I am quite painstaking in my research, and resort to other sources only when something is bogged down or it leads outside of Quebec.  PRDH is another good source that some folks use, and it too is subscription based.  For that matter, so is Ancestry.  The only decent free source for the older profiles is Fichier Origine, but that is quite limited, dealing only with those who immigrated to this country.  Lots of people use NosOrigines, but that is not an original source, but rather a collation of other sources, in which I have found multiple errors, so I trust it minimally.

My question remains though, do I really need to put in a reference to each individual fact in a profile?  When I list all the children of a couple, birth, death, marriage, on top of the parents' own data, this can get outrageously lengthy.

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Danielle, Do you have to source each fact individually, No, but you should according to the style guide. The numbers I am referring to are footnote numbers and they are generated by WikiTree when you add the same source the way the style guide tells you to.  The source is only displayed once but is referenced multiple times in the profile. If you look at my own personal profile it will show you the result of using the source multiple times inside the biography section and the displayed result is not as cluttered as it looks when you are editing.

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I would not list children and their data in the bio of one or both of the parents. The remaining birth, death, and marriage for the single person in the profile, though, should be individually sourced so that each fact can be accessed with minimal clicks. Whether the repository is subscription or free should not matter (if I use Jetté somebody wanting to check the source would have to buy the book or go to the library).

I have a similar situation with most of my early records being in one on-line archive. I have a template listing the name of the archive followed by the parish, church book number, url for that book, page and image number. I paste that into my inline references, changing only the pertinent parts (parish, book number, url, page and image number).

Answer 3

Since your source book is only available by subscription, make reference to it in the reference note section of your biography or as a "See Also" below your main references.  People interested in the family tree need to know readily available sources, which the book probably lists in its bibliography:  birth certificates tombstones, etc.  This information needs to  be listed in the profile somewhere so that a relative of this person who doesn't have access to the collection can check the information for accuracy.

If the book or collection is available at a library, you can list the library as a repository.  Materials may be available through interlibrary loan.

Comments

hi David,

this question is actually 2 years old.  ;)  I put links to actual acts in the relevant places, while still giving the full data as to date, place, names etc.