How to reference a good source on Ancestry [closed]

+6 votes
368 views

Someone recently pointed this out to me as a way to reference a real source on Ancestry, not a family tree, so that all of us can see it. Now if I could just remember her name to thank her!!!!

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/sharing/15180314?h=0f2965

closed with the note: Better citation given
in Genealogy Help by Judy Bramlage G2G6 Pilot (208k points)
closed by Judy Bramlage
If you look at the example I gave, you will see it is not a record easily found elsewhere like a census record.

I agree that a census record can easily be cited to FamilySearch or even easier to NARA itself, if you have a chance to go there.
I've noticed that Ancestry links change all the time & Family Search doesn't seem to have as many census records. After I read that we are to share as much Ancestry info as possible, along with knowing that if I use Ancestry info they expect their source to be used - not just the town, state, roll number etc., I started doing my sources like this: Harrelson-44. I consider myself new & would like any feedback...even criticism.

2 Answers

+7 votes

This way just complicates things. Evidence Explained (the WikiTree preferred citation form) covers this and gives an example of:

   “1790 United States Federal Census,” database, Ancestry.com  (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 4 September 2014), entry for Mary Odam, Beaufort, South Carolina; citing National Archives microfilm publication M637, roll 11.

Who looked at the data isn't relevant. You just want to say where it was found. Copying the data into yet another part of Ancestry also isn't really useful. The EE citation (based on Chicago Manual of Style) gives all the info you need to find it in other places as well as Ancestry.

by Doug McCallum G2G6 Pilot (525k points)

Doug, I do it like this (using the {{Ancestry Record}} template provides a link to the record so people with an account don't have to search):

1870 U.S. census, population schedules. NARA microfilm publication M593, 1,761 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.; database and digital images, "1870 United States Federal Census," Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009 {{Ancestry Record|7163|3956786}}: accessed 25 December 2018; citing Year: 1870; Census Place: Reading Ward 6, Berks, Pennsylvania; Roll: M593_1307; Page: 44B; Family History Library Film: 552806.

Do you think that is just as good? I think it provides more than enough information for anyone to find the appropriate record from any repository. I think it is pretty close to complying with the Chicago style too. Those numbers are the dbid and the h= number. I use an excel spreadsheet to save all my commonly used sources so I can copy/paste.

Lucy, I think what you do is valid and provides a bit of extra info that is likely to not end up with broken links. The guidelines aren't rigid so this is much better than a URL to a website and meets all the requirements of a good citation.
Doug and Lucy,

I think you are missing my point. For census records that can be found on free sites or at NARA, I believe those should be the first choice in sourcing.

But look above. The example is not a census record, but rather a record that cannot be easily found outside Ancestry.

Judy
Not missing your point, just disagreeing that it is a better solution than giving the true source instead of disassociating it from where it was found. Granted the original database is named although its location is not given and the fact that it was copied from Ancestry is also not present. Perhaps if proper source citation was used on the shared page it would be acceptable. Further, what happens if Ancestry changes policy and locks those shared pages down behind the paywall. You aren't any better off if that happens. A link isn't a proper source citation.

Finally, the same data, although not the same image, for the example, is available at FamilySearch, FindMyPast, FreeBMD.org.uk and parishregister.co.uk I haven't looked any further than those but found it on my first 4 tries. I don't have a UK membership in FindMyPast so haven't looked at the image there and ParishRegister.co.uk does charge.
Doug,     I yield. I agree.   Judy
+6 votes

Your citation should provide as much information as you have regarding the actual source of the document. In the example, that would include Somerset, England, Marriage Registers, Bonds and Allegations, 1754-1914 and the URL https://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=60858 that is embedded in that link. (When I copied that citation into G2G, the URL was included, but the URL isn't included when you copy hyperlinked text into a Wikitree profile, so the URL needs to be provided separately.) Also identify the source where you got the record  (in this instance, "Uploaded to Ancestry.com at https://www.ancestry.co.uk/sharing/15180314?h=0f2965 by Hilary Gadsby on [insert date if you can find it]."). And describe the specific record as best you can (for example, "Marriage record of John Gingell and Hannah Garland, parish of Dundry, Somerset, 18 February 1844").

And make sure the biography describes all the details you can glean from the record (ages of groom and bride, names of their fathers, occupations of the groom and the fathers, description of groom as bachelor and bride as spinster, etc.). As you know, that's a gold mine of genealogical data!

by Ellen Smith G2G Astronaut (1.5m points)

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