England Orphan Trail: Citing Sources behind a Paywall

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England Project | England Orphaned Profiles Team | England Project Orphan Trail One | England Orphan Trail Resources 1700-1837 | England Orphan Trail: Citing Sources behind a Paywall

Sources for older profiles can be less accessible. You may find that you can only find a source you need on a subscription site such as Ancestry or Find My Past.

Unfortunately, those without a subscription will not be able to view the source to verify the information, although there is a way to share a free to view image for Ancestry records shown below.

For all subscription site sources, transcribe as much information from the record as possible, and create a citation with sufficient information to enable the source to be found again. Web pages can disappear.

To refresh yourself with what should be included in a citation refer back to England Orphan Trail: Citation templates.

Ancestry

If you find a source on Ancestry which has an Image, there is an easy way to share a "free to view" image of it (and its associted catalogued record), so that those without a subscription can view the image (and record). Ancestry's help page can be found here; Sharing an Ancestry® Record and more information can be found here; WikiTree help: Links to Ancestry.

Although the Ancestry free links generated seem to be stable as of July 2022, it is always a good idea to transcribe as much information as you can for sources that are hidden behind a paywall in case the link becomes inactive.

There are four key steps involved in creating an "Ancestry Sharing Link". You need to;

• Step 1) Generate the information required to create the Image Sharing link
• Step 2) Generate the information required to create the Record Sharing link
• Step 3) Generate the information required to source the citation
• Step 4) Put it all together to create your citation

Note: if a record does not have an accompanying Image then the Share link described below will not appear in the record.

Step 1) Generating the information required to create the Image Sharing link

Go to the record for the Source image you wish to share. This example uses the record for: Samuel Stammers in the London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1936

On this page you will see the Save, Print and Share buttons, located top right-hand side of the record page.

Ancestry results page showing sharing options

Click on the Share button and a pop-up window will appear, as in the image below.

Pop-up box containing sharing link

... copy the link in the box. This is your sharing link.

Copy and paste the link, from the pop-up box above, into your text edit box for the profile you are sourcing - you need some of the number sequences contained in it to contribute to your citation. These number sequences will generate the Image sharing link.

This is what the link looks like:
https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/27301921?h=c7ae15

Now, using the numbers generated using the sharing button, extract them, and create a link which looks like this;

{{Ancestry Sharing|27301921|c7ae15}}

Keep this but you can delete the rest of the link.

Step 2) Generating the information required to create the Record Sharing link

We now need a link to the Record which the Image is attached to.

Now copy and paste the URL of the record into your text edit box for the profile you are sourcing - you need some of the number sequences contained in it to contribute to your citation. These number squences will generate the Record sharing link.

This is what this link looks like:
https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/3069046:1623?tid=&pid=&queryId=729023a8bec6983240426bf3902a532e&_phsrc=uBp2&_phstart=successSource

Now, using the numbers generated from the URL, extract them, reverse the order, and create a link which looks like this;

{{Ancestry Record|1623|3069046}}

Keep this but you can delete the rest of the link.

Note: occasionally the numbers do not need to be reversed - if the link you generate does not work, try keeping the numbers in their original order and failing that, refer to your Trailblazer.

Step 3) Generating the information required to source the citation

We now need the information from the record, and Image if there is anything additional revealed in it. Record that information from the record and image in the text edit box for the profile you are sourcing. Also add the source information to create the citation for the source, remembering the W's, Who, What, Where (where within if applicable) and When.

You can find the source information on the record page just below the thumbnail of the image, as shown below. Don't forget to add anything additional revealead from the image in case the link ceases to work in future.

Citation information on Ancestry page

You need to copy the original source information and where you can find the original document.

Often Ancestry just states which database the record is from - you can add valuable information by putting the exact church (St Mary, Stoke Newington, Hackney in this case)

Step 4) Putting it all together to create your citation

Using the 3 pieces of information generated above, organise it so it appears as follows. Your citation may look like this in edit mode:

<ref>"London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1936" [database on-line]. Ancestry.com. Entry for Samuel Stammers marriage to Charlotte Grey on 7 Jul 1805 in St Mary, Stoke Newington, Hackney, England (accessed [insert date]); citing London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; Reference Number: P94/MRY/012 {{Ancestry Sharing|27301921|c7ae15}} {{Ancestry Record|1623|3069046}}</ref>.

The actual citation for this example is shown in the Source section below.^[1] You can see what is generated by clicking on the Ancestry Sharing link (Image) and the Ancestry Record link (Record).

Find My Past

Unfortunately, FindMyPast does not have a free to share option for the records it holds, so you will need to transcribe and create a citation for the source. Below is a screenshot of a typical transcription record page from FindMyPast.
As you can see the information relating to the source is included in the transcription record page, If there is an image to view, as in this example, view the image and transcribe as much as you can from the source. If there is no image you will have to use what information is available on the transcription record page.

So your citation in edit mode may look something like this:

<ref>Walter, son of Richard Acton, baptised 16 May 1615, Bridgnorth, St Leonard, Anglican Church. Citing: findmypast.co.uk "Shropshire Baptisms 1556-1697" Archive reference: P40/A/1/1. Page: 136.[https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=GBPRS%2FSHROP%2FBAP%2F913926 requires subscription] accessed (date)</ref>

Sources

1. ↑ "London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1936" [database on-line]. Ancestry.com. Entry for Samuel Stammers marriage to Charlotte Grey on 7 Jul 1805 in St Mary, Stoke Newington, Hackney, England (accessed [insert date]); citing London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; Reference Number: P94/MRY/012 Ancestry Sharing Link Ancestry Record 1623 #3069046