FS titles that aren't *really* titles

By smmatteson on Wed, 01/17/2024 - 20:10

Forums

I’m trying to cite an online image at FamilySearch of a Rhode Island Town Record (Birth, Marriage Deaths).

The image in question is: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-6QRW-1W3?i=69&cc=2297208&cat=125060

Building on EE 8.36 Town Records, my proposed source entry is:

Rhode Island, West Greenwich, Town Records, 1743 – 1905, Town Clerk’s Office, West Greenwich. FHL microfilm 4,250,580. Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

That seems straight forward enough, except for the “Town Records” since this is a collection of BMD entries.

For the Reference Note:

West Greenwich, Rhode Island, Town Records 1:119, Thomas Matteson birth; digital images, “Title,” FamilySearch, (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-6QRW-1W3?cc=2297208 : accessed 17 Jan 2024). FHL microfilm 4,250,580.

The “Title” is the catch. The catalogue page for that microfilm (https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/125060?availability=Family%20History%20Library) call it “Births, marriages, deaths, 1743 – 1905”. If you search for that title in the catalogue (or even just “West Greenwich”), it doesn’t turn up. The target page of that film [image 3] has this information (West Greenwich, Rhode Island, Town Hall, Marriages and Births, Volume 1, 1743-1760). The citation at the bottom of the page viewing the image is "Rhode Island Town Births and Baptisms Index, 1639-1932", but searching for that leads you somewhere else. To make it even more interesting, image 7 of that series has a hand-written title-like “The Registery [sic] of Births Marriages and Burials in West Greenwich, No. 1”

Any suggestions?

Submitted byEEon Thu, 01/18/2024 - 14:41

smmateson, would you post the image for us to discuss? The link leads only to a notice that we can view that record set only at a FamilySearch center or a FamilySearch affiliate library. For you to post just one image from the set for use as an instructional example would not violate user licenses or the Fair Use Doctrine of copyright law.

If you would post the image and the catalog page you are using for description, then we could work through your questions.

Submitted byEEon Fri, 01/19/2024 - 09:05

Hello, smmatteson. Thanks for supplying the images. You've provided us with a valuable teaching example.

Citing original documents that have been imaged online can definitely be a headache for modern researchers—though we are blessed to have those online images. There are two cardinal rules to remember:

  • We are citing two different entities. In one layer we cite the original record. In another layer, we cite the website (and titled database, if one exists) that delivers the image. Details that describe one entity should not be put into the layer that describes the other entity.
  • FamilySearch catalog data for a roll of film should not be used as a title for a specific register. As noted at EE 2.27, that cataloging data is generic and descriptive. A single roll of film frequently contains multiple items with different individual titles; and the actual title of a specific register or file rarely appears in the cataloging entry.

In this case, you have wisely copied the image near the start of the roll that depicts the actual title of the volume. 

All points considered, an Evidence Style citation (First Reference Note) would be this:

Citing the specific image, as per your draft (which would require a different URL for each entry in that register):

West Greenwich, Rhode Island, “The Registery [sic] of Births, Marriages and Burials in West Greenwich, No. 1,” p. 119, Abraham Matteson family registration showing son Thomas born 1756; imaged at FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-6QRW-1W3?cc=2297208 : accessed 19 January 2024) > Image Group Number (IGN) 4250580 > image ___.

Citing the image group itself, when using many records from this volume:

West Greenwich, Rhode Island, “The Registery [sic] of Births, Marriages and Burials in West Greenwich, No. 1,” p. 119, Abraham Matteson family registration showing son Thomas born 1756; imaged at FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/search/film004250580  : accessed 19 January 2024) > Image Group Number (IGN) 4250580 > image ___.

Citing the image group, a short citation to a different page in the register might then be:

West Greenwich, RI, “The Registery [sic] of Births, Marriages and Burials in West Greenwich, No. 1,” p. 120, Eunice Green, born 1757; imaged, FamilySearch.org > Image Group Number (IGN) 4250580 > image ___.

Your draft is this:

West Greenwich, Rhode Island, Town Records 1:119, Thomas Matteson birth; digital images, “Title,” FamilySearch, (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-6QRW-1W3?cc=2297208 : accessed 17 Jan 2024). FHL microfilm 4,250,580.

The differences are these:

  1. Title of volume: EE (and all other citation guides) would use the actual title.  Yes, the type of record is one that is generically called a ‘town record.” However, that generic label applies also to deeds, probates, and other records maintained by a New England town. There would be a volume 1 for each type of record. Thus, to say “Town Records 1:119” does not identify the specific volume 1 you have used.
  2. Date of entry or birth: Given that the title to the register carries no dates at all, your citation should establish a time frame by including a date for Thomas or his entry. In this case, the registration is a family registration copied into this book, including details of the parental marriage and the births of other children. We don’t know the date this family registration. We don’t even know whether any or all of those events occurred in West Greenwich where we found this registration. Whole-family registrations appear frequently in these registers when a family from elsewhere (note the East Greenwich reference for Abraham) was accepted as residents of a new town. Note also that the first entry in the book is 1743, while your Matteson family registration on p. 119 begins with the 1740 marriage of the husband and wife. In this case, an Evidence Style citation would reference the whole entry.
  3. Database/Collection Title field for your FamilySearch layer.  The FS film that you cite is not part of a named database/collection. Therefore, there is no title to cite here. (As a test of this: go to FamilySearch.org > Search > Records. In the search box for collection titles, type in any of the descriptive words that you’ve copied from cataloging and from the film itself, and you will get no hits for that.) 
  4. “Microfilm No.” vs. “Image Group No.”:  The online images that we use at FamilySearch are not “microfilm.” Microfilm is a physical entity.  FS’s online images may be made from microfilm (in which case they cite the original microfilm), but the microfilm number is not the same as the Image Group Number. In this case the microfilm number for that register is 925978, while the number you cited (4250580) is the Image Group Number. Family Search now asks that we use the term Image Group Number or its initialism IGN, for its digital images.   Also, the FHL “film number” (a term that FS tells me it is phasing out) in your citation should be cited in the same layer in which you cite FamilySearch. It should not be in a separate sentence by itself as though it was an entirely different source.
  5. Citing exact ARK for each page.  If you choose this approach, you will end up with long citations for each additional entry you use from that register. If you are using genealogical software, citing each ARK would lively create a new Master Source for each image. In such cases, Evidence Style would use the URL for the full image group and then specify the image number. This approach also enables us to create subsequent citations to other pages that are actually shortened.

By looking at the pages before and after p.119, a pattern emerges.

The first entry on p.118 seems to be dated 06 Feb 1757.

The first entry on p.120 seems to be dated 08 Feb 1757.

The last entry on p.119 seems to be dated 26 Sep 1756.

It looks like the whole page was probably added around 07 Feb 1757, about 5 months after Thomas' birth.

Submitted byHistory-Hunteron Fri, 01/19/2024 - 15:46

Small question, as I try to get my head around this...

If the DGS and IGN are essentially synonymous and describe the imaged content for an entire physical film, then the film number that is usually present in the first frame of a film (and visible in the imaged film) must essentially represent the "call number" of the physical film. Is this correct?

If the digital images show the full film strip, then the number at the start of the film strip should be the number of the microfilm (the physical item). You can check that number against the microfilm number shown in the catalog link to be sure.

The catalog entry lists Film 925978, the 1st image of the series shows 92597. Not sure about the discrepancy. 
 

Thanks for your guidance! 
My first EE citation is done. ✅ 

I’ll definitely use a master source that covers the whole thing. Many family events listed there. 

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RI 1-037 im.1.jpg

Submitted byHistory-Hunteron Fri, 01/19/2024 - 16:30

The post raises some worrisome questions, as I often need to cite at the image group level. Some films are just an assemblage of imaged documents and so there is no document title page to use in a citation. How can one address this case?

History-Hunter, we cite what we use. If, say, the film depicts images of all the loose papers inside a court-case packet, then

  • Layer 1 would cite them following standard format for that kind of record;
  • Layer 2 would follow the pattern used in the image group citation above—i.e.,

...; imaged at FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/search/film004250580  : accessed 19 January 2024) > Image Group Number (IGN) ___________ > image ___.

In the FamilySearch layer, a title is part of that layer only if we access that record through a titled database. 

This is no change from citing records on FamilySearch microfilm. We've always cited the actual record, then add the fact that it was Family History Library microfilm xxxxxxx, with no title assigned to that microfilm because the microfilm was a collection of images. FHL microfilm was not a titled publication.

Submitted bysmmattesonon Fri, 01/26/2024 - 15:39

So, the next volume in the series has a (slightly) different (internal) title.

Vol 1=  “The Registery [sic] of Births, Marriages and Burials in West Greenwich, No. 1”

Vol 2= “A Book of Registry of Births Marriages and Burials belonging to West Greenwich in the County of Kent in His Majesty’s Colony of Rhode Island in New England, No. 2"

I'm tempted to just roll with the Vol. 2 name, as given, and not worry about the series name not matching perfectly.

Short Citation: West Greenwich, RI, “A Book of Registry of Births Marriages and Burials belonging to West Greenwich in the County of Kent in His Majesty’s Colony of Rhode Island in New England, No. 2,” p. 38, Elisabeth Matteson- George Niles Marriage, 07 Apr 1768; imaged, FamilySearch.org > Image Group Number (IGN) 4250580 > image 130.

A BIGGER PROBLEM: For the records of the parent town, East Greenwich, the  BMD records Vol. 1 on the film has no internal title, no book cover image, the film target page calls it "Births", and the FHL link page calls the series "Births, marriages, deaths vol.1-3 1707-1865".

When you get to BMD Vol. 2 on the film, it has a torn internal title showing “The Registry of Births and D[eaths] in East Greenwich, in the Coun[ty of] Kent, in the Colony of Rhode I[sland], No. 2" and a title, on the rebound book, of "Marriages Births Etc., No. 2, East Greenwich"

1) Does it make sense, in this case, to "copy" the vol. 2 internal title back for vol. 1 or should I just call it “untitled [Births, Marriages, Deaths, East Greenwich, No. 1]”?

2) Is it okay to use this: “The Registry of Births and D[eaths] in East Greenwich, in the Coun[ty of] Kent, in the Colony of Rhode I[sland], No. 2" in the citation?

 

Thanks for your help!

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EG BMD Births V.1 Target_pg im. 3.jpg

smatteson, regarding your "next volume" problem, you wrote:

I'm tempted to just roll with the Vol. 2 name, as given, and not worry about the series name not matching perfectly.

Yes. If a courthouse or townhall volume has a specific title on its cover or its first page, that's what we use.  Series IDs can change as books are reorganized and relocated. What's imprinted or pinned on the book does not change. However, the draft you've offered under the label "Short citation," is actually the full first reference note.

Regarding your "Bigger Problem":

  • If the courthouse or townhall register has a title stamped on its cover, then that's what we cite. The reason is simply logic or practicality. When we go into a townhall or courthouse and search its vault or record office for a specific register (in the U.S. at least) there is rarely any cataloging system or cataloging number on the cover by which a book is located. Instead, we go to the appropriate series and then look at the titles that are stamped on the cover. Only if a book has no cover, do we pull it off the shelf and look inside for specific identification.
  • If we're using online images of a courthouse or townhall register that has a title stamped on its cover, again that's what we cite. We would not cite the provider's cataloging data in our identification of the book. We might, if we want to cover all angles, add a note that the volume's first page identifies it as "A Book of Registry of Births Marriages and Burials belonging to West Greenwich in the County of Kent in His Majesty’s Colony of Rhode Island in New England, No. 2."
  • If we're using online images of a courthouse or townhall register that has NO title stamped on its cover and NO title penned inside, then we create a generic identity for it that has the needed who, what, when, where information. We don't put that generic identity in quotation marks because we're using our own words; we're not quoting a title. If FamilySearch's film target describes the material appropriately, with the needed who, what, when, where information, then those words are a logical descriptor. We may, if we wish, add to those words a bracketed identifier such as [FS target title].

Submitted bysmmattesonon Sun, 01/28/2024 - 10:23

Town record online image with Title on cover (from rebinding) and internal title page  becomes:

Full: West Greenwich, Rhode Island, “Marriages Births Etc., No. 2, West Greenwich”

[the first page identifies volume as ‘A Book of Registry of Births Marriages and Burials belonging to West Greenwich in the County of Kent in His Majesty’s Colony of Rhode Island in New England, No. 2’], p. 38, Elisabeth Matteson- George Niles Marriage, 07 Apr 1768; imaged at FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/search/film004250580  : accessed 25 January 2024) > Image Group Number (IGN) 4250580 > image 130.

Town record online image with no Title on cover and no internal title page but has target Title becomes:

Full: East Greenwich, Rhode Island, Births Marriages Deaths, East Greenwich, No. 1 [FS Target Title: East Greenwich, Births, Vol. 1, 1701-1766], p. 13A, Abraham Matteson- Freelove Phillips Marriage 13 Nov 1740; imaged at FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/search/film004250581  : accessed 25 January 2024) > Image Group Number (IGN) 4250581 > image 130.

Town record online image with no Title on cover but has internal title page (torn) becomes:

Full: East Greenwich, Rhode Island, “The Registry of Births and D[eaths] in East Greenwich, in the Coun[ty of] Kent, in the Colony of Rhode I[sland], No. 2”, p. #, Name Event  XX Date 17XX; imaged at FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/search/film004250581  : accessed 25 January 2024) > Image Group Number (IGN) 4250581 > image XX.