Marriage Certificate from Ireland

By Anonymous on Wed, 03/30/2016 - 20:11

Forums

I just received a marriage certificate from Ireland, which I requested online from the General Record Office, but am a bit at a loss on how to cite the document.  It is a certificate which includes a copy of the original document.  I received a paper copy but a scanned image is attached.

There are basically 2 layers (I think)

I.

  • Who: Registrar's District of Ventry
  • What: Marriage no. 124
  • When: Registered 24 March 1905
  • Where in: John Fitzgerald-Elizabeth Begley, 25 January 1905
  • Where is: General Register Office, Dublin.

II.

  • Who: General Register Office
  • What: Marriage Certificate registration number 1,861,472
  • When: issued 21 March 2016
  • Where is: General Register Office, Dublin, Ireland
  • Where in: John Fitzgerald-Elizabeth Begley, 25 January 1905

Here is what I came up with:

General Register Office, Ireland, Marriage Certificate registration number 1,861,472, issued 21 March 2016, John Fitzgerald-Elizabeth Begley, 25 January 1905; citing Registrar's District of Ventry, Ireland, Marriage no. 124, registered 24 March 1905.

The Certificate Registration number is important, as it corresponds to the Group Registration ID that I found when I searched irishgenealogy.ie.  Btw - this is how I would cite the index entry:

Ireland, Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, "Civil Records," database, IrishGenealogy.ie (http://www.irishgenealogy.ie/en/ : accessed 15 March 2016), entry for John Fitzgerald-Elizabeth Begley (25 January 1905), Group Registration ID (GID) 1,861,472.

 

I'd welcome any thoughts or comments.

 

 

Submitted byEEon Thu, 03/31/2016 - 10:00

Kasmets,

If I understand you correctly, you are citing two different things:

  1. a certificate with embedded image that has to be ordered from a certain repository.
  2. a database entry, at a website, that contains pieces of data extracted from the certificate.

Because these are two separate entities, they require separate citations. It's not a matter of one citation have multiple layers. If you wish to cite the image of the original, you would cite no. 1. If you wish to cite the details in the database for some reason, you will cite no. 2.

EE 9.48 has samples for both. English records are used there, but the pattern is the same. In citing the official  certificate with an imaged original, you'll note a few differences between it and your draft.

In citing the database entry, you have all the elements in logical order, but your specific details from the database should include the registrar's district and registration and/or marriage date(s) so the entry can be located in that database. I also noticed, when I used the database to locate the entry of your interest, that the URL for that entry appears to be a dedicated one—rather than a dynamic URL that changes with each entry. http://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/details-civil/3231ba6802500.   When I used that URL on a different device, with a different browser, it led me exactly to the entry of your interest. Given that it is relatively short, you might want to include it in the citation rather than the base URL for the home page. Either way is acceptable, but the more-specific URL shortcuts the access.

Submitted bykasmetson Thu, 03/31/2016 - 10:52

Thank you EE!

I realize I muddied the water by adding that last citation for the index.   I am looking now at EE9.48 to come up with a better citation for the certificate I received.  If I understand correctly, there is no need for me to include the date when this certificate was issued to me, or the date the marriage was originally registered, because neither one helps others retrieve the same document.  

So my citation for the certificate would look like this:

Ireland, marriage certificate for John Fitzgerald-Elizabeth Begley, married 25 January 1905; citing group registration ID 1,861,472, Registrar's District of Ventry; General Register Office, Dublin.

And the citation for the index:

Ireland, Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, "Civil Records," database, IrishGenealogy.ie (http://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/details-civil/3231ba6802500 : accessed 15 March 2016), entry for John Fitzgerald-Elizabeth Begley (25 January 1905), Registrar's District of Ventry, Group Registration ID (GID) 1,861,472.

 

I hope I got it

Submitted byEEon Fri, 04/01/2016 - 12:56

Kristine, the one suggestion I would add for the original document also answers one of your questions. Quoting from 9.48:

"If the certificate cites the year and quarter in which the event was registered, you should include that. Both pieces of data may be needed to relocate the registration, because not all registrations occurred promptly."

Even if that date of registration is not needed to relocate the document, it's information we would want to maintain in our research notes because it can bear upon our evaluation of a situation or a document.

As for whether you "need" to cite the date you received the certificate, it's not essential and would likely be excised by any editor if you used it as part of a citation for a manuscript that you submit for publication. However, in your own research notes, you can include anything you want to include that you feel might help you later.