Citing online image of a Land Grant

By Anonymous on Sun, 07/19/2015 - 16:12

Forums

I just recently discovered EE and I love it! I am currently trying to update all my citations, but I have one that is stumping me. I recenly found a land grant with an online image of the documents at the Texas GLO website. My first problem is that I cannot figure out if I should be citing this sources as a database or an archive. My second problem is the documents are an online image of the original documents kept at the Texas GLO Archives, so if I am not mistaken I am going to need to have 2 layers to the source, a layer for the actual document and a layer for the website. This is the source citation that I have constructed, can you please advise me if this looks correct. Thank you in advance.

 

"Land Grant database", digital images, Texas General Land Office, Archives and Records Program (http://www.glo.texas.gov/cf/land-grant-search/LandGrantsWorklist.cfm : accessed 19 July 2015); Entry for Phillip Duty, Headright Land Grant, Red River Co., TX, Patent no. 621, volume 6, certificate no. 236.

 

Dorinda

Submitted byEEon Sun, 07/19/2015 - 18:00

Dorinda,

Thanks for the thumbs-up!

Your citation works if it is your intent to cite the database entry (abstract) created by the land office.  However, this would not be a layered citation. If you are citing the database entry, then you cite the database and "report" the details that the entry tells you, all in the same layer. (To be technical here, you can remove the semicolon after the parentheses that holds the publication place and date, and replace it with the comma that's standard punctuation there before the details we take from a published source.)

If it's your intent to cite the image, then you would have a layered citation. In the first layer, you would cite the actual document just as though you were using it onsite at the archives; in the second layer, you would indicate that you accessed it via the online image at  [then give full citation for the database and website].

Incidentally, the link you gave did not work for me, so I'm answering you rather blindly here. Using the specific data you gave for Phillip Duty, I queried in the search box at http://www.glo.texas.gov/cf/land-grant-search/index.cfm. It gave me a database entry that did carry the same URL you give above. However, the stripped down database entry at that URL did not give all the detail you cite—and it appears to be a dynamic URL that's not reusable. When I clicked on the PDF link given at that search-result page, I got an image; but it's not Phillip Duty's actual land grant. What's offered there (at http://www.glo.texas.gov/ncu/SCANDOCS/archives_webfiles/arcmaps/webfiles/landgrants/PDFs/1/0/6/2/1062474.pdf) are images of a multi-page document that itemizes a number of land grants made specifically in Red River County. Phillip is number 236 on that list, but I don't see there the volume and patent number that you give.

Is this list what you were citing or did you access a file or an individual document such as a patent? If you didn't use this list, can you identify a link that does go directly to the file or document?

Submitted byDTurneron Sun, 07/19/2015 - 22:31

Thank you for your prompt reply!

My intent is to use the images/documents as the main source. I'm sorry that link did not work, I have tried several diffent URL to show you the page I found but all of them take me back to the main database search page. However if you are on the main search page (http://www.glo.texas.gov/cf/land-grant-search/index.cfm) and you choose Red River county from the drop box and enter abstract #1029. It will take you to a page with a listing for Phillip Duty. If you click on the abstract number link it will take you to the page where I found patent number, certificate number and patent volume, then at the bottom of the page is a link that say view PDF. The PDF file is 12 pages long with a document that appears to be a certificate, several surveys and field notes, an application and a reciept. Hopefully this will help you to see the documents in question.

Thank you again for your help.

Dorinda

 

 

 

Submitted byEEon Tue, 07/21/2015 - 19:57

Dorinda,

The additional information works.  The file came up this time. There's also a citation lesson that kicks in, here—the trickiness of identifying a URL or a path or waymarkers that can be used to relocate an online file or image.

For your present problem:

  • If you have EE3, then you can turn to the 3d page of the QuickStart Guide, headed "The Basics: Manuscripts & Online Images." You can use the pattern there for a layered citation as your model for this particular file. For the source-of-your-source data in the third layer, you would use the detail provided on the website's abstract: patent volume, patent number, certificate number, county, and date.  (Also see 10.19, as discussed below.)
  • If you have an earlier edition, you'll find models at 10.19 "State or Colony Grants: Online Material." There, at the bottom of p. 511 or top of p. 512, you'll find two options. Whether you choose one or the other will depend upon whether you want to emphasize this one file or (if you have a number of files from that site) you prefer to create just one source-list entry for the state land office's database and then reuse that citation for all files you take from that site.