Hospital issued birth certificates=family artifact how to cite in Family Tree Maker

By Anonymous on Sun, 11/08/2015 - 13:20

Forums

At first it was unclear to me after multiple scans of EE (2015 edition) how to cite a hospital issued birth certificate. (BC) For example I have my own BC from a hospital issued many years ago ... a printed form with blanks for data, all handwritten about my birth date, time of birth, parents name (although just Mr & Mrs. MY DAD'S NAME) ... with signatures by the hospital administrator, attending physician, and one other unidentified signature, as well as a foil (bronze/gold colored) leaf stamped symbol for the hospital 'certification'.

Although the hospital is still in business ... I'm confident that I could NOT obtain a similar record from the hospital in question at this time.

Eventually, I found in EE that this type of 'source' is really just a Family Artifact --- and that I likely should create a source in my Family Tree file with a template of:

  • Source group = Archives and Artifacts
  • Category = Private Holdings
  • Template = Artifact --- this later is described in FTMaker as "Use this model to document any artifact that is privately held. The compiler (owner) is the lead element in the Source List."

Can someone confirm, clarify, correct my assumption regarding how to handle such a source?

Furthermore, I'm wondering what I should do for similar sources/documents that I only have a scan/photo/photocopy of the original (and/or a scan/copy/photo of a copy) --- where the original owner has passed or is the original document is no longer available (destroyed/lost, etc.). How would I treat such a copy of an artifact?

BTW-I checked here for similar questions/answers by searching for "Hospital issued birth certificates" and did not fully get my questions answered --- however since I'm new to this forum I apologize up front if this question has already been asked and answered.

Thank you for your help (in advance) --- Allen

Submitted byEEon Mon, 11/09/2015 - 13:10

Allen, I’m going to divide your questions into 2 parts, because they require different answers:

>Hospital-issued ‘birth certificate’:

First, we have to consider that there are different types of “certificates” issued by hospitals across place and time:

  • Some are photostats of the document submitted to the state and then recorded by the state. In that case, your image will rarely have the recording information. It is indeed a personal or family artifact.
  • Some are forms created by the hospital and bear no similarity to what you would get from the state. That, too, is a personal or family artifact.

As you’ve discovered, EE3 at 3.25 has a basic format for citing all types of family artifacts. Your item is covered at bullet 3:“birth and marriage certificates (given to parties at time of event).”

That said, the rest of your question about what data to place in which field within a specific software is a question that needs to be asked in a user-forum for that software. Because of all the variations that exist in software, EE does not wade into those weeds.

>Similar sources/documents that I only have a scan/photo/photocopy of the original—where the original owner has passed or the original document is no longer available.

Here, two issues are involved:

  • The need to identify the item in a way that the original can be located, if at all possible;
  • The need to assess the credibility of the item—given that (a) photocopies can be altered and (b) transcriptions, etc., accompanied by statements that “the original is now destroyed” have a checkered track-record where credibility is concerned.

The basic rule to remember here is this: We cite what we have.  “What we have” may appear to be a will, but we cannot accept it as a valid representation of Speecific Person's will until and unless we have located the ‘original’ and verified that the image has not been altered.

Even if the image carries a citation on it, made by someone in the circulation chain that it has gone through, we would still want to verify it. Once we do, we can cite the original or the clerk’s copy. Until then, “what we have” is a photocopy that purports to be the will of so-and-so. Using the basic format for family or personal artifacts, we cite it as an artifact supplied by so-and-so, who cites thus-and-such.

Throughout EE’s various chapters on artifacts, cemeteries, church records,  probate & property records, etc., you will find a number of specific examples. (Running a search of the digital copy for the phrase “provided by” turns up examples at 3.26, 3.28, 3.30, 3.37, 3.44, 5.13, 7.19, and 10.31.)

Thanks ... follow-up question.

You mentioned searching a digital copy of EE ... is there a way I can access that? I have tha hard-copy, and ordered it through Amazon.com --- sometimes when I order from Amazon they provide the Kindle version 'bundled' with the hardcopy, but that was not the case this time.