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We just completed a panel review of Genealogy & the Law: Guide to Legal Sources for the Family Historian by Kay Haviland Freilish & William B. Freilich [available at http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/cs/genealogy_and_the_law] on the dearMyrtle Google+ Groups [youtube videos of each session are archived]. After spending 8 weeks it became clear that legal citations were not the same as genealogy citations citing federal & state statutes. I have searched Evidence Explained site and QuickTips #5 has a few examples in the footnotes, but none that actually cite the statute. You will find most historical statues at http://books.google.com ]search by "state statute" or http://www.hathitrust.org or http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lawhome.html
Here is my attempt:
[1] Harry Potter, et al, Laws of North Carolina 1715-1796, [1821], [ebook], http://books.google.com: accessed 16 Mar 2015], Statutes for 1778, ch. 134, art. 3, pg. 357; citing marriage licenses granting statute applicable for 1795 marriage.
the law/statute can be found here if you to see what was actually cited:
url: http://bit.ly/1LBgVDr scroll to pg. 357, artcle 3 info
[2]Documenting the American South, [database], http://docsouth.unc..edu : accessed 16 Mar 2015], Acts of North Carolina General Assembly, June 1781, Vol 24, ch. VII, art. II, pg. 399; citing marriage license fee statute applicable for 1795 marriage.
the law/statute can be found here if you want to see what was actually cited:
http://docsouth.unc.edu/csr/index.html/document/csr24-0011, scroll to pg. 399, mid paragraph
Where as the Legal Citation for these would something like this - N. C. Mar Lic. § 134-3 (1778)
EE Ch. 13 reviews this, but I am still unsure of the correct answer. The panel found that taking the extra step and consulting historical statutes really helped create the why to your ancestor's life decisions. These statutes help explain some of the little nuances that help tell our ancestors actions, when we have few paper trails that directly provide more of the story. Does anyone else have any experience using state laws in genealogy citations?
Brightgenealogy:
Brightgenealogy:
I'm going to answer this in two parts, because you raise three separate issues, though they are related. In this message, I'll cover issues 1 and 2.
Issue 1: Using statutes and codes for family history research.
Your last question really deserves to be the lead-in sentence. There are today, many family researchers who use state laws--not just "in genealogy citations" but to understand the records they are using. Citations are the least important aspect. It's a necessary part of using any resource, but the value of consulting local, state, and federal statutes lies in the need to understand the documents we use and the conditions under which people lived.
Issue 2: Legal citations vs. humanities style citations
You are also totally right that legal-style citations are radically different from "humanities style" that is practiced by both academic historians and family historians. Using cryptic legal citations in the manner of Bluebook (or McGill's Uniform Legal Citation style, or the ALWD citation manual, or the style preferred by a particular state's judiciary or a particular legal journal) is appropriate when we are writing for attorneys, the courts, or a legal journal. However, if the users of our work are history researchers untrained in law, then the reality is that they are not going to understand our Bluebook citations at all.
Each field has its own citation style, one that it develops to meet the needs of that field. As EE 13.1 puts it:
As a history researcher and writer, you face a dilemma. Most of your readers will not be trained in law. If you prefer to use legal-style citations, many of your readers will have difficulty using that shorthand to find the actual volumes you consulted. Your challenge is to construct citations that will be usable by all readers, regardless of their training and experience.
EE 13.1 to 13.3 goes into considerably more detail on this.
BIssue 3: How to construct a
Issue 3: How to construct a humanities-style citation for statute books:
You write:
I have searched Evidence Explained site and QuickTips #5 has a few examples in the footnotes, but none that actually cite the statute.
EE's website does offer many pages from EE itself--nearly 20% of the manual, to be precise. The examples you seek, however, are in the other 80% of the manual that's not posted at the website.
EE has about a dozen examples for what you seek, including those at 13.10 (for print and online versions of state codes), 13.12 (for print and online versions of federal law), and 13.13 (for state-level session laws) and 13.14 for British regnal law).
Since you've explicitly asked for help on your content and format, let's look at one of your samples:
Documenting the American South, [database], http://docsouth.unc..edu : accessed 16 Mar 2015], Acts of North Carolina General Assembly, June 1781, Vol 24, ch. VII, art. II, pg. 399; citing marriage license fee statute applicable for 1795 marriage.
Question: Did the acts of the North Carolina General Assembly in June 1781 actually consist of 24 or more volumes? On its face, that's illogical. In that case, we are left to wonder: "Vol. 24 of what is being cited here?" What is the actual source? You cite a database, but that database delivers many different publications. EE's 13.10 provides the model that you need in its Archives of Maryland example:
2. Otho Scott and Hiram M'Cullough, comps., The Maryland Code: Public General Laws, 2d ed. (Baltimore: John Murphy & Co., 1860), "Bastardy & Fornication," p. 62, art. 13, §4; digital images, Archives of Maryland Online (http://www.mdarchives.state.md.us/megafile/msa/speccol/sc2900/sc2908/html/codes.html : accessed 1 March 2007).
In short, you have two separate things to cite (1) the statute book; (2) the website that is delivering the online version. Each needs to be cited fully. The result is a layered citation. Above, I've colored each of the layers differently so you can more easily discern the format for each.
There are two basic differences between this Maryland example and the NC example you show:
(1) The NC example presents the book as HTML, whereas the Maryland site presents a digital image of the original.
(2) The NC example has both a database to be cited "Colonial and State Records of North Carolina," and the website of which that database is just one part Documenting the American South.
Incidentally, for that "citing" phrase ("citing marriage license fee statute applicable for 1795 marriage"), your "Vol 24, ch. VII, art. II, pg. 399" isn't "citing" a marriage fee statute. Your "Vol 24, ch. VII, art. II, pg. 399" is the statute.
The term "citing" applies only to source-of-the-source info. If we use Joe Bloke's study of North Carolina marriage laws and he tells us that this act was passed in 1795 and he cites "Vol 24, ch. VII, art. II, pg. 399." Then we cite Joe Bloke's study and we add "citing ....." to report what he says he had used. In this case you have used the HTML version of "whatever" statute book (which isn't really identified in your citation). The exact title of the act should be cited alongside the page, article, section, etc.
Hope this helps.