Citation Issues

Citing a Photograph

I recently came across a photograph of my Great Grandfather, Walter LINDSEY, in an article in The Philadelphia Inquirer in 1903 (image w/URL posted below).  The article itself does not provide any genealogy information I didn't already have, however, the photo is the first picture I have ever seen of him.

Born Digital Text

Increasingly more often, offical, government recorders enter information directly into a computer rather than writing on paper forms. This is sometimes called "born digital." I think the evidentiary strength of a born-digital record is akin to a digital image of an original record. That leaves me uncomfortable citing the born-digital database like this:

          "Database name," database, Website Title (URL : access date).

Foreign Language Translation - square editorial brackets or parenthesis

While researching how to cite a foreign language title of a record with a translation, I came across what appears to be a contradiction in Evidence Explained ("EE").

I have found that usually when one sees an apparent contradiction, it is because one doesn't understand all the rules.  So please be patient with me as I work toward greater understanding. :^)

 

The rule in most places in EE is to put the translation in square editorial brackets immediately following the foreign language title.

EE 2.23, p. 53

Transcribed document in online archive

I'm a novice at this citation business and I am struggling to cite an online derivative. Any help would be very much appreciated.

The item in question is the transcribed text of a "Maintenance order" dated 1821 in respect of John Ford and Mary Waterhouse from original Ticehurst Parish records.

The transcription is located in an online archive called "theKeep" which has electronic transcriptions of documents from the East Sussex Records Office and other partner organisations.

ExLibris Rosetta

I was originally pointed to a source by an article published in The Genealogist. The article provided a complete citation for the book in question [as printed in the article: “Walter Clark, ed., The State Records of North Carolina: Miscellaneous, 22 (Goldsboro, N.C., 1907): 246 (Arrears of Quit Rents, Tyrrel [sic] Precinct).”]. While it is very tempting to just use the information in the article without going any further, I wanted to see if I could find the cited source to determine whether there might be additional information I could glean from it.

Citing 1940 U.S. census enumeration districts

It has become my understanding that the hyphenated enumeration district numbers in the 1940 U.S. census are comprised of a county code (before the hyphen) and the actual enumeration district number (after the hyphen). Supposedly, the pre-hyphen county code is the same throughout the county.

When citing these ED numbers, is the county name and the county code unecessarily redundant? Put another way, is it necessary to include the county code number in the ED number? I believe that my main motivation in asking this question is merely that I don't like the hyphens in my ED numbers.

How many volumes?

Undoubtedly, I'm overthinking this.

EE 12.69 states:  "When citing a multivolume work, you should state the total number of volumes immediately after the title."

However, EE 12.74, dealing with multivolume sets with successive authors or editors, allows for leaving out the number of volumes and citing the one and only volume used.

My quandary involves Abby Maria Hemenway's The Vermont Historical Gazetteer:  A Magazine, Embracing a History of Each Town, Civil, Ecclesiastical, Biographical and Military.

Brackets versus parentheses

Would it be acceptable if I prefer to follow EE 2.58 ("Square brackets ... signify that we have added words not founds in the original source") rather than EE 14.11 ("When a paper carries either a city or state in its masthead title (but not both), put the missing place name in parentheses within the title")?

Example:  "Vermont News," St. Albans [Vermont] Daily Messenger, 22 May 1874, p. 5, col. 5.