Citation Issues

Citing personal copy of probate court adoption record

I am hoping you may be able to help me to properly cite a record I have in my possession. 

The record is the personal copy of the probate court record for the adoption and name change of my grandfather. It is from Wayne County, Michigan. I now possess the original copy that was given to my grandfather in 1956 (his adoption was in 1931). I am writing a research project to try and document the parentage of my grandfather and how I arrived there. In this report I have included a scan of this record. My confusion is in how I cite this properly.

AI embraces the em dash — Its users? Not so much!

I will confess that my favorite EE4 section is 2.62, Dashes vs. Hyphens, and I refer to it often! So, it's no surprise that a piece in The New York Times Magazine caught my eye yesterday called "With the Em Dash, A.I. Embraces a Fading Tradition," and I thought others here might enjoy it.

Census image layer

Finally getting around to adding citations for 1950 US Census records found on the National Archives History Hub website. A majority of my original census research occurred many years ago using microfilm at the National Archives. I set up all of my citations based on the published guide to citing records from NARA. Then as more digital records became available, I continued to add new census citations using the same guide. Those citations are lengthy and I looked to EE to see what I should've been using.

Citing a German Meldekarte (resident registration card)

In 1998, my mother made a trip back to her hometown of Straubing, Germany. While she was there, she went to the Einwohnermeldeamt (Residents' Registration Office) and got copies of her and her siblings’ resident registration cards (Meldekarte). My sister found them while going through all of her things after she died. They were in a large box of old photographs and other documents.

Ancestry Pro Tools and DNA matches

I am working on citations for DNA match data that is now available with Ancestry's Pro Tools. I started with the general citation for DNA matches at Ancestry:

"AncestryDNA results for [test taker]," on-request report, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed date), predicting [x] genetic relationship with [match] sharing [#] cM across [#] DNA segments.

Missing source information

I started this yesterday but it's nowhere to be found, so I'm asking again.

Found a record through FullText search at FamilySearch (Love that feature). It's here https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3SL-J9FB-S

Normally, I'll go to the front of the film and get the filming information. It's missing on this one. So, I check the information tab, and it's blank. That's more unusual. I enter the film number, 105717890, in the catalogue, and it's not found. That's really strange. 

Federal Archives and Records Center versus National Archives, regional

I recently went to the National Archives in St. Louis and looked as some flight records from WWII. They are on unpublished microfilm and only available in St. Louis. I was going to cite them like a regional holding (page 480, 4th edition), include the microfilm reel etc., then put the archive where I looked at them at the end.   

Citing Social Security records other than SS-5s and Databases

I recently ordered a copy of an SS-5 (Application for Social Security Number) for my brother who died as an infant. I received a letter advising that there is no SS-5 on file because the SSN was assigned through the "Enumeration at Birth" program. Instead, they provided a certified copy of a computer printout. It's very basic, just has his social security number, date and place of birth, and the date the SSN was established. They refer to this document in the cover letter as a "Numident printout," although it doesn't look like the Numidents I've obtained in the past.