Irish Geneaography
  • Welcome
    • Menu
  • Ingredients
    • Carving up the Landscape - Genealogical Geography >
      • Irish Civil Geography >
        • Provinces & Counties
        • Townlands
      • Irish Poor Law Unions >
        • Irish Poor Law Records
      • Irish Civil Registration Districts
      • Irish Census Geography
    • Main Dishes - Irish Church & Civil Records >
      • Irish Roman Catholic Parishes & Registers
      • Church of Ireland Dioceses & Diocesan Records
      • Church of Ireland Parishes and Registers
      • Irish Will Probate Districts & Records, 1858+
      • Irish Civil Registration Records
      • Public Records in Ireland
    • Kitchen Garden - Irish Land Records >
      • 1798 Claimants & Surrenders
      • Tithe Applotment Books, 1823-1837 & Tithe Defaulters, 1831
      • Griffith's Valuation, 1847-1864
      • Valuation Revision Books, 1847-1864+
      • Return of Land Owners, 1876
      • Landed Estates Court Rentals, 1850-1880
      • Registry of Deeds (Land Leases, Marriage Settlements & Wills)
      • Irish Land Commission
    • Irish Maps & Gazetteers
    • Historical Directories
    • Irish Newspapers
    • Rules? What rules? Placenames & Boundaries
    • What's That - Glossary and Acronyms >
      • Acronyms
  • Recipes
    • Local Specialities - County Specific Resources >
      • Connaught >
        • Co. Galway >
          • Co. Galway CoI Parish Records
          • Co. Galway RoD Townland Indexes
        • Co. Leitrim >
          • Co. Leitrim CoI Parish Records
          • Co. Leitrim RoD Townland Indexes
        • Co. Mayo >
          • Co. Mayo CoI Parish Records
          • Co. Mayo RoD Townland Indexes
        • Co. Roscommon >
          • Co. Roscommon CoI Parish Records
          • Co. Roscommon RoD Townland Indexes
        • Co. Sligo >
          • Co. Sligo CoI Parish Records
          • Co. Sligo RoD Townland Indexes
      • Leinster >
        • Co. Carlow >
          • Co. Carlow CoI Parish Records
          • Co. Carlow RoD Townland Indexes
        • Co. Dublin & City of Dublin >
          • Co. & City of Dublin CoI Parish Records
          • Co. & City of Dublin RoD Townland Indexes
        • Co. Kildare >
          • Co. Kildare Church of Ireland Parish Records
          • Co. Kildare RoD Townland Indexes
        • Co. Kilkenny >
          • Co. Kilkenny CoI Parish Records
          • Co. & City of Kilkenny RoD Townland Indexes
        • Co. Laois (Queens County) >
          • Co. Laois (Queens County) CoI Parish Records
          • Co. Laois (Queens County) RoD Townland Indexes
        • Co. Longford >
          • Co. Longford CoI Parish Records
          • Co. Longford RoD Townland Indexes
        • Co. Louth >
          • Co. Louth CoI Parish Records
          • Co. Louth & Drogheda RoD Townland Indexes
        • Co. Meath >
          • Co. Meath CoI Parish Records
          • Co. Meath RoD Townland Indexes
        • Co. Offaly (Kings County) >
          • Co. Offaly (Kings County) CoI Parish Records
          • Co. Offaly (Kings County) RoD Townland Indexes
        • Co. Westmeath >
          • Co. Westmeath CoI Parish Records
          • Co. Westmeath RoD Townland Indexes
        • Co. Wexford >
          • Co. Wexford CoI Parish Records
          • Co. Wexford RoD Townland Indexes
        • Co. Wicklow >
          • Co. Wicklow CoI Parish Records
          • Co. Wicklow RoD Townland Indexes
      • Munster >
        • Co. Clare >
          • Co. Clare CoI Parish Records
          • Co. Clare RoD Townland Indexes
        • Co. Cork >
          • Co. Cork CoI Parish Records
          • Co. & City of Cork RoD Townland Indexes
        • Co. Kerry >
          • Co. Kerry CoI Parish Records
          • Co. Kerry RoD Townland Indexes
        • Co. Limerick >
          • Co. Limerick CoI Parish Records
          • Co. & City of Limerick RoD Townland Indexes
        • Co. Tipperary >
          • Co. Tipperary CoI Parish Records
          • Co. Tipperary RoD Townland Indexes
        • Co. Waterford >
          • Co. Waterford CoI Parish Records
          • Co. & City of Waterford RoD Townland Indexes
      • Ulster >
        • Co. Antrim >
          • Co. Antrim CoI Parish Records
          • Co. Antrim & City of Belfast RoD Townland Indexes
        • Co. Armagh >
          • Co. Armagh CoI Parish Records
          • Co. Armagh RoD Townland Indexes
        • Co. Cavan >
          • Co. Cavan CoI Parish Records
          • Co. Cavan RoD Townland Indexes
        • Co. Derry >
          • Co. Derry CoI Parish Records
          • Co. Derry & City of Londonderry RoD Townland Indexes
        • Co. Donegal >
          • Co. Donegal CoI Parish Records
          • Co. Donegal RoD Townland Indexes
        • Co. Down >
          • Co. Down CoI Parish Records
          • Co. Down RoD Townland Indexes
        • Co. Fermanagh >
          • Co. Fermanagh CoI Parish Records
          • Co. Fermanagh RoD Townland Indexes
        • Co. Monaghan >
          • Co. Monaghan CoI Parish Records
          • Co. Monaghan RoD Townland Indexes
        • Co. Tyrone >
          • Co. Tyrone CoI Parish Records
          • Co. Tyrone RoD Townland Indexes
      • Northern Ireland
    • Special Ingredients - Unique Finding Aids >
      • Church of Ireland Parish Records Finder
      • Townland Indexes Timelines of LDS Registry of Deeds microfilms
    • Restaurants - Irish Archives & Libraries >
      • The Registry of Deeds >
        • The Registry of Deeds - History & Future
        • The Registry of Deeds - Visiting the Archive
        • The Registry of Deeds - Online Access
        • The Registry of Deeds - Finding Deeds
        • The Registry of Deeds - Deciphering and Citing a Deed
      • The National Library of Ireland
      • The National Archives of Ireland
      • Dublin City Library and Archives
      • Valuation Office
      • Representative Church Body Library
      • Public Record Office of Northern Ireland
    • Dining Clubs - Irish Societies & Journals
    • Chefs - Irish Genies
    • Foreign Fare - Finding the Irish Abroad >
      • American Pie - USA
      • Empire Builders - Canada
      • Down Under - Australia & New Zealand
      • Settling under the Saltire - Scotland >
        • Scottish History
        • Scottish Geography
        • Scottish Records & Resources
        • Scottish Research Bookshelf
        • Scottish Larder
        • Scottish Tuckbox
      • Fighting in a foreign field >
        • India
        • Europe, Middle East & Africa (WW1)
        • USA
    • Seasonings - Miscellaneous Sources >
      • Methodist Church in Ireland
      • Huguenots in Ireland
      • Medical Practitioners
      • Students, Clergy & Lawyers
      • Schoolbooks and Archive Notes
      • Irish Dog Licences
      • Customs & Excise Officers
    • Kitchen Techniques - Tips & Advice >
      • Wildcard Searching for Placenames
      • Search tips for ScotlandsPeople
      • Searching Scottish Parishes on ScotlandsPeople
      • Searching the NAI Testamentary Index
      • Searching the Inland Revenue Testamentary Indexes
      • Using the Irish Townland and Historical Map Viewer
  • Cookbooks
    • Free Websites
    • Subscription / PPV Websites
    • Research Advice Websites & Videos
    • Blogs, Magazines & Forums
    • Bookshelves >
      • Guides & Finding Aids
      • Histories
      • Digital Libraries
      • Bookmarks
  • Links
    • Snacks
    • Store Cupboard
    • Midnight Feasts >
      • Hunting for Irish Births
      • Hunting for Irish Baptisms
      • Hunting for Irish Marriages
      • Hunting for Irish Deaths
      • Hunting for Irish Burials
      • Hunting for Irish Monumental Inscriptions
      • Hunting for Irish Wills
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact

Source Citations?  3...2...1... Now Argue!

11/3/2018

0 Comments

 
If there is one thing guaranteed to get 2 or more genealogists gathered together in a fankle, it's debating the rights and wrongs of how to construct correct source citations!  Whilst there are academic texts to help (Evidence Explained by Elizabeth Shown Mills of course being the first that springs to mind), people will inevitably come up with their own favourite way of citing evidence.  I use a pattern that I learned from my Postgraduate course which has proven to be reasonably robust and flexible, but evidently needs more work in some areas (see below!)  The various software packages we all mostly use to hold our data often have helpful "templates" for constructing particular types of sources, but a frequent criticism I have heard (and uttered myself) is that these tend to be biased towards American sources and are not always as helpful for sources from other parts of the world.

So, having recently enjoyed learning from several very good videos posted from Rootstech 2018, I am pleased to recommend one in particular that tackles this thorny subject well - "Source Citations - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" by Diana Elder is well presented and nicely illustrated.  It certainly made me think more carefully about how good some of my source citations were.  I thought that layered citations was an interesting concept and one that would have helped solve a retrieval problem I had early this week when I was compiling my military research pages. 

I had some evidence from a source on Ancestry for a relative but when I tried to find the record again online to recommend the record collection, I could not locate it or indeed the collection?  I had failed my own test for a good source citation - it must contain ALL the necessary information in order to locate the EXACT record again.  Although, in my defence, I'm wondering if the record set has been absorbed into one of the other similarly named sets?  Nevertheless, I can see how I can improve how I cite the online evidence I gather, in particular that gained from the increasing number of microfilms that have been digitised for browsing - who wants to have to step through hundreds of pages again when you omitted the image number from your source citation?!  

Remember, for it to be a good source citation, you have to be able to find the same record again or tell someone else where they can find it - anything else is apparently bad or ugly!


0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Author

    I'm Ruth and here are my own observations, good, bad and indifferent on all things geographically & genealogically Irish.

    Archives

    September 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    July 2021
    April 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    September 2020
    July 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    September 2019
    May 2019
    August 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    August 2017
    June 2017
    December 2016
    September 2016
    July 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    November 2015
    July 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015

    Categories

    All
    Church Of Ireland
    National Archives Of Ireland
    New Content
    Online Resources
    Research Advice
    Research Stories
    Scotland

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.