Author Topic: Citing FindMyPast records/images ?  (Read 1957 times)

Offline bugbear

  • RootsChat Aristocrat
  • ******
  • Posts: 2,165
  • Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
    • View Profile
Citing FindMyPast records/images ?
« on: Monday 18 June 18 16:16 BST (UK) »
I have just (after 3 years with Ancestry) taken out a FindMyPast sub, to get some Yorks/Lancs/Lincs parish register entries.

I am struggling to cite them nicely in my DB. FindMyPast gives a transcript and an image, but the citation details are not as fine grained as ancestry.

For a Lincs marriage, the image is simple headed "Lincolnshire Marriages Image"
("Lincolnshire marriages" is the name of the FindMyPast Records set the records is from)

The transcription includes an archive name ("Lincolnshire Archives") but no other citation information.

I normally try to have a sufficiently detailed citation that I (or someone else using my DB) could find the record again.

Am I missing something obvious (due to my Ancestry indoctrination) ?

  BugBear
BICE Middlesex
WOMACK Norfolk/Suffolk

Offline andrewalston

  • RootsChat Aristocrat
  • ******
  • Posts: 2,932
  • My granddad
    • View Profile
Re: Citing FindMyPast records/images ?
« Reply #1 on: Tuesday 19 June 18 08:19 BST (UK) »
The citation should enable someone else to locate the source, whether they had a sub to one of these sites or not. I reckon it has two parts:
  • the Source, which describes the original record, and
  • the Repository, which is where you found the record.

So I end up with something like:
Marriage register, St. Peter in Eastgate, Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England (FindMyPast, Lincolnshire Marriages)

So another researcher might work out that there was likely to be a copy of the record in Lincolnshire Archives, and armed with the date of the marriage, pull out the right microfilm and find the right image.

The name of the church is mentioned in the transcript and in the list of search results.

Note that an Ancestry tree doesn't store any of this by default. They have set things up as though they are the ONLY place where records are found. Their place names are abysmal - they never record a full address unless you input it longhand - and they are often incorrect.

So you'll need to create a new Source, and a new Repository to go with it. Once done, Ancestry can remember them for future use.
Looking at ALSTON in south Ribble area, ALSTEAD and DONBAVAND/DUNBABIN etc. everywhere, HOWCROFT and MARSH in Bolton and Westhoughton, PICKERING in the Whitehaven area.

Census information is Crown Copyright. See www.nationalarchives.gov.uk for details.

Offline bugbear

  • RootsChat Aristocrat
  • ******
  • Posts: 2,165
  • Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
    • View Profile
Re: Citing FindMyPast records/images ?
« Reply #2 on: Tuesday 19 June 18 09:02 BST (UK) »
I agree that an Ancestry tree (which I don't use or mainatin, I use my own DB) just holds a "magic link" to their own data.

But a displayed Ancestry Record (e.g. a Quaker Burial) includes:

Piece Description:    Piece 0556: Monthly Meeting of Tivetshall: Burials (1790-1837)

And a source:

Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Quaker Birth, Marriage, and Death Registers, 1578-1837 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.

familysearch images include proper citation information (including a "copy citation data" button) e.g.

"England, Norfolk, Parish Registers (County Record Office), 1510-1997," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-266-11855-91397-71?cc=1416598&wc=92BJ-FMN:29771601,29373001,29984401 : accessed 14 January 2015), Kenninghall > Marriages > 1754-1795 > image 51 of 55; Record Office, Norwich.

  BugBear
BICE Middlesex
WOMACK Norfolk/Suffolk

Offline andrewalston

  • RootsChat Aristocrat
  • ******
  • Posts: 2,932
  • My granddad
    • View Profile
Re: Citing FindMyPast records/images ?
« Reply #3 on: Tuesday 19 June 18 13:04 BST (UK) »
I too keep my stuff offline, but have played with an Ancestry-style tree or two for things I've researched for other people.
The software I use (The Master Genealogist, sadly no longer available) allows me to put some structure into my record keeping, with records having sources, and those sources being held in repositories.
The Ancestry "Piece" is actually the Source information, while their "Source" is only the Repository, since it does not help locate the original record.
The FamilySearch item is excellent, mentioning not just the source, but TWO repositories where it can be consulted. Probably overkill, but a lot more useful than Ancestry's version.
Incidentally, Ancestry are removing references to records outside their repository. Whether by accident or design, their US 1900 Federal Census has lost any mention of the microfilms from which it is derived. Their other US censuses were still OK when I last looked. I logged it as a fault, but they just sent a "fobbing off" reply.
Looking at ALSTON in south Ribble area, ALSTEAD and DONBAVAND/DUNBABIN etc. everywhere, HOWCROFT and MARSH in Bolton and Westhoughton, PICKERING in the Whitehaven area.

Census information is Crown Copyright. See www.nationalarchives.gov.uk for details.


Offline JaneyH_104

  • RootsChat Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 114
  • My great-grandmother, Alice
    • View Profile
Re: Citing FindMyPast records/images ?
« Reply #4 on: Tuesday 19 June 18 13:41 BST (UK) »
I use Family Tree Maker software as my main platform. While this synchronises with Ancestry and does all the necessary attributing for sources held in Ancestry, it obviously doesn’t work for Find My Past.

I’ve got around this by setting up a new repository in my ‘sources’ section called FindMyPast.  From there I’ve created individual sources such as ‘West Yorkshire baptisms, [date]’ and then add the individual citation as appropriate. I then download the image from FindMyPast and link the media file to the source. (This latter part I only learned about recently so I’ve got some housekeeping to do at some point!)
BOWDLER - Forest of Dean & Devon, DYSON, ENTWISTLE & TOWNEND - Huddersfield, CLARKE - Dorset, SCOBLE - Devon, HOUGH, COPE & WHITTAKER - Cheshire, BRACHER - Wiltshire, DENNISS - Herts/Hunts, SQUIRE - Hunts/Beds, BROWN - Herts/Beds