How to present your sources?

[AnnaJenny]

I have just joined so am new to this thread .
How do you refer to the record source so that the reader can A) know you have researched it and B) look at it themselves if they wish. Is it best to put it at the bottom of the page or refer to an appendix or have an index at the end. Any suggestions welcome because at the moment I am in a mess! Thanks

[Lesley Robertson]

As long as you are clear and consistent, it's up to you.
Many professional history publications use footnotes numbered for the page they occur (ie a new footnote 1 on each page).
I prefer to have all the refs at the end so that you don't have to keep putting the same text into the footnotes. Either number them from the start of the text so that each ref has a unique number, or sort them alphabetically, then number them when the ref list is complete and then put them into the text. I find that the latter is more complicated to do but easier to use...

If you're planning to publish in a magazine, you need to check and see what they want.

PS I have given your message its own title and thread as it doesn't really mesh with the others in the previous thread.

[Pam Downes]

I have just joined so am new to this thread .
How do you refer to the record source so that the reader can A) know you have researched it and B) look at it themselves if they wish. Is it best to put it at the bottom of the page or refer to an appendix or have an index at the end. Any suggestions welcome because at the moment I am in a mess! Thanks

Other contributors to the thread can probably answer it better than me, although I don't think there is a right or wrong way to do it.
Depends on what you're going to include in the book. Are you going to include images of census pages and parish registers/BMD certificates, etc? And where are you going to put those images? As far as possible opposite the writing, or in a bundle at the end of a chapter/end of the book?
To me it would depend on how many references you're going to end up with per page. If they're going to take up half the page then I think I would either put them at the end of the chapter, or else make a index for each chapter at the end of the book.

I'm not writing a book, just doing a list of facts.

His birth certificate says that George Alfred was born on 29 June 1873 at 40 London Road, Market Deeping, the son of Frederick Arthur Smith and Elizabeth nee Taylor. Frederick was a baker.

George was baptised on 30 October 1875 at St James, Market Deeping. His father’s occupation was given as baker, and their address as London Road, Market Deeping. (Source: Lincolnshire FHS transcript; PR entry not seen.)

In the 1871, 1881, and 1891 census the family is living at 40 London Road, Market Deeping though father Frederick died in 1877.

And then following it with transcripts of the census pages (with references), and a list of supporting documents e.g.
Birth certificate
1871 census
1880 school register
1881 census
1891 census
Marriage certificate
1901 census
1911 census
1928 electoral roll
1939 Register
Death certificate

Interested family members then get the fact sheet, and copies of the supporting documents.
I'm have to add that I'm having enough trouble finding the time to write the fact sheets and find the supporting documents without thinking about a book! Kudos to all those who can do it.

Pam

[Pam Downes]

In case other readers get a little confused by my reference to 'the other contributors' this is the thread which Anna Jenny's post was originally part of.

https://www.british-genealogy.com/th...in!?highlight=

Pam

[Nerjagirl]

Other contributors to the thread can probably answer it better than me, although I don't think there is a right or wrong way to do it.
Depends on what you're going to include in the book. Are you going to include images of census pages and parish registers/BMD certificates, etc? And where are you going to put those images? As far as possible opposite the writing, or in a bundle at the end of a chapter/end of the book?
To me it would depend on how many references you're going to end up with per page. If they're going to take up half the page then I think I would either put them at the end of the chapter, or else make a index for each chapter at the end of the book.

I'm not writing a book, just doing a list of facts.


And then following it with transcripts of the census pages (with references), and a list of supporting documents e.g.
Birth certificate
1871 census
1880 school register
1881 census
1891 census
Marriage certificate
1901 census
1911 census
1928 electoral roll
1939 Register
Death certificate

Interested family members then get the fact sheet, and copies of the supporting documents.
I'm have to add that I'm having enough trouble finding the time to write the fact sheets and find the supporting documents without thinking about a book! Kudos to all those who can do it.

Pam

I too am new to family history, and would first of all love to know how the school registry you refer to can be sourced, also things like Electoral Rolls, 1939 Register, what is this? Is it the Census? Another question I have is, if you are researching say one side of your family at a time, and say for example you take one Ancestor, in my case a maternal Great Grandma, how can I know I have exhausted my search, for instance, if I wanted to know, not only where she lived when she was born, but in the intervening years between Censuses, and where she went to school. Is there a checklist I could use, so I can see every aspect of her life, before moving onto the next ancestor? TIA

[Pam Downes]

I too am new to family history, and would first of all love to know how the school registry you refer to can be sourced, also things like Electoral Rolls, 1939 Register, what is this? Is it the Census? Another question I have is, if you are researching say one side of your family at a time, and say for example you take one Ancestor, in my case a maternal Great Grandma, how can I know I have exhausted my search, for instance, if I wanted to know, not only where she lived when she was born, but in the intervening years between Censuses, and where she went to school. Is there a checklist I could use, so I can see every aspect of her life, before moving onto the next ancestor? TIA

For school info I use Findmypast's National School Admission Registers & Log-Books 1870-1914. It does not cover every school, nor every county.
There are other school datasets on FMP. On the home page click search, and from the dropdown menu click 'search A-Z record sets'. Select United Kingdom or other country of choice and type 'school' into the search box. Select required dataset.

Ancestry have mainly London schools in their set -
London, England, School Admissions and Discharges, 1840-1911.
London, England, School Admissions and Discharges, 1912-1918
London, England, Poor Law School District Registers, 1852-1918
but there are a few others. Search for 'school' iin the title in their Card Catalogue.
Usually scrolling down the search page on any site will give a little more info about the dataset.

Ancestry have electoral rolls for London - London, England, Electoral Registers, 1832-1965
FMP's main set is England & Wales, Electoral Registers 1832-1932 but there are others. Search as before using 'electoral' instead of school.

1939 Register - see https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/h...1939-register/

I don't know of a checklist - I made up my own. Started with the basics - birth, baptism. marriage, death, burial.
Then added in the censuses from 1841- 1911, and the 1939 Register.
For addresses and/or occupations between censuses I used birth/baptism records for siblings/children.
Then school registers became available, so I added those to the list.
Plus military service, and the probate calendar in case someone left a will.
Emigration might need to be added.

There are other records such as workhouse and medical which might be either less likely to be relevant or less likely to be available.

Other people might be able to think of something I've missed.

Pam

[Nerjagirl]

For school info I use Findmypast's National School Admission Registers & Log-Books 1870-1914. It does not cover every school, nor every county.
There are other school datasets on FMP. On the home page click search, and from the dropdown menu click 'search A-Z record sets'. Select United Kingdom or other country of choice and type 'school' into the search box. Select required dataset.

Ancestry have mainly London schools in their set -
London, England, School Admissions and Discharges, 1840-1911.
London, England, School Admissions and Discharges, 1912-1918
London, England, Poor Law School District Registers, 1852-1918
but there are a few others. Search for 'school' iin the title in their Card Catalogue.
Usually scrolling down the search page on any site will give a little more info about the dataset.

Ancestry have electoral rolls for London - London, England, Electoral Registers, 1832-1965
FMP's main set is England & Wales, Electoral Registers 1832-1932 but there are others. Search as before using 'electoral' instead of school.

1939 Register - see https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/h...1939-register/

I don't know of a checklist - I made up my own. Started with the basics - birth, baptism. marriage, death, burial.
Then added in the censuses from 1841- 1911, and the 1939 Register.
For addresses and/or occupations between censuses I used birth/baptism records for siblings/children.
Then school registers became available, so I added those to the list.
Plus military service, and the probate calendar in case someone left a will.
Emigration might need to be added.

There are other records such as workhouse and medical which might be either less likely to be relevant or less likely to be available.

Other people might be able to think of something I've missed.

Pam

Thank you Pam. This is so helpful. You mention that there are Workhouse Records, and I believe, from speaking to my Mum, that Great Grandma had to go into the Workhouse in Blackburn, Lancashire, after her Dad died on the Railway, and her Mum died there too. Presumably, would I contact Lancashire Records Office to access information about this, or is there another source I could use? One last question, Do you subscribe to more than one subscription service, or do you access them all through your local library? TIA

[Peter Goodey]

How to present your sources?

Citations should refer to original documents as far as possible.

Don't say "1891 census" or "1891 census on Ancestry".

Do say "1891 Census Returns, The National Archives: RG 12/618 f 25 p 1"

I don't mean precisely those words but that sort of thing.

See the National Archives guidance on citing their documents (possibly a bit over the top)

https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/h...onal-archives/

You can easily adapt that approach to other repositories.

Some online services are better than others at providing original document references.

[jburrowsml]

I keep my Family history notes in Word documents rather than traditional tree format.

I have one Word document for each generation, working backwards (A = parents; B = grandparents; C = great grandparents and so on). Each ancestor is assigned a unique reference (e.g. D1 = father's fatgher's fatgher. fatgher; D2 = father's fatgher's father's mother etc.).

Within each WOrd document, there is a sub-heading for each ancestor that I know anything about (which oncludes their ancestor reference) presented in numerical order within that generation; and under that heading I write a chronology of their life in more or less standard format and try to tell their life story in as much detail as possible.

Using Word means I can us the footnote function to reference my documentary sources. Where these are a certificate, a copy fo that certificate will be held in a traditional document wallet - one for each ancestor with their unique ancestor code and name, containing copies of all certificates and other documents I have relating to them.

Here's a typical certificate footnote:

Marriage Certificate of Thomas King Spooner and Harriet Martindale, married 2 April 1879. Registered London, Shoreditch 1879 Q2 volume 1C page 267

Here's a typical census footnote:

1881 Census. London, Middlesex; Islington RG11 Piece 231 Folio 11 page 19

And here's a typical newspaper report footnote, for a description of Bucks Row, Whitechapel ... one of my ancestors was living there when the first of Jack the Ripper's victims was found there, so I have a nice newspaper description of the street to give a bit of colour to my narratice)

The Times, 1 September 1888 sub tit. “Another Murder in Whitechapel”

For wills, I used to be in the fortunate position of working on the Strand in the days before the Probate registers were digitised, so I have searched for most of my family wills in the original bound volumes. Here is a typical reference ot a Probate Calendar entry:

RCJ Probate Calendars 1956 volume 1 page 724

Finally, other documentary sources are referenced in whatever format seems most appropriate to the nature of the record. Thos ewhich are personal recollections passed on to me by word of mouth are footnoted with teh person whose recollection it is and the date of the conversation.