Thursday, May 15, 2014

Dear Randy: How Do I Cite a Church Record on an FHL Microfilm?

Genea-Musings reader Sandy asked this question in a recent email.  She found a church record of a baptism on a Family History Library microfilm and wanted to know how a source citation might be crafted.

I have some records like this, so I used the question as an opportunity to add some sources citations to my database.

I used the RootsMagic 6 source template for "Church Records - FHL-GSU Microfilm" to craft this source citation.

Here is the blank Source Citation template form in RootsMagic 6:


The fields for user input, with suggested entry information, include:

Master Source fields:
*  Church (Author) -  the name of the church
*  Location - location of the church (shortened location name for short reference note)
*  Church with location - church name with location embedded
*  Record series - name of the series of records, and range of dates & name without dates (separated by double bars ||)
*  Record book - name of the record book, without the dates (used in reference notes)
*  Film ID - FHL film ID
*  Repository - owner/repository
*  Repository location - e.g., Edinburgh

Source details fields:

*  Volume code - e.g., OPR222/1
*  Page - page where information was found, and item number when applicable
*  Item of interest - Names, types of records, and date for unpaginated entries || shortened item description for short reference note
*  Item number - film item number

I did the best I could with the information I had from my notes and the information on the Family History Library Catalog for the St. John's episcopal Church in Elizabeth, New Jersey.  Here is the FHL Catalog page image with the record information:


I attempted to enter the right information in the right fields.  Here is the result:


Here are the source citations for the Footnote, Short Footnote and Bibliography from this source template:

Footnote: Florence Evelyn Pratt Youngs, "Records of St. John's Episcopal Church, Elizabeth, N.J. 1750-1873," no page number, Tabitha Randolph baptism entry, 1761; FHL microfilm US/CAN 1019522, Item 2.

Short Footnote: St. John's Episcopal Church (Elizabeth, N.J.), no page number.

Bibliography: Florence Evelyn Pratt Youngs. Holland Society of New York Church Record Collection, Vol. 089. Salt Lake City, Utah. FHL microfilm US/CAN 1019522. Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

The Footnote source citation looks great.

The Short Footnote lacks the Item of Interest information - the person, the record type and the year.  I think that should be included, especially if there is no page number.

The Bibliography information includes the repository and repository location, which I took to be where I got the information.  In this case, that is the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.  However, Salt Lake City appears twice in the Bibliography, so it may be better to leave the Repository and Repository location fields blank.  Perhaps the location should be New York City.

I kept the Repository field blank (since nothing was added to any of the citations), and added New York City to the Repository location field, and the Bibliography citation appears as:

Bibliography: Florence Evelyn Pratt Youngs. Holland Society of New York Church Record Collection; Vol. 089. New York City. FHL microfilm US/CAN 1019522. Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

I think that's sufficient.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2014/05/dear-randy-how-do-i-cite-church-record.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver


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