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Ancestry losing proper source citations?
- Thread starter JohnR65
- Start date
It is getting harder and harder to obtain the correct archival references for parish records (and for other records). There's an argument that, if a record is online, then what is needed as a citation now is a link or reference to the website hosting the data. That's all very well as long as the same website continues to host the same data in the same way ... but we all know that that doesn't happen. I believe that there is still a need for a unique reference to identify a specific document and if that is not the archival reference for the original document, then what is it?
JimP
LostCousins Member
Not just parish records.
New Hampshire state-level vital records exist on FamilySearch, Ancestry (two databases, one of which appears to be the FHL film, and the other a full colour reproduction), AmericanAncestors. In addition, I started research in the pre-internet days, and actually did research in the Archives physically searching the card files, and have references to the drawer number.
With other American vital record data sets, it seems that Ancestry is chopping them up into city or county segments. While that makes browsing easier (especially in looking for someone who doesn't show in the index because of mistranscription or a misspelling in the original record), it doesn't give a good way to cite the record.
The problem with citing a link is that it requires the reader to have access to whatever web site is linked, and assumes those links will be permanent. I have had numerous occasions of trying to verify trees posted by someone else, only to find that the links they cite are dead links.
New Hampshire state-level vital records exist on FamilySearch, Ancestry (two databases, one of which appears to be the FHL film, and the other a full colour reproduction), AmericanAncestors. In addition, I started research in the pre-internet days, and actually did research in the Archives physically searching the card files, and have references to the drawer number.
With other American vital record data sets, it seems that Ancestry is chopping them up into city or county segments. While that makes browsing easier (especially in looking for someone who doesn't show in the index because of mistranscription or a misspelling in the original record), it doesn't give a good way to cite the record.
The problem with citing a link is that it requires the reader to have access to whatever web site is linked, and assumes those links will be permanent. I have had numerous occasions of trying to verify trees posted by someone else, only to find that the links they cite are dead links.