Have you ever stopped to consider why genealogists need to use well-crafted citations? For a long time, I believed that if a citation helped another researcher locate the source, it was good enough.
Recently, I came across a citation in my files that—at first glance—seemed perfectly fine:
“Crawford,” Miami Valley Genealogies, Vol. 2: Families A–K, Brien Lindsay (Dayton, Ohio: Brien, maybe 1960), pp. 49–53.
I have a photocopy of this article in my files and wanted to revisit the source to search for members of my Crawford FAN Club. But the citation didn’t include the repository—so I had no clue where I originally accessed the book.
Determined, I began searching Archive.org, FamilySearch Books, WorldCat, Ancestry, Amazon, and even Google. I couldn’t find this exact title anywhere.
That left me wondering: Is my citation actually correct?
Refusing to give up, I tried the FamilySearch Catalog again—this time searching by the author’s name. That led me to a listing for Miami Valley Genealogies by Lindsay M. Brien. Scrolling down, I found a microfilm version (007712477). On that reel of digitized microfilm, Volume 2 begins around image 390, and the Crawford entry appears on page 58 (image 450):
Brien Lindsay, Miami Valley Genealogies: 145 Family Records, Vol. 2: Families A-J (n.p.: n.p., n.d.), p. 58 (image 456 of 1204); digitized microfilm, FamilySearch, DGS #007712477 : viewed online 20 June 2025.
While I haven’t done a side-by-side comparison between the microfilm and my photocopy, both sections share the same title. However, there are inconsistencies:
- My notes indicate Volume 2 covers A–K, but the microfilm version is A–J.
- My photocopy starts on page 48, while the microfilm places the Crawford section on page 58.
- The texts are not identical.
That prompted another WorldCat search, where I finally located a record matching my handwritten title. It’s held in a handful of libraries:
- Newberry Library
- Allen County Public Library
- Wright State University Libraries
- Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library
- Dayton Metro Library
- Houston Public Library
Unfortunately, I don’t recall ever visiting any of these repositories.
And that’s the point: I made a mistake by not recording where I accessed the source.
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I feel your pain, especially the added problem you ran into with this sources having more than one edition. Library catalogues can also be tricky in that even if you have the exact title, if there’s an error behind the scenes, it may not show up – I’ve learned to search by both author and title and sometimes just in the
“keyword” field.
Like you, I’ve been caught out by not recording at which repository I viewed the source and now make sure I ALWAYS include it. Similarly, for online sources, whenever possible, I track them down at the original repository, capture all the info there, and include it in a layered citation. That way, if the worst happens – as in, my downloaded images get corrupted/degraded, and they’re no longer available at the online repository, I still know where I can go to get another copy.
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