Lesson 4 – Citing

Where did this stuff come from?

Let’s say that you write a history about your dad, but because you’re modest, you didn’t put your name as the author. One-hundred years from now, no one knows who wrote the story and your descendants aren’t sure the account is true, or how first hand it is. Wouldn’t that be sad? Yeah. So as you collect records, and create histories, cite them!

Now let’s say that I give a few instructions below on how to source, well, you’ll know they came from me, but how would you know that what I put is really the way to source? I source the source I got about sourcing.

Below are examples of how to source various documents based on examples from Wikipedia. The blue text is text you should replace with the information you have.

Book by one author:
Author Last Name, First Initial(s). (Year Published). Book Title. Publisher City: Publisher.

Book by two or more authors:
Author Last Name, First Initial(s)., & Author Last Name, First Initial(s). (Year Published). Book Title. Publisher City, Publisher State: Publisher Name.

Article in a monthly magazine:
Author Last Name, First Initial(s). (Year, Month Day). Article Title. Magazine Name, Issue Number, Page Number(s).

Article in a newspaper
Author Last Name, First Initial(s). (Year, Month Day). Article Title. Newspaper Name. p. Page Number.

Article in an Internet-only journal
Author Last Name, First Initial(s). (Year Published, Month Day). Article Title. Website/Journal Title. Retrieved Month Day, Year, from http://www.websitename/pagename.html

Stand-alone Internet document, no author identified, no date
Article Title. (n.d.). Retrieved Month Day, Year, from http://www.websitename/pagename.html

E-mail or other personal communication (cite in text only)
(First Initial. Last Name of Email Writer, personal communication, Month Day, Year of Email).

Above examples based on guidelines from Wikipedia:

APA style. (2007, August 20). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved August 25, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=APA_style&oldid=152435459

Another great resource for citing family history documents can be found in the citation below.

John Wylie. How to Cite Sources. In Geneaology.com. Retrieved August 25, 2007, from http://www.genealogy.com/19_wylie.html