Ancestors of Cley

Update 21 May 2010: I've just found the page in which the images are sourced to the Norfolk Record Office. At the top right of the "browse" page, there is a link entitled "About this collection" which does indeed specify that the Norfolk Record Office is the repository of the original registers. It's entirely possible this was there all the time and I just flat didn't see it; in which case I apologise to the good folks at the FamilySearch pilot site for saying the images weren't sourced to the NRO.

I still have to disagree with their suggested format for citing information found in these images, however, which is linked from that "About this collection" page. The advice and examples do not include the repository of the original documents. I believe that information should always be included in source citations if possible.

I spent a large part of the past weekend happily going through the Parish Register images available on the LDS FamilySearch pilot site. I realised when I started saving some of them, however, that none of the images or registers are sourced to the Norfolk Record Office (NRO) — or if they are, I certainly can't find the citations. There's no mention of the PD numbers that are the NRO catalogue reference.  The only information is down at the bottom of the Parish list, where it says "Collection Description: This collection is made up of parish registers of Norfolk, containing records of christening, marriage and burial entries."

While I am very grateful to the FamilySearch folks for putting the images online, I do feel it is extremely important that the images (or at least the registers) are sourced to the repository of the original documents. However, according to the advice given at familysearch.org in their Research Wiki ( https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Cite_Your_Sources_%28Source_Footnotes%29 ) we should cite the source of records found on the pilot site like this:

Record Search—Pilot Site
11. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "Ohio Deaths, 1908-1953: Phoebe Augsfuerger" in FamilySearch Record Search—Pilot Site at http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html#deathPlaceId=43;surname=augspurger;p=1;searchType=standard;deathPlace=Ohio%2C%20United%20States;givenName=phoebe (accessed 23 January 2009). Died 28 Apr 1928. Should be Augspurger.

(The link doesn't work; at least not for me. Takes me to the search page; so it's not very useful to me as a citation.)

I believe the document repository should be in the source citation. That's where the actual information is coming from. So I'm going to add that information when I cite information from any of those images on this site. As an example, to cite the 1747 marriage in Shipdham of William Jairy & Elizabeth Sherey, I could have put something like this:

Shipdham Baptisms, Marriages, Burials 1558-1804. Norfolk Record Office. Image online at http://pilot.familysearch.org - England, Norfolk Parish Registers. Image 253 of 253. Accessed 25 April 2010.

But that doesn't give the NRO catalogue reference, which is necessary for correct citation of parish records held at the NRO. (See NRO Information Leaflet 4, "How to cite NRO references" PDF download.)

But how does one find the PD reference when it's not mentioned on the FamilySearch site? Well, there are a couple of ways. Sometimes the PD number is written in pencil on the first or second page of the register, so it's on the image. But even if it isn't, every image shows a tag at the bottom of the page that describes the contents of the register. You can use that, along with the "Set Searches" facility of the Norfolk Record Office online catalogue (NROCAT) to find the PD number.

The Shipdham register in the above example has a tag at the bottom of the images with this information: "SHIPDHAM bapt. and bur. 1558-1804; marr. 1558-1753." and if you look at the middle column on the Familysearch site above the image, the events are Baptisms, Marriages, Burials, and the years in the third column are 1558-1804.

If you go to the NRO site, and look in the section headed "Summaries of collections," you'll see a link to NROCAT. Click that, and on the menu across the top, select "Set searches." A dropdown menu will appear; select "Church of England Parishes." Click on the arrows to open the dropdown menu, scroll down and select Shipdham, then click Search.

Look through the Result List until you find the title and years that match up with the information on the image; in this case, it's the third one down. The title is "Baptisms and Burials, 1558-1804; Marriages, 1558-1753" and the date is 1558-1804. The CatalogueRef is PD 337/1.

With this information, I can complete my source citation. I'll use the title as given in NROCAT first, since that's the location of the actual document, then as given on the LDS site. Since for some reason the links to the images on the FamilySearch site aren't working for me, I'll give the full path to the register, rather than link directly to it, so the image can be found from the search start page:

Shipdham Parish Registers: Baptisms & Burials 1558-1804; Marriages 1558-1753. Norfolk Record Office, PD 337/1. Image online at http://pilot.familysearch.org - England, Norfolk Parish Registers, Shipdham Baptisms, Marriages, Burials 1558-1804, Image 253 of 253. Accessed 25 April 2010.

(Note: Don't make my mistake and leave out the space between the PD and the 3. It's PD 337/1, not PD337/1.)

If I didn't know that the Norfolk Parish Registers were kept at the NRO, I'd be unable to cite it as the repository, of course. So, although I am thankful that the images are online and that we have this wonderful resource, I cringe to think of all the incomplete sourcing this will result in as people use the various image collections.  I hope the FamilySearch site will include the actual names of the document repositories in the future.

Related Posts

1. Norfolk Parish Register images online!
2. Ruling out Shipdham as the place of William & Elizabeth Jary’s wedding
3. Parish Registers Sometimes Provide Brief Glimpses of Personalities
4. Thank you FreeREG!
5. Susanna (Parish Register) or Susan (Archdeacon’s Transcript)?