Greetings: I apologize if I’ve duplicated this question.
How would one create a source for a census where the family is on two pages: source for each page or one source ?
Two pages source Name>
Rhode Island, Bristol County, Bristol Town - 1930 U.S. census - sheet 3B
Rhode Island, Bristol County, Bristol Town - 1930 U.S. census- sheet 4A
Both sheets have 6 people each.
One page source Name>
Rhode Island, Bristol County, Bristol Town - 1930 U.S. census
with this one, I have in the citation for the PageID sheets 3B-4A and the
Citation Name as 1930 census - [person of interest name](line 95)
In my research notes, I added the full transcription of the census.
You are going to get conflicting opinions. In the case of census, I treat census entry for one family that spans two pages as two sources.
My view is that each census image is a source. So my source/citations for census pages cite down to the page. In the opposite direction, it’s common in my database that more than one of my families are on the same census page. In those cases, I use the same source/citation for all those families.
For the most part, I use this idea of “one image is a source/citation and one source/citation is one image” for all my sources, not just for census sources, and it serves me well. This way of doing census sources is not in accord with Evidence Explained nor with RM’s source templates which are based on Evidence Explained. That’s because the census citations from Evidence Explained break things down to the family. Under this view of things, for a family which spans two pages, the two pages would be one source, and if you have multiple families on the same census page, each family is a separate source. Evidence Explained is the expert and I am not, but I still prefer my approach.
I do deviate from my approach occasionally on the opposite direction. Which is to say, I sometimes have two or even three images for one source/citation. For example, draft registration cards often have two images, one for the front and one for the back, and there are often separate images for the front and the back. To me, this is one source/citation. Another example is 20th century courthouse marriage records where there are often three images for the same source - an application, a license, and a return. The license and return are often front and back of the same piece of paper. I typically treat all three of these images as a single source/citation.
I use one citation that I attach to the head of household. If the household extends over two pages, I would just list both pages (or sheets) as “sheets 3B and 4A.” If there is more than one family, and that other family is relevant to what I am doing, I share the citation with the head of the other family. If the other family is unrelated (say just renting living space), I would not include them.
One citation listing details for all persons at the property with two media items linked to it. Citation is then attached to Census fact and that fact copied to each family member. Other relevant facts re-use same citation e.g. occupation
