I agree with Cynthia. Your source is an image from Ancestry.com, not an official death certificate from the North Carolina Board of Health (or whatever it may have been called in the past). Your citation needs to be clear that you were using an online image from Ancestry.com. You really only know what Ancestry tells you their source for that image was, as follows:
"Ancestry.com. North Carolina Death Certificates, 1909-1975 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007. Original data: North Carolina State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics. North Carolina Death Certificates. Microfilm S.123. Rolls 19-242, 280, 313-682, 1040-1297. North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, North Carolina." If you are using EE style source citations, you have a choice of whether you want the name of the Ancestry database to be the lead element, or the certificate itself to be the lead element. Option 1 Example: (created with the generic internet template) "North Carolina Death Certificates, 1909-1975," database and images, _Ancestry.com_ (www.ancestry.com : accessed 13 Feb 2011); Jane Jones (1913), certificate 306; citing North Carolina State Board of Health, North Carolina State Archives Microfilm S.123. Option 2 Example: (created with a death records template) North Carolina Board of Health, death certificate 306 (1913), Jane Jones; digital image, "North Carolina Death Certificates, 1909-1975," Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 13 Feb 2011); citing North Carolina State Archives Microfilm S.123. I prefer the first example because in my mind it is clearer that I got the certificate from Ancestry, but YMMV. (In my examples, I made up the name Jane Jones, death certificate date, and number; everything else I took from the Ancestry database I assume the OP was referring to). As to whether you use North Carolina Board of Health or the agency name stamped on the certificate, I'd go with what Ancestry tells me it is called. Connie --- On Sun, 2/13/11, Cynthia Pursch <ci...@mckelleb.org> wrote: Wouldn’t the correct way to cite a death certificate be to use the format of online images since you don’t have the actual death certificate from NC? I have several death certificates from Kentucky. Some of them I do actually have the actual death certificate, but you can also access it on ancestry. When I have both I usually do 2 citations. But, if I have one directly from the state I will do a citation where I have the actual copy. Am I wrong in how I cite it? Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyusers.com/ Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyfamilytree.com/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
