Jenny: It's a pickle. Considering changes we've seen in a few short years, I imagine that in ten or 20 years more there will be precious few URLs that will still be meaningful. I'm not such a philanthropist as to hope to leave behind a search string that can be replicated, nor do I feel inclined to have a variety of Master Sources with different database titles or URLs to reflect changes in websites over time. I'm leaning toward editing my Master Sources to show simply "Ancestry.com" or "FamilySearch.org" to show that I found the data online. Since I include in the Source Detail the surname or text both as written and as indexed, a search at those sites (if they still exist) for the name or a keyword as given in the citation may stand a chance of being found. For my own purposes in being able to relocate the data if necessary, I think I'll include the full search string but probably privatize it since it's a relatively temporary thing.
I still haven't come to grips (or gripes?) with situations where titles of databases change. It'll be interesting to see responses from others. Kirsten -----Original Message----- From: Jenny M Benson Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2012 9:21 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [LegacyUG] Citing website sources There has been some discussion here recently about whether or not/how to cite website URLs and related matters. What I am never quite sure about is how to handle situations where a citation one has created in the past is no longer *quite* accurate. For example, for quite a while it was possible to access records from a FamilySearch site for which the URL was http://search.labs/familysearch.org. That URL is no longer valid but it is possible to access the same records from www.familysearch.org. Similarly, Ancestry used to have a database entitled "England & Wales, Birth Index:1837-1983" and one entitled "England & Waes, Birth Index: 1984-2005". Then all those records were combined into one database called "England & Wales, Birth Index:1916-2005." I could give several other similar examples. So what does one do about one's citations? Just update the title of the database or the URL of the website and carry on using the same Master Sources, or create a new Master Source every time there is a subtle change in the details? If one of the main purposes of a Source is to allow others to replicate my research, they aren't going to be able to do that if they try and access http://search.labs/familysearch.org. On the other hand, if I say I accessed a record on www.familysearch.org on 15 May 2008 people might be very mistrustful of anything I say knowing that that must be a lie! -- Jenny M Benson Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp Follow Legacy on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/LegacyFamilyTree) and on our blog (http://news.LegacyFamilyTree.com). To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
