It’s a genealogy chart of the descendants of Rudolph and Tetjie Catherine (Heidan) Johnson, 19th century natives of Germany who had many family members immigrate to Illinois and Nebraska. What I have is an apparent photocopy of the original which was compiled by someone unknown to me and was found in my maternal grandparents’ collection of paper ephemera upon their death. It was not in my grandparents’ handwriting. I am using it as an initial outline to assist me in researching these families. While it could contain errors, I do want to cite it as a source–so that later I know when information came from this chart and when it came from somewhere else.
Determining how to cite this item has been a slight challenge.
For those who are intimidated by creating a citation, describing the item first is an excellent idea.
This photocopied chart of the family of Rudolf and Tetjie (Heidan) Johnson was found in the personal materials of John and Dorothy Ufkes. It was compiled by an unknown person and is now in the possession of their grandson, Michael Neill. It is not known how the Ufkeses acquired the chart nor how reliable the information contained in the chart is.
I could also include the town of residence for all individuals who had the chart in their possession at one time or another.
Is that in citation format? No. Does it include all the information needed to create a citation? Yes. Is it the end of the world if you don’t phrase it in citation format? No.
A first reference note could be something like:
Rudolf and Tetjie (Heidan) Johnson family descendant chart, John and Dorothy (Habben) Ufkes personal papers; privately held by Michael Neill [address for private use], 2023. There is no known provenance of the chart before it was in the Ufkes’ possession and the compiler (and accuracy of information contained therein) is currently unknown.
I would include data from the chart in my genealogical database–I just need to cite it so that later I know where those specific pieces of information came from.
Additionally I should use the information in the chart as a guide to perform further research on the family.
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