Vital Record Citation Generator

Your citations

Enter the record's details to see your citations.

How to Use the Vital Record Citation Generator

1. 1. Choose a certificate or a census record. The two have different details, so the form changes.
2. 2. For a certificate, give the type, the name or names on it, the date, the number as printed, and the office that issued it. Then say which copy you used: a certified copy, a photocopy, or a digital image on a website.
3. 3. For a census record, give the year, the state, county and place, the enumeration district, the sheet or page, the household or the dwelling and family, the person, and the microfilm publication and roll.
4. 4. Add the website and the date you viewed it if you used a digital image.
5. 5. Copy the style you need. Chicago is listed first because historians and genealogists use it; MLA and APA are adaptations.

Which Style Do Genealogists and Historians Use?

None of the three style manuals prints a model for a death certificate or a census schedule. History and genealogy fill the gap with Chicago's notes-and-bibliography logic, worked out for family-history sources by Elizabeth Shown Mills in Evidence Explained. A record is cited in a note that tells a reader where to find the exact line, and its type of source goes in the bibliography. This tool follows the census model on the Evidence Explained site and the Chicago-style genealogy footnotes that university guides publish for certificates, and writes dates the Chicago way.

MLA and APA are adaptations of their patterns for an unpublished or archival document: the issuing office is the author, the item gets a descriptive title, and the form of the copy is named. Treat them as conventions and check them with your instructor. A short note under each result says so.

Vital Record Citation Examples

Every name and number below is invented, so the examples show the form and not a real family. A death certificate, using a certified copy you hold yourself:

A marriage certificate with two names, from a photocopy:

A birth certificate viewed as a digital image on a website, which adds the site, the address and the date you viewed it:

A line in the 1940 census, on the model the Evidence Explained site publishes. The note locates the person; the bibliography entry names the census and the county:

An earlier census numbers dwellings and families, and its pages were penned, not stamped:

Census Details That Trip People Up

• Sheet or page. If the page has a number stamped at the top, call it a page and say stamped. If the only number is the enumerator's, call it a sheet. The tool lets you choose.
• Household, or dwelling and family. The 1940 census numbers households. Earlier schedules number dwellings and families separately; enter whichever your page has.
• Enumeration district. The ED is on the page header. It finds the page again when a website's index moves.
• Microfilm publication and roll. Digital images are copies of NARA microfilm. Naming the publication, such as T627 for 1940, tells the reader where the image comes from.
• The person. Cite a person only if your page is about them; otherwise cite the page.

Privacy and Access

Vital records of living people, and recent records, are private in many places. Access rules vary by state and country, and some offices release certified copies only to the person named, a family member or someone with a legal interest. Ask before you cite a living person's record in a paper, and ask your instructor whether a private record belongs in a bibliography at all. Census schedules become public after seventy-two years in the United States.

Common Mistakes

• Citing the clerk. The issuing office is the author, not the registrar who signed.
• Leaving out the number. A certificate number or file number is what lets an office find it again.
• Not saying which copy you used. A certified copy, a photocopy and a digital image are different sources.
• Citing only the website. Cite the record, then the site that holds the image.
• Omitting the date you viewed a website. Pages move, and the date shows which version you saw.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I cite a birth certificate?

In Chicago style, a note names the person, the type of record, the date, the number and the office, and then the copy: Mary Ann Sample, birth certificate, March 3, 1899, file no. 12345, Ohio Department of Health, certified copy in author's possession. This is the form Chicago-style genealogy guides use, adapted to Chicago's date style. Use the Chicago tab above and change the type to birth.

How do I cite a death certificate in MLA or APA?

Neither manual has a model, so both treat it as an unpublished document. MLA gives the issuing office as author, a descriptive title, the date and number, and the kind of copy. APA gives the office as author, the year, an italic title with the number in parentheses and a bracketed description. Check with your instructor before you rely on either.

How do I cite a census record in Chicago style?

Follow the Evidence Explained model: the census year and place, the schedule, the enumeration district, the page or sheet, the household, the person, then the image source and, last, the NARA microfilm publication and roll. The bibliography entry lists the state, the county and the census.

What is the difference between a page and a sheet in a census citation?

A page number is stamped on the page. A sheet number is the enumerator's own, written by hand. Evidence Explained says to call the number a page if there is a stamped number and a sheet if there is only a handwritten one.

Do I need a date viewed for Ancestry or FamilySearch?

Yes, for any digital image on a website. The page can change or the index can be corrected. Chicago and Evidence Explained both put the date you viewed it in the note.

Can I cite a vital record in APA, or is it a personal communication?

APA includes a source in the reference list when a reader could retrieve it. A record held by a public office can be requested; a copy in a private family collection cannot, and APA would treat it as a personal communication cited only in the text. When in doubt, ask your instructor.