Citations ...

offers numerous examples of citations for electronic sources. Yes,
it differs from ESM.

I note with interest, not necessarily approval, that these citations
begin with the author's given name, not the surname.

Is that name-reversal common these days?

John Nichols...

I haven't seen that in practice. What's the reason for overturning
years of standard research practice?

Austin W. Spencer...

In fact, if I recall my ESM correctly, she does it both ways. Put the
surname first when compiling a bibliographic list, and alphabetize the
entries. This way, no bibliographic entry in the list will be "lost."
But this advantage only applies (and is only necessary) to such a list.
When writing footnotes to accompany text, lead off with given names the
first time you cite a source. If you cite it again, substitute the
author's surname only, followed by a brief title and page number(s). If
your work is to appear in a major journal, the editor probably won't
even bother with a bibliographic list.

I have no problem with my bibliography showing Allen Xavier, Barbara
Yurs, Charles Wier, David Urias, Elsie Truelove, and so on, but I
can't help thinking that as soon as I arrange them that way, someone
will have a cow when Xavier, Allen or Wier, Charles or Truelove,
Elsie isn't where they're looking ...

Austin W. Spencer...

The major point of unclarity that I see in the ProGenealogists page is
that its author does not distinguish between footnotes and list
entries. One style, the writer implies over and over again, should
suffice for any citation we care to write. Never mind that ESM, whom
the author endorses at the end of the guide, says something quite
different. Nor does it help that where the surname comes first, the
examples place a comma in every place where, according to the rules of
bibliographic presentation, there should be a period.

singhals...

Yeah. Hard enough to remember whether the italics are newspaper
names or journal articles, without having to figure out whether it's
an e-article, or an e-copy of a hard-copy article, or a hard-copy of
an e-article ...

Cheryl

singhals

singhals...

If the website gave a reason, I missed seeing it.

Cheryl

singhals

Lesley Robertson...

It'll get awfully complicated (especially for indexing) when the
citation list contains a mixture of refs from electronic and
hardcopy material. Surely it's better to come up with a single
format?

I tend to use the same one I use professionally - Surname, Forename
(or initials), (other authors), year, title, location. Of course,
certificates are another matter.

Lesley Robertson

"Lesley Robertson"

Austin W. Spencer...

Austin W. Spencer