Orange County Indexed · Quick help
Record both the source and the route to it
A useful citation lets another person identify the source and find the passage supporting your claim. Cite the material you actually consulted. If Orange County Indexed led you to a book, newspaper, or original record that you read, cite that source; cite the index for its own descriptions and research connections.
Features used in this guide: Search Indexed Records · Downloads
Record the creator, title, publication or record date, page or other locator, holding institution, and stable link. Add the date you accessed a webpage that may change. Keep a deed's book and page, or an archive's collection, box, and folder. A search-results address may not lead back to the item itself.
Give the newspaper title, issue date, page, and the article or notice heading when there is one, followed by the digital provider and link. Use the issue date in the citation even when the event happened earlier. In your writing, distinguish the date of the event from the date it was reported.
Name the abstractor or transcriber and the original record they cite. If you have not read the original, do not imply that you have. Example: Mark Chilton, "Jumped the Broom: The Freedmen's Marriage Records of Orange County, North Carolina," Wandering through the NC Piedmont (blog), 21 February 2022, entry for Dennis Adams and Chancy, citing Orange County Freedmen's Marriage Book, page 10.
For a book, keep the author, full title, publication details, and page. For an archival item, include its creator and date with the collection and its location within it. For a map, include the map title, creator, date, and sheet or edition where given. Check the holding institution's preferred citation.
Use the page title, Orange County Indexed, Friends of the Orange County Public Library, the page's address, and the date you accessed it. Person and place pages have a Cite or share box with a ready-made citation to copy. Example: Friends of the Orange County Public Library. "Dennis Adams and Chancy, marriage registration, 1866." Orange County Indexed, https://focplnc.org/orange-county-books/enslaved-people/m0001/. Accessed October 12, 2026. If you use the index's summary without reading the source it cites, make that route clear.
These examples show the essential information rather than one citation style. Follow your teacher's, editor's, or publisher's requested format. Image credits and permission to reproduce material are separate from a source citation; check the holding institution's reuse terms.
