Hi all - I wanted to see if there is a consensus on how to cite TNA held War Diaries in written research? I can come up with a citation method but wanted to see if there’s something most people abide to. Apologies if this has been asked before, I searched the forum but couldn’t see anything. Phil
"TNA: WO 171/1111- Regiment/unit, 6 June 1944." To be very anal, there is supposed to be a space after the department letters (e.g. "WO "). There has been a recent trend in publications to omit this (e.g. WO171/1111), don't know why, it's incorrect and a bad move if storing references in a database. Lee
Sorry to add to your options, but an alternative that I have seen recently (inc Monty's Men by John Buckley) is to add United Kingdom to the front of the reference. He uses: UK NA WO 171/155, 'Summary of Views Expressed at an RA Conference', 21st Army Group HQ, 27 September 1944. Lee will be pleased to note the space after WO! That allows him to use US NA for references to documents in the US National Archives. Regards Tom
I'm not disputing what you say and I may be misremembering, but doesn't the U.S. National Archive use the Prefix 'NN' to denote records they have catalogued, not 'NA'? Edit: Think I've misremembered.
The US archives are known, and typically cited, as NARA (National Archives and Records Administration). The British National Archives abbreviates itself as TNA (The National Archives). Personally I'd prefer the old name PRO - Public Record Office.
