Genealogy Site Source Citation Formatter

WHAT IT DOES

Genealogy Site Source Citation Formatter automatically extracts key source data from genealogy record pages and formats it into professional citations. It scans the page for record titles, repository names, collections, dates, image references, record IDs, authors, publishers, and location information. The tool then formats this data into four major citation styles: Evidence Explained (the gold standard for genealogical research), Chicago Manual of Style, MLA, and APA. Each citation includes the URL and an optional accessed date, with toggles for including repository details and image references. The formatted citation appears in a clean preview panel, ready to copy as plain text or HTML. This tool eliminates the tedious manual work of creating citations, ensuring consistency and accuracy for your genealogy research logs, proof summaries, and source footnotes.

WHERE IT RUNS

This script runs on any webpage that contains genealogy record content—including FamilySearch, Ancestry, MyHeritage, Findmypast, GenealogyBank, Newspapers.com, Fold3, and other genealogy databases. It operates entirely within your browser tab, reading the page's DOM and metadata to locate source details. The script cannot access other tabs, your browsing history, bookmarks, downloads, or any data outside the current record page. All settings—including default citation style, accessed date inclusion, repository details, image reference inclusion, and auto-detect preference—are stored locally using GM_setValue and never transmitted anywhere.

HOW TO USE

After installing with the BotGentz extension, the script automatically detects source data on genealogy record pages you view. The panel displays a formatted citation preview in your chosen style. Click "Generate Citation" to manually extract and format—or let auto-detect do it for you. Use the citation style dropdown to switch between Evidence Explained, Chicago, MLA, or APA—the citation updates instantly. Click "Copy Citation" to copy the plain text version to your clipboard, or "Copy as HTML" to get a formatted HTML version for pasting into blogs, research logs, or genealogy software. Click "Copy Raw Data" to export all extracted metadata as a structured text report for review or manual citation refinement. Toggle accessed date, repository details, and image reference on or off as needed for your citation style requirements.

THE REAL MECHANISM

The script uses a platform-aware DOM extraction strategy that adapts to different genealogy site structures. It first detects the platform from the URL (FamilySearch, Ancestry, MyHeritage, Findmypast, etc.), then queries site-specific selectors for record titles, repositories, collections, dates, and identifiers. For platforms where direct selectors aren't available, it falls back to generic selectors and meta tags including og:title, description, and other common metadata patterns. The extraction engine also parses record IDs from URLs using pattern matching, and extracts image references from known class names and data attributes. Once the data is collected, the citation formatter builds the citation based on the selected style. Each style has a distinct template: Evidence Explained uses a narrative structure with source type, collection, repository, and access details; Chicago uses a citation-style format with quoted titles and publishing details; MLA uses a simplified author-title format with URL and access date; APA uses a year-based format with retrieval information. All formatting uses safe string concatenation with no innerHTML from untrusted data.

THE PANEL

The Citation Formatter panel is a BGPanel component that you can drag anywhere on your screen by its header. It snaps to the nearest edge when released, keeping your workspace organized. The panel collapses to a small bubble showing only the emoji icon when minimised—click to expand it again. You can resize the panel horizontally to see more of the citation preview. Press the Escape key to collapse the panel instantly. Your panel position and size are saved per-site.

PLEASE NOTE

This script requires the free BotGentz browser extension to function. Genealogy websites frequently update their page layouts, which may change class names, data-testid attributes, and DOM structure. If the script cannot find source data, use the "Generate Citation" button to retry extraction, or use "Copy Raw Data" to see what information was detected. The citation formatting follows common genealogical citation standards but may need manual adjustments for specific source types—always review citations against your preferred style guide. The script never reads or writes password fields, hidden inputs, or file inputs. It stores only your citation style preference, toggle settings (accessed date, repository, image reference), and auto-detect preference locally. No source data, record content, or personal information is ever collected, transmitted, or shared.