Recording sources

[Londonwhay]

I have only been researching my family tree since earlier this year, so I am still new at this. Can anyone give me any advice on the best way to record sources?

[John]

At the the risk of sounding flippant, which I'm not being, write them down and attach them to the information they relate to. Most family tree programs have the facility for recording sources.

To save repitition you can give commonly used sources a reference no or letter.

Perhaps if you give us an example of what you are aiming for, a slightly more useful answer can be given.
I am glad though that you have seen the importance of recording sources from the out set.

John

[Rod Neep]

This is, strangely, quite an awkward one, because so many different people do it in so many different ways. Furthermore, if you don't establish a system right from the start, (that works for you), then you will end up having a non-system.

Start with the premise that a "record source" is a record of an event. Not the record of a person. Let me give you a little example:
A church baptism record, is an event that refers to more than one person.
a. the person being baptised
b. the father
c. the mother

and... it can also record other things too:
d. the name of the church, and the place
e. the father's occupation
f. the address of the parents
g. the date.

Hmmmm a baptism record is not so simple at all!

Furthermore, you cannot just "attach" it to the person being baptised. Let's assume that you have a real paper copy. Where would you file it?

Let's take a slightly more complicated event. A page from a census enumerators' book. It contains references to several people in a family. Where would you file that??? With just one of the people??

The answer to that question will give you the answer to "how to record it". Think of records as being a totally separate collection.

You need a general classification, something like, for example:
Bi = Birth
Ba = baptism
M = marriage
D = death
Bu = burial
C = census
Di = Directrory
W = Will
and so on.


What I do, is use that prefix letter, followed by a "date" in reverse, so it is sorted. e.g.
Ba18500130-01 a baptism on 30 Jan 1850 and -01 on the end, just in case I end up at some time with another document for a baptism on the same date. That is its "source number".

Then I create a database of my records/sources. Starting with the unique record number, and also columns for date, church, place, surname, first name, census ref., and so on. (Some of the columns may be empty, but that doesn't matter).

Now..... in the person record, I can refer to a document. And many people can have that same document reference attached to them.

But the documents are stored as a separate collection. If I don't hold the document, then in another column, I record where it is.

A final note. I don't of course have a physical document for every source. So one of the columns in my database is "reliability". On a 1-5 scale (5 for "I hold the document - reliable") and 1 for "hearsay", 2 for IGI, and so on.

Rod

[John]

Furthermore, you cannot just "attach" it to the person being baptised. Let's assume that you have a real paper copy. Where would you file it?
Rod

OK, attach as in connect or link to, as in a code or reference that refers you to the second heap of papers by the window, the one with the cat on, or if you are more organised, the file marked "whatever" in the filing cabinet.

[Londonwhay]

This is, strangely, quite an awkward one, because so many different people do it in so many different ways. Furthermore, if you don't establish a system right from the start, (that works for you), then you will end up having a non-system.

Start with the premise that a "record source" is a record of an event. Not the record of a person. Let me give you a little example:
A church baptism record, is an event that refers to more than one person.
a. the person being baptised
b. the father
c. the mother

and... it can also record other things too:
d. the name of the church, and the place
e. the father's occupation
f. the address of the parents
g. the date.

Hmmmm a baptism record is not so simple at all!

Furthermore, you cannot just "attach" it to the person being baptised. Let's assume that you have a real paper copy. Where would you file it?

Let's take a slightly more complicated event. A page from a census enumerators' book. It contains references to several people in a family. Where would you file that??? With just one of the people??

The answer to that question will give you the answer to "how to record it". Think of records as being a totally separate collection.

You need a general classification, something like, for example:
Bi = Birth
Ba = baptism
M = marriage
D = death
Bu = burial
!C = census</P>Di = Directrory
W = Will
and so on.


What I do, is use that prefix letter, followed by a "date" in reverse, so it is sorted. e.g.
Ba18500130-01 a baptism on 30 Jan 1850 and -01 on the end, just in case I end up at some time with another document for a baptism on the same date. That is its "source number".

Then I create a database of my records/sources. Starting with the unique record number, and also columns for date, church, place, surname, first name, census ref., and so on. (Some of the columns may be empty, but that doesn't matter).

Now..... in the person record, I can refer to a document. And many people can have that same document reference attached to them.

But the documents are stored as a separate collection. If I don't hold the document, then in another column, I record where it is.

A final note. I don't of course have a physical document for every source. So one of the columns in my database is "reliability". On a 1-5 scale (5 for "I hold the document - reliable") and 1 for "hearsay", 2 for IGI, and so on.

Rod
Thanks for the info Rod, now some more questions:
Do you keep your sources in an entirely different database to your family history programme?

If so do you use another computer programme, if so which one.

Finally any chance of posting a small example file?

Glenda

[Rod Neep]

Do you keep your sources in an entirely different database to your family history programme?

If so do you use another computer programme, if so which one.

Glenda
I have always kept my events database in Microsoft Access, anf then have used a normal family tree software to record people that *fit* together.

Now though, I have TMG, (The Master Genealogist) which can do both. It can keep a source list (citation), and you can attach different people to the same source. On the down-side, once again, you can gain great benefits by classifying sources as per my longer post above. Otherwise, it makes up its own "citation" numbers, which can be hard to locate later.

Rod

[Geoff Rogers]

I have always kept my events database in Microsoft Access, anf then have used a normal family tree software to record people that *fit* together.

Now though, I have TMG, (The Master Genealogist) which can do both. It can keep a source list (citation), and you can attach different people to the same source. On the down-side, once again, you can gain great benefits by classifying sources as per my longer post above. Otherwise, it makes up its own "citation" numbers, which can be hard to locate later.

Rod
Hi Rod

I see you use Access to store your information. In your person record how do you link your record source to it?

Regards

Geoff

[Rod Neep]

Hi Rod

I see you use Access to store your information. In your person record how do you link your record source to it?

Regards

GeoffA person record includes many events. It is those events that are recorded in the person record (by source reference number). As I described earlier, an event can belong to more than one person, and more than one person can be recorded in an event. I'm not saying my method is the only way, but it certainly works.
The other handy thing about an events based database, is that one can record anything, including events where you don't yet know the real identity of the person, i.e. where he fits in your tree.
But the really useful thing, is to use that to search for someone, or to search to see who he might belong to.
For example, (in a database query), show me all events where the father was John and the mother was Mary, in the county of Nottinghamshire, and sort them by date order. Using that method, those stray people can often fall into place.
Rod

[Geoff Rogers]

Thanks for the info Rod

[Rod Neep]

Another good example I just thought of.

Let's say that youy have an 1881 census record, where Sarah NEEP is recorded as a servant (with another family), aged 20, unmarried, born in Tilney All Saints, Norfolk.
So... at this stage we don't know who she is. But the event is recorded in the events database anyway.
Years later you find a baptism of a Sarah NEEP, in Tilney All Saints, Norfolk, daughter of John and Mary, in 1861. It goes into your events database. Again, that is an isolated event.
But..... can you now see how a query in the database could show them on the same screen?..... and match them up as the same person?
Rod

[Geoffers]

In reply to

I have only been researching my family tree since earlier this year, so I am still new at this. Can anyone give me any advice on the best way to record sources?
Rod wrote:
[What I do, is use that prefix letter, followed by a "date" in reverse, so it is sorted. e.g. Ba18500130-01 a baptism on 30 Jan 1850 and -01 on the end, just in case I end up at some time with another document for a baptism on the same date. That is its "source number".]

I do something very similar to Rod, but just to give a very slightly different view, the reference number I use for each source document consists of two letters (for the type of document), then three letter (for place), three numbers (for year), if I have further doucments from the same place, source, and year I add 01, 02 etc. For me, each certificate, census return, service record, tax return etc is a signle source and is recorded as such.

So a census return for Buxton (Norfolk) from 1841 might be CR/BUX841-01.
A Birth certificate from Portsmouth - BC/POR957 (note that for the year I don't bother with the first digit on the grounds that I haven't reaced over a thousand years of family history).

I keep all these source references along with personal ID references so that I can easily find a single person, what documents I have relating to him/her and very quickly see how someone has moved around.

To give another perspective, I know that some people just record single souces such as 'census', 'GRO certificates', etc and then use the citation part of a family history programme to distinguish the different records. This works well for them and limits their number of sources, my way works well for me.

Play around with a few ideas and see what you are happiest with, what makes most sense to you - but do try to keep organized, or things will get very quickly out of hand.


So a census return for Buxton (Norfolk) from 1841 might be CR/BUX841-01.
A Birth certificate from Portsmouth - BC/POR957 (note that for the year I don't bother with the first digit on the grounds that I haven't reaced over a thousand years of family history).

I keep all these source references along with personal ID references so that I can easily find a single person, what documents I have relating to him/her and very quickly see how someone has moved around.

To give another perspective, I know that some people just record single souces such as 'census', 'GRO certificates', etc and then use the citation part of a family history programme to distinguish the different records. This works well for them and limits their number of sources, my way works well for me.

Play around with a few ideas and see what you are happiest with, what makes most sense to you - but do try to keep organized, or things will get very quickly out of hand.

Geoffers
Charlbury, Oxfordshire

[PatMac]

I may be considered a little "old-fashioned" in my file management, but while working on my family records, I keep some files on the computer and others in hardcopy. Having lost valuable information several times due to computer "crashes", I tend to keep "duplicates". On my PC, every month I start a new folder called "All genealogy related (name of month)". At the end of that month I copy everything I've collected during that month on to CD, and change the folder name to the current month. When the CD gets full, I start a new one.

(If you try this, be sure to label your CD with the months included on it, and put it in a secure place. )

If I can "download" a copy of a source document, such as a census record, I do, and in many cases print it out too, so I can be sure I've referenced it correctly.

If I get information via email, I also make copies of the text, and sometimes print that out too, before deleting the message from my mailbox.

I know of other researchers who've lost important data they've collected because their computer crashed and they didn't know how to retrieve it. Happily, when that happened to a cousin who'd shared what she had with me, I was able to send all she'd sent me over several months, back across the airwaves to the UK!

You may find this helpful, along with some of the suggestions made by others at the forum. Welcome to the intricate but very rewarding field of Genealogy.

[Guy Etchells]

Not old fashioned - sensible.
I use a very similar system of writing to cd and printing out hard copies, in fact since I got my first computer & printer my paper files have taken on a life of their own and are now threating to fall through the ceiling due to the weight up there.
Now I know why they used to build houses with cellars.
Cheers
Guy