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  1. #1
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    Default Tips and Hints on Media and Sources

    Hi - I'm using MAcFamilyTree 9 to do my family tree. I've got about 294 people in tree, 115 families. I've got 56 sources and 243 pieces of media ( photos, documents etc). I'm getting into a muddle partly because I've been compiling for years and each time i come back i do something differently. So say for example I've attached a census image to a family in one case as media attached directly to the family and in another case I've stored the image as a source and referenced the source on the family page. Thats bad enough but I've now realised that i don't know how to easily get a report showing all the details of the family bu which I mean all the associated photos / census information / notes etc.
    So I feel as if I'm dropping all this great information into a big hole and then am unable to easily see it again.
    Am I doing something wrong? Any suggestions for improving things?

  2. #2
    Super Moderator christanel's Avatar
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    I don't have an experience with MacFamilyTree 9 but as you say you "keep doing thing differently" maybe you need to take a step back and decide on a permanent way of recording and storing the information and images you have.
    Without deleting your original tree and data can you start building another tree - give it a different name and a later date - so you know which tree you are working on. To save time and frustration if it is only the media side of things that are giving you trouble is it possible to export a gedcom file from the original tree to your computer without downloading any attached media? Then import it as the new separate tree into MacFamilyTree 9.
    Check that the new tree is good to go and then decide where and how you want to store the media for each person/family.
    There is a Facebook page for MacFamilyTree users so that could be a helpful group to talk with. Not if. like me, you don't 'do' Facebook though.
    I haven't been much help because I use RootsMagic but hopefully someone else will be more familiar with the program you are using.
    Christina
    Sometimes paranoia is just having all the facts.
    William Burroughs

  3. #3
    Super Moderator - Completely bonkers and will never change.
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    I will begin my reply in a similar way to Christina
    I don't have an experience with MacFamilyTree 9 but as you say you "keep doing thing differently" maybe you need to take a step back and decide on a permanent way of recording and storing the information and images you have.
    but then continue slightly differently. Mainly because I couldn't get on with my family history programme so did it 'my way' and recorded details in a way that suited me. Even that evolved with slight variations over the years, until about two years ago when I decided that wasn't the best way after all, so I've now started all over again. The good news being that I have most of the information about people, just not written as I want it to be.
    The one thing in my system which hasn't changed (just expanded as more records become available, unlike when I started my research and about the only things online were the 1881 census and a fledgling FreeBMD!) is a spreadsheet against I which I check which records I have for each person (individual census years, baptism, marriage, burial, BMD certificates, military service, school records, 1939 Register etc) so I know what I've downloaded/photocopied at the Archives, etc.

    Some of my relatives haven't been updated since I made the initial entry for them, so as I'm updating them the spreadsheet makes it very easy to remember to search for additional records. I'm also re-checking that what I have recorded is in fact correct, e.g. was Frederick baptised on 20 June 1875, or was it 29 June 1876?

    I don't know enough about family history programmes to talk about exporting gedcom files, etc, but by all means try that. I would also recommend you read the manual, and in addition to the Facebook group to use a search engine to see if there is either a similar forum to this one, but specifically for MacFamilyTree.

    So, start again, but this time decide in advance exactly how you're going to record things (and if necessary, write it down so you remember in the future!) and then stick to it. If you're not sure which is the better way, then enter a few names one way, and a few more another way, and then compare. It's very easy to then amend the 'wrong' entries to the better way.

    Have fun!

    Pam
    Vulcan XH558 - “Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.”

  4. #4
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    I'm another one with no experience of Mac Family Tree, but before going too far it might be worth taking a moment to consider your methods of storing information. All programs differ in their details and terminology, but the following is probably mostly applicable to most of them, and when you're clear about how you handle these things it's easier to decide on something consistent.

    First, when you have a fact/event which involves more than one person, do you record it as the same kind of event for each of them, or as an event for one of them (often called the 'principal') with the others as 'witnesses' or sharing it in some similar way? My practice is to record it as an event for each participant, as at one time (this might have changed or vary from one program to another) the shared events didn't always show up in someone's data. For example, if you had a household with children in a census and recorded the children as witnesses, any subsequent report with the child as the main person might not include that census fact; the only way to get it included was to give each child its own census event as 'principal'.

    Second, do you attach images to people, events, or sources, or sometimes places? It might depend on the kind of image, of course, and programs might nudge you in one particular direction, but you might need to experiment in your program to see how its reports handle images attached in different ways. For example, some ways of attaching images might lead to lots of unnecessary duplication.

    Third, when it comes to sources, are you a 'splitter' or a 'lumper'? This is about the distinction between a source ('master source' in some programs) and a citation, and it also has an impact on what you do with images. Taking the 1851 census as an example, up to now I've been a lumper, with a single source called "1851 Census", and dozens of citations to it. Any citation (which gives the specific piece/folio/page number, eg HO107/1234 fo56 p7) might be used lots of times as evidence for someone's date and place of birth, residence and occupation, and again for everyone else in that household, but my program (others may vary) treats each citation as a separate entity, so if I wanted to include an image of the census page I'd need to add it to each one of them separately. A splitter, on the other hand, would have a separate source for each census household (eg "1851 Census: HO107/1234 fo56 p7"), and quite probably use that as is with no separate citation. In that case an image could be applied to the source just once, and it's job done.

    Some programs nudge you more towards splitting, and some towards lumping, but it's up to you to decide which suits your way of working better, and which gives a better output in reports for you. Even diehard splitters will sometimes use lumped sources, though: something like the GRO indexes where there's no image works better with lumping. And even a mostly lumper like me finds it better to split things when it comes to individual BMD certificates.

    I hope that gives you something useful to think about. The main thing, really, is to work out how you're going to treat each kind of event, source and image, and then try to be consistent.

  5. #5
    Super Moderator christanel's Avatar
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    Wow arthurk you have certainly given me something to think about. Thank you for your detailed and very informative post. Now I know what I will be studying today.
    Christina
    Sometimes paranoia is just having all the facts.
    William Burroughs

  6. #6
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    Thanks Christina - I guess I was hoping for a miracle - LOL - I've a feeling that there isn't going to be a simple way to deal with it. I do have a Facebook account so will have a look - I'm not fond of Facebook either though so tend to avoid it as much as poss.

  7. #7
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    Thanks Pam - I think that having an external spreadsheet itemising what information I have loaded about each person or family is a good idea. It would be easy to lookup and as you suggest I could keep it as a master record when checking items.
    Glad to see it isn't only me having to revise and rethink.

  8. #8
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    Thanks Arthurk - Yes your reply covers all the problems I've come across. The issue of splitter or lumper that you describe is one I've struggled with - partly trying to understand just how it would work - say if you had a single source with loads of associated references or citations. My last attempt was creating a source for each image - clunky. But my software doesn't seem to have any reports which will include these sources - maybe I'm expecting too much. I shall need to spend some time thinking about the best way forward - thx again. No doubt I will be back with more questions.

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