Posting of Genealogical Workflow Questions

[Pam Downes]

Pam;

I just realised I might be asking a lot of you.

It is good for someone to challenge my techie skills as I do tend to rely on my son too much. Occasionally I surprise myself with what I can do unaided. Such as even thinking of imgur.

I have just created a spreadsheet that is similar to yours, but with columns for "Indices", "Civil" and "Ecc." under each record type (where relevant). This should account for all the different types of images I have for a given event. I've also expanded the "O" (Original, Copy or Image) designation to include "T" for transcripts, since I may want to obtain something better than a transcript or even use "O,T" when I have both.

I originally used T for transcripts and still will, but I know that most of the records I want will either be available online or I will transcribe myself. I will try to give an example.
A distant cousin (say, granddaughter of my great-great-grandfather). I am not going to start buying BMD certificates for her so in her birthdate column I will enter just 'mar Q 1900' meaning her birth was registered in March quarter 1900. When putting her records into my write-up about her I will write that, as well as expand it to include York registration district volume number 71b page number 123. Those details have come from the GRO Index (the civil registration index of BMDs in England and Wales since 1 July 1837). I have seen the document, transcribed the details, and double-checked that what I've typed is correct, so that is not a transcript.
However on FMP there may be an online transcript of her baptism indexed by York FHS, so in the baptism column I will then enter the date, colour-coded to signify it's a FHS transcript. (Or I could just put the date followed by the letter T to save faffing about with different colours. :smile5) in my write-up that gets expanded to all the details given in the transcript including the words 'transcript by York FHS, found on FMP'.
At a later date I might obtain an image of the entry in the parish baptism reggister. So the baptism date in the spreadsheet now gets colour-coded for parish register, (or I could enter the date followed by O for original) and the write-up gets expanded to include details such as page and entry numbers, father's occupation (usually not given in transcripts). I could also add 'image obtained' but I know that I would only have those details if I had the image.
Note that the baptism detail in the database has now changed from transcript to original. That's because you don't need both.
I say original instead of image. Also (IMO) there is less confusion using a capital O than using a capital I.

Am going to test this by logging and moving a copy of the data for a few people to a matching file structure. I'll adjust it until it works, then do the rest. Only then will I start putting things into the genealogy program.

Don't try to be too clever to start with. Decide which family you're going to start with. Where are they mainly found and what sort of records will you find for them? Say it's Canada then in the spreadsheet you'll need to include the years of the Canadian census as well as birth, baptism, marriage, death, and burial. That's your basic spreadsheet.
Choose person A, work your way through all the images/transcripts/whatever you can find for them, either entering dates or ticking boxes as appropriate in the spreadsheet. At the same time check you have those details entered in RootsMagic.
I would also transfer any images to new folders. As I said before, I have main folders based on the surnames of my four grandparents, and then subfolders which basically follow the headings of the spreadsheet. So for instance images of the 1891 census for anyone connected to to my maternal grandmother go into a subfolder labelled 'Addams family 1891 census'.
By transferring stuff to the new folders it should be easier to spot duplicates as you work your way through your
current stuff.

When you've finished with person A, pick person B, from the same family. I would try to work back logically, e.g. father, grandfather, great grandfather.
Again, go through the documents for person B, entering dates/ticking boxes on the spreadsheet, double-checking details in RootsMagic, transferring documents to your new folders.
You might find you have a document/image which you don't have a column for in the spreadsheet. Is it a document you're likely to find more of? e.g. proof of immigration. If so, simply add an immigration column to the spreadsheet, and an 'Addams family immigration' subfolder.
If I know person A doesn't have any immigration documents, then I put two little xx in the column against his name to indicate that no records exist.
'Odd' documents get put into an 'Addams family miscellaneous' subfolder.

Continue the same way with person C. Spreadsheet, RootsMagic, transfer images to new folders.
Again, you may find a new type of document. Add a column to the spreadsheet. If you know that People A and B don't (nor will they) have these documents, xx in the spreadsheet. If they might have, then leave the boxes blank. When you've finished transferring everything you can go back and try and fill in the empty boxes. Don't waste time now, because you might come across something buried deep in your present 'chaos'!

I tend to store image bibliographic data and any relevant notes in a text file of the same name as the record and within the same directory. That way, I can decouple the researching process from the genealogical tool data entry process.

It' no good showing off with all this techie stuff because I truly haven't got a clue what you're talking about. (I really am that thick!)

In designing the sheet, I realized that, luckily, I was very forward thinking when I photographed the microfiche and microfilm frames I wanted to keep in addition to my transcription. I can hardly wait to see how well it works!

As I said earlier, I don't think you need to keep transcripts in addition to original images, unless you mean the image is of a transcript.

When I've tested it, I'll let you know and pass you a link to a shared directory on GoogleDrive from which you can download a copy. The layout I have is flexible enough to allow you to easily add columns for any of your required record types.

Bit in bold - exactly. And if you do find that your spreadsheet is expanding too far across the page then just split it into spreadsheet 2.
Really hope that you find it works.

Pam

[History_Hunter]

Hi Pam;
I seemed to have received the last posting twice ... Odd.
I will give what you say go.
My transcriptions are from when I’ve consulted books and such and didn’t have a camera or copier available. At that time electronic research was just becoming a reality, but wasn’t that common.
Sorry if I appeared to be “showing off”. I handle so much data that thinking that way becomes a habit.

[Pam Downes]

Hi Gary,
Everybody received the message twice - I managed to duplicate the post.

And I didn't think you were 'showing off' at all. You were just explaining how you do things. The fact that I don't have a clue what you mean is not your fault.

Pam

[David Tuson]

If you mean what actual documents do you need, personally, I want BMD certificates for my direct ancestors.
Then baptism and burial records, plus the various censuses/1939 Register.
Other records to consider are education, military, wills, newspapers. Possibly emigration/immigation; criminal; naturalisation, workhouse/Poor Law.
There may be more I'm not familiar with.

Pam

Something else - not necessarily described as a record - but photographs with information written on the back. They assist in confirming some of the information in the records that you have acquired.
For example, I've got one of my father receiving a long service award from an employer. The citation confirms where he worked and the jobs he had.
David

[Guy Etchells]

Hi Pam;
I seemed to have received the last posting twice ... Odd.
I will give what you say go.
My transcriptions are from when I’ve consulted books and such and didn’t have a camera or copier available. At that time electronic research was just becoming a reality, but wasn’t that common.
Sorry if I appeared to be “showing off”. I handle so much data that thinking that way becomes a habit.

If the books and such are still available to you now consider scanning or if not possible photographing the relevant pages rather than using the transcripts, if the original is written in script you can always increase the height of the image and paste the transcript below the image.

I do not really understand why people use spread sheets these days as any decent family history database is powerful enough to have all such additional information added to it, I use Brothers Keeper for this.

Cheers
Guy

[Pam Downes]

I do not really understand why people use spread sheets these days as any decent family history database is powerful enough to have all such additional information added to it, I use Brothers Keeper for this.

Cheers
Guy

Trust me, Guy, there is at least one person in the world who is incapable of doing anything more than entering names and dates into a family history database/program.
I have had expert tuition from people three times. I have watched them do it. I have written precise instructions on which buttons to press and when. And when I get home and do it - I still can't enter source citations and get the result I should. Hence the spreadsheets and 'doing it my way'.

Gary, meanwhile, has got himself in a right mess so I reckon that having a spreadsheet will be a quick way of seeing which documents he has as he works his way through all his files.
I know some programs produce 'to do' lists but I just use my spreadsheet - if there's a blank box, that's a 'to do' item.

Pam

[Ed McKie]

I'm with Guy. Anyone capable of maintaining a spreadsheet,should in theory,have no problems with something like BK. Of course they are not the same thing. A spreadsheet is what it says whereas Genealogy progs are databases. Spreadsheets have an advantage of being able to see a large number of entries at the same time however I soon found they became unmanageable, especially when you get to column xxo :-) Having said all that the"best" method is always the one that suits you the best.

Cheers. Ed

[Pam Downes]

I'm with Guy. Anyone capable of maintaining a spreadsheet,should in theory, have no problems with something like BK. Of course they are not the same thing. A spreadsheet is what it says whereas Genealogy progs are databases. Spreadsheets have an advantage of being able to see a large number of entries at the same time however I soon found they became unmanageable, especially when you get to column xxo :-) Having said all that the"best" method is always the one that suits you the best.

Cheers. Ed

'In theory' I should have been able to correctly enter a source citation after receiving so much tuition, but I failed miserably, so I'm proof that theory doesn't always lead a successful conclusion. (It wasn't BK I was trying to fet to grips with.)

Yes, one of my (non-genealogy) spreadsheets got a little unwieldly but I was able to cheat and stick an extra 'down' column at further intervals as the data moved across the page.

Absolutely agree about the best method being the one that works for you. Took me about eighteen years and quite a few versions to find my 'best', but I'm really happy with my final decision.

Something else - not necessarily described as a record - but photographs with information written on the back. They assist in confirming some of the information in the records that you have acquired.
For example, I've got one of my father receiving a long service award from an employer. The citation confirms where he worked and the jobs he had.
David

I'd never thought of that, David, so an excellent point.

Progressing that one step further, we often talk about 'fleshing out the bones' so something else to consider adding to life stories for you, your parents, etc, is where you spent your holidays. How many of us have got photos of 'on the beach at xx in whenever'.

Pam

[History_Hunter]

Hello Guy;
The human brain and eyes can find patterns in visually displayed data that are not always evident in the display presented by a genealogy program. The spreadsheets are great for spotting gaps and discrepancies. Once one has a coherent set of data, the genealogy program is definitely the way to go for displaying and printing the finished result.

I should note that I scope my spreadsheets to a family group to keep them manageable. That is, I open one for a newly married couple and start with their marriage info. I add any census results that address them and their children. One sees them drop the children as they get married and eventually the couple themselves upon their deaths. The last records in the spreadsheet deal with the deaths of the married couple. I also add the births for the children. The cycle repeats with a new spreadsheet for each child that marries. Unmarried childrens deaths are addressed in their parents spreadsheet.

[Pam Downes]

Fingers crossed, but I may be about to be a genius.

https://imgur.com/KlUXKdX



I had to have two goes because the first one had the 'born' column all squashed up and no 'baptised' column.
This is part of the spreadsheet for my paternal grandfather's family, but all of the names and dates have been changed.

I AM SO PROUD OF MYSELF!!!!

Pam