James Cook wrote:
>
> Second, I'm wondering what usage preferences and suggestions you have
> for making use of sources. For instance, most sources include an
> individual's name. Do you attach every source to the name? Do
> you suppress any of them for reports? I've started to attach sources
> to every fact it relates to, but now I'm seeing 1/2 page FGS with 2 or
> more pages of source citations. Is this desirable or no? What
> criteria do YOU use to determine what to print, what source(s) to
> attach to what facts, etc.
>
Hi James,
Regarding your questions about attaching sources to facts and such. I
always think of my genealogy research as something that someone else
will come upon later. With that in mind, if I have a fact, such as a
birth date or even an event, I want reputable sources pointing directly
to where I obtained the information about that fact. (Note I used the
word "reputable". In my opinion, some sources are good to have when you
begin, but you can weed them out as you find more reputable items. For
example, a relative may claim in an email that so and so was born in
1934, so I will use them/email as a source until I find a more
"reputable" source, such as a birth record).
When I am attaching sources to facts, as I stated above, I want any
facts I have verified or pulled from the document sourced. So, when I am
dealing with a census image for example that may have various facts for
up to 20 people, I create the master source, then ANY facts that I enter
for each person from that document are pointing to that source.
In the case of each source noting a name, I see what you mean I think.
Say for example I have a birth, death and marriage record for John
Smith, you are wondering whether or not I would attach each source to
the name fact since they would all contain that fact. I usually add all
of them since even records with the same fact can be "different." For
example, say most of John Smith's documents have his name spelled the
exact same way, but one of the documents has a different spelling, say
Juan Smith. In these cases I usually add the source to the AKA field so
I have a list of various spellings of a person's name.
One of the things I recently did to help clean up my sources was
purchase the book, "Evidence Explained" by Elizabeth Shown Mills. I
can't stress how helpful this book as been to help me utilize my sources
better :) I do recommend it to anyone doing genealogy research.
When you speak of pages worth of citations, I wonder, are you
transcribing your sources into the text of the master source and having
this print when you do your reports? Sometimes that can make for lengthy
reports. Personally, I think that the more sources you have, the better
off you are. This way if you ever need to go over your own research
(which is not any fun if you can't figure out where you obtained certain
information, LOL!) it will be easier to see where you have found things.
If I were printing reports, in my opinion, I would want ANY facts that
have sources cited somewhere. To me, the sources are the "meat and
potatoes" of the research. I have an ancestor that has many books
mentioning him and the events he participated in. I usually transcribe
the relevant text from the books into a master source or a detailed
citation so that when I print my reports, my Grandmother will be able to
read the various entries in the footnotes/endnotes. If I did not do
this, she may only notice his basic facts (name, death, etc.) and miss
out on some of the exact phrases ("meat and potatoes") that were used to
describe him or an event he participated in.
Angelique Welch
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