Graham: I think it's possible to overdo the lumping. A major benefit to Legacy's system of two levels in the source record is in saving repetitive typing and speeding the citation process. If your Master Source is simply "Census," for example, then you must re-type all of the information (country, year, state/province, etc.) every time you cite a source. On the other hand, if you have several ancestors who lived in the same general area at the same time you can have a Master Source for the 1911 Census for Ontario, Canada (or even break it down by county). In that case you enter that information only once, then simply use the prepared Master Source and enter the details for the specific family via the Source Clipboard.
My database of roughly 7,000 names contains over 500 sources but they're very easy to locate by using a system of grouping. Every census Master Source begins with the year. This causes them to sort first so I only have to type "1911" to go to the proper area of the Master Source List. Every book that I cite has "book" before the title in the Source List Name field so all of the book titles are grouped together and sorted alphabetically by title. I use similar grouping codes for birth, marriage, and death records although these could also be grouped under "Vitals" by using that term (or just a "v") as the first letter in the Source List Name. Kirsten -----Original Message----- From: Graham [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, April 05, 2010 1:33 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [LegacyUG] Sourcing Treatment for Obituaries I am trying to do the same as Doris. When I came to Legacy from FTM, I realised that I had over 500 different Master sources, so scrolling through them all to find the one I wanted for a new entry was very annoying. I am down to about 300 now and wont be happy until I have them down to about one page. My Master sources are simply, Newspaper, Certificate, Census, BDM index, External tree, etc, and then the Details explain which Census, who's External tree, what Newspaper, etc, etc. I like to keep things simple and yet explain where my information came from in an adequate manner for my needs and those that follow me. Graham Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
