Re: [LegacyUG] Census event vs source

[Elizabeth Verchio]

Kathy, not sure what are you asking!  So, I will offer some hopefully words of wisdom gained from 20+ year of ancestry research. Cleaning up data is always a good idea.  Legacy offers several different reports and it depends on your personal preference as to how you want reports to include / to look.  Example, I was scolded by an experienced TMG user that my reports included too much information from Census.  Personally, I like all the information about the family group to be in my reports, that way I am more confident I am recording the correct family of interest (though I have been wrong).  I have learned to hold my ancestry loosely so that when proven wrong it does not hurt so much when I have to delete what was believed to be a direct line. Using Legacy's Source Writer is always a good idea - don't get hung-up on the changes  that have come about through the years.  I do most (99.9%) my research on ancestry.com (copy/paste/download jpgs) and am careful to note all relevant information so that anyone looking at my notes/database would be able to find the source/record referenced.  The few occurrences where I have actual source (photos, Bibles, birth/death/marriage certificates) I am careful to create a source that indicates where the actual source is at the time (though that may/will change with time).  I  too like to create a Census Event in the timeline of a persons life as that is a point in time where a person and or family can be pin-pointed at a particular place at a particular time.  If the Census gives an address, I will create another Event that list Residence at that address with the Census as Source.  Most of my family is rural so Residence/Address usually means a road name or Township/Range and sometimes only a Post Office which does not always mean they actually live in the County where the Post Office is located. Not sure any of this help.  I too was once a newbeeflyingbytheseatofmypantswithoutanyguidancewantingtoknowmyfamilyhistory.  Kathy, keep asking questions, keep digging, keep researching.  The journey is worth all the setbacks and disinterested persons your encounter along the way.  I do family research for me and me alone.  If I can share something with others I consider it a bonus!  Unfortunately there are A LOT of children living on planet earth today. Elizabeth Crauswell Verchio Know more about my ancestry today than I did while in my parents household. Nescire autem quid antequam natus sis acciderit, id est semper esse puerum.  (To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child.) ― Marcus Tullius Cicero On 10/16/2015 3:07 PM, Kathy Meyer wrote: I haven't worked on my family history much over the last couple of years, at least not enough to remember the most useful way to record some things, so I apologize up front if this is too basic - but there are always new users out there right? :-) I'm finding things I sourced very poorly 'back when I started' (haha!)  Somewhere along the line I did start to use sources and events more fully and I like creating the Census event and including ALL of the details in the event notes (BTW - I L.O.V.E. the event sharing option that I just learned to use)  I include the census page image in the Media portion of the event itself. Prior to using Events for that, I simply "sourced' entries, like birth, name, etc. individually with the Census SOURCE so I would know exactly where I got that information, which makes lots of sense to me; otherwise, if I got the birth year (for instance) from the 1920 census, I would have to guess that I got it from the Census EVENT and then go check it.  So I know I need to have that SOURCE with the census information for each field that it applies to. Soooo.....right now, as I'm going through these old ones, I am doing BOTH.  I'm creating the Census EVENT and then adding the Census SOURCE to the event itself (otherwise it wouldn't have all the nitty gritty source details about where it was found etc) and then copying that source to the clipboard and adding it to the applicable fields, which is seems like too much but also seems necessary so that I know where information came from.   If I were creating an individual from scratch, it would be easier because I could attach the source to all the fields I guess.   And I don't mind the extra work itself, I just feel like I may be putting too much in for the sake of reports and such.  If I ever get everything cleaned up well enough, I do want to turn it into book format to share.  Believe it or not, I actually have a family member who does NOT own a computer.  Sorry for the length of this; I would love to get your suggestions. thanks! Kathy Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyusers.com/ Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyfamilytree.com/ Online technical support: http://support.legacyfamilytree.com Follow Legacy on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/LegacyFamilyTree) and on our blog (http://news.LegacyFamilyTree.com). To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp