Hi Nick, two bits of advice:
1) When Elizabeth Shown Mills' new "Evidence Explained" book comes out
(hopefully later this year), buy it! I certainly plan to.
2) Think about your end goals as you decide how to format things.
For me, I post my research (sources and all) to the web, so that is
different than trying to write a book, where text flow is very important.
If I write a scholarly article (which I someday plan to do), I'm sure I will
do a whole lot of editing outside of Legacy.
If you don't plan to have a large database, you can customize more. As the
database size grows, you have to think about efficiencies and
standardization. It has taken me a few years to sort of get comfortable
with my sources (formatting within the individual sources and formatting for
use as part of the overall database).
Good luck and just remeber that the search and replace feature (if used
carefully) can be your friend in making broad changes to the source
structure.
Gail Rich Nestor
www.roots2buds.net
----- Original Message -----
From: "Nicholas Cirillo" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, May 25, 2006 11:33 AM
Subject: Re: [LegacyUG] Renaming sources
I'm relatively new at this but cannot find a way to
steamline my sources. The way I do it now, mostly by
instinct, makes for an ugly and redundant individual
report. The only way I can make that more neat is to
drop sources all together, not what I had in mind.
Also, I would like my source citations to come as
close to the "standard" as possible. I read these
postings with hope and anticipation.
Nick Cirillo
--- Gail Rich Nestor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I went back and forth on my sources for a while and
finally decided to
consolidate my master sources quite a bit. I
currently have 604 master
sources and literally tens of thousands of citation
details.
Many times I have the exact same master source
combined with the exact same
citation detail and they are used in combination to
document several facts
for a single person (or a single fact for several
people). An example is
when every member of a particular household gets the
same master source
(i.e. in my files: Georgia, Decatur County, 1860
census) and the same
citation detail (i.e. John Doe household, page x,
Ancestry.com, etc.)
connected to each of their names and their birth
dates. It's very redundant
to have these entered multiple times in the database
and taking up space.
This is definitely a drawback to the way I handle
sources now.
Other times, though, I have the same master source
as used above (same
county and census year), but with a different
citation detail (i.e. a
different household).
I do wish that I could somehow link one particular
citation detail to one
master source and link it a single time to several
different people/facts.
That would make my database more tidy I think. Yet
it would still allow me
the benefits on master source consolidation.
Jim I do understand and agree that consoliding
master sources doesn't make
it any easier to find the single piece of paper.
For me, though, I like to
be able to click on a source and see how many people
use it. I can click a
cemetery and see all the people buried there instead
of having each person's
stone as its own source. This would make my master
source list unwieldy.
For census sources, I start with the word "census"
in the Source List Name
so that all census sources are clumped together in
the database (as are all
cemetery sources, newspapers, vital records, etc).
Then I consolidate the
census master sources by county within the census
year. For example:
Census: Georgia, Decatur - 1860 U.S. census
Census: Georgia, Early - 1860 U.S. census
Census: North Carolina, Wilkes - 1860 U.S. census
Census: North Carolina, Wilkes - 1870 U.S. census
Therefore, the source name sort is first a
geographic one within the source
type. Then, it sorts by year. I can quickly click
on a source to see all
the people living in that county and state for that
year. I never have any
problem locating a source this way.
I have all my sources and all my repositories posted
on my web site if
anyone would like to see more examples:
www.roots2buds.com.
Source formatting really all depends on how you need
to use your source
information and how big your database is.
My thoughts...
Gail Rich Nestor
Smyrna, Georgia, USA
www.roots2buds.net
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Winfrey" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, May 25, 2006 9:16 AM
Subject: Re: [LegacyUG] Renaming sources
John,
I think this is an idea that hits us all when we get
to the point
where we have a large number of sources. While
creating Master
Sources and including differing data as details to
that source, looks
like a good way to go, I personally think it makes
your work harder
rather than simpler. A source is nothing more than
a record that
supports a fact you have discovered for a person.
Typically the
source boils down to a sheet or two of paper in your
files with a
reference in your database. Regardless of what you
do with
consolidation in the database, all the sheets of
paper remain. The
way you have it now makes it simple to get to the
paper. Once
consolidated, it will be more difficult to drill
down to the sheet of
paper you are looking for. I tried consolidation at
one point and
quickly decided against it.
On 5/25/06, john murray <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
> hello Ron Ferguson and list
> Thank you for letting me know that I am now on the
list as I have not been
> able to make contact for several months
>
> I would like a little help please.
> I have many sources such as
> 1861 census 10 Every street, Manchester,
Lancashire, Smith Family
> 1861 Census 22 Brown street, Manchester,
Lancashire, Jones Family
> Etc
> I have all the census set this way
>
> As a result I now have hundreds of Sources
>
> I would like to change them to such names as
>
> Lancashire,Manchester- 1861 - UK Census (and
leave out the family names
> and
> the street)
> In this way I could shorten my Master Sources List
quite dramatically
> I would want to do this for all my Counties and
just have the major towns
> shown as above
>
> Is there an easy way to change them
> OR do I have to retype every entry of the Master
Source
>
> Hope this is clear enough of what I wish to do
>
> Regards
> John
> Manchester
> England
>
>
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