Sources versus Citations

[A Hougie]

Re: Sources versus Citations

Perhaps I have misunderstood, but are you putting these person details into the source? Why? That's really not what it's for. Sources should show where you found your info, not what you found.

My view is that it is not necessary to be dogmatic about this. For me I include a source in sufficient detail so that (ideally without looking at the attached images, which would of course not appear in printed reports) so far as possible the next person looking at my work can (a) assess how reliable is my information and (b) reproduce my research work. Following your approach meets my objective (b) but not my objective (a). But each to his or her own.

[AileenWynne]

Re: Sources versus Citations

Wow.... I think everyone has their own way to do things and it's brilliant that Reunion can cater for us all.

Most of my census records are Irish.... Since 2009(??) they're available for free online... Prior to that they were microfilm and when I started I actually got to handle the original papers in the National Archive...

With the earliest census records, when I paid for photocopies, and then migrated the gad com to Reunion when I went Mac... I just have the relevant reference (house number, street/townland, DED, county) listed in the source detail and I typed the info into the 'free form' text - This was copied from FTM/Windows and came across badly, but it's still in there...

For any later census records - and I've gone back to some of the older ones - I put the relevant identifying information in the title and the URL in the free form text - with exclude for endnotes.

I link each 'census source' to the individuals mentioned in it - their religion, occupation, education and age if extrapolated. I also link it to the family residence event. If I extrapolate the age based on the census I make a note in the Memo field.

I don't attach media to my file at all. I do however, save the images of all of the related pages in the census (Forms A (A2 in 1911), N, B1 and B2) on my Mac in case I need to review them.

It works for me...

[Robin Helmond]

Re: Sources versus Citations

When I decided I had better stop gathering data and go back over and properly cite all my sources I dithered for a while which method to use. I decided on what turned out to be the recommendation that Frank from Support has in the FAQ he supplied the link to earlier in this thread. (Recommended reading) A bit less typing for this less than expert typist. A lot of my events have the same source (State BDM Registry) so a single source is a boon. All the relevant data from the source is entered into the person Event fields. But then I found that an image attached to a source was not unique to a particular person. So in the case where the image provides interesting reading I create a unique source for that event and attach the interesting image to it. That seems to be a satisfactory method for me. But, as others have said, there are many ways one can approach this subject.

[Knarressprings]

Re: Sources versus Citations

Thank you so much everyone. I genuinely appreciate all your help and advice.