Organizing your genealogical data on your Mac

[Bob White]

Re: Organizing your genealogical data on your Mac

Delbert - if I understand you correctly, you have been using Reunion for many years without ever entering your sources? My advice.........

That doesn't necessarily mean they aren't recorded in a findable method. You may or may not have noticed, over time, that I never chip in any sources discussions here. Why? Because I do not like the way they behave in reports, thus I ignore the sources fields completely. My documentation is all in the Notes field. So I don't have a list of sources nor the ability to find or sort by kind, etc... but that has never slowed me down.

My paradigm is that I want my source information to report out physically near to the text that it supports. Just like an old fashioned term paper from our school days!

When I do a Register report on my entire Jenanyan line, it is well over a hundred pages. If I used sources, I would make relatives use the two finger method to keep their places.... e.g. the text might be on page 4 and the source information on page 87. I simply don't like it that way. Putting the same information in Notes places it following the text about that person.

And because Reunion has a quite powerful find function, I don't have any problem coming up with previously entered source data.

P.S. If Reunion had the option in its reports to place source data where I want it, I would take on the large project of entering source info via Sources. But that is a wish list thing!

[DelbertCurlin]

Re: Organizing your genealogical data on your Mac

[QUOTE=Michael Talibard;42536]Delbert - if I understand you correctly, you have been using Reunion for many years without ever entering your sources? My advice would be just to shrug your shoulders with a wry smile, because you can put that right only if you have a wonderful memory and are ready to do a great deal of extra work. A source is an answer to the question,

[Michael Talibard]

Re: Organizing your genealogical data on your Mac

I have always entered the name of the document , etc that supports entry of anything…

Ah, I see! Good - you have recorded your sources - just in a non-standard way. That is perfectly OK, and no less an authority than Bob White is with you. But you ask how to use the more usual approach. This is all in the manual, but anyway, since you ask, here goes.

You have to make the source, and then use it. First make it as follows: in Family View, click on the field in question, e.g. Birth. This will take you not just to Edit Person, but to the appropriate tab therein: Birth is in Events (sources can be added in tabs Name, Events, Facts, and Notes). You should see something like the first attached image, in which, bottom left, you should see a button with a big plus sign and Add Source. Click this, and go to the New Source menu (second attached image); here you see a list of available source types, because you have to choose which type of source to make; for a birth, you would select Vital Record. (Actually, this list of source types is editable, and in mine, I would be choosing either Registrar or Parish Record, but ignore this for now.) Select Vital Record, and you get a little window as in my third attached image. You now fill in either the Source Fields or the Free Form or both, and if you have an image, put it in Multimedia. Finally, notice the number (top middle of this little window): this is what will appear in red.

Now to use this source. You will find you have already used it once, automatically, because of where you made it from - that birth. If it backs up some other fact as well, you can use it again, selecting it by number, or in other ways. You'll soon get the hang of it. Hope this helps.

[DelbertCurlin]

Re: Organizing your genealogical data on your Mac

Ah, I see! Good - you have recorded your sources - just in a non-standard way. That is perfectly OK, and no less an authority than Bob White is with you. But you ask how to use the more usual approach. This is all in the manual, but anyway, since you ask, here goes.

Thanks Michael, I will have to digest this slowly as my 81 year old internal memory has trouble absorbing to much at one time. And as Apple just hit me with this new OS I had to get another printer since it is not supported by I guess HP as it was working fine back last year. Oh well thanks for taking your time and patience.
Delbert