* Editing source entry dates

[British Kiwi]

Hi

I'm currently using version 3 (not for long) and have realised that I want the entry date to be the date I added the source to the record not the date the original record was created (all my census sources have the census date). Is there any way I can update the dates to when I added it to the fact/person? (Sorry if I have wrong namea) I do jave previous programming knowlege (mainly vba & sql but very rusty)

Thanks in advance
Melanie

[tatewise]

Why would you want to do that?
It is not what that field is for, it is meant to hold what you have now - the date the original document itself was created.

In any case, how would any automatic process know when you added the Citation to the Fact?
I doubt if even you know that date for every Citation.

If you did decide to try and automate it, then a Plugin would be the way forward, but they are only available in v5 or v6, so wait until you have upgraded.

[British Kiwi]

I think I read somewhere to use it for when you add it. I have had it in my head that each source had a date attached to it (turns out it is the media attached to the source). I was going to record the date of the source on the source record and then when I applied it to a fact or event attach that current date to the citation. In this way it means that I will have a research log and may help me understand if I may have made an error or missed something as I learn. For example, I have a NZ death certificate and I want to record the source date as when it was registered. I entered pretty much all the information to my ancestors. Only recently did I realise that on the certificate there is the number of years in NZ so I have now been able to add an emigration event to my ancestor. I have just double checked my version.

As for a historic record, I thought there might be a date attached to when the citation was created.

Is there away to use FH 6 as a research log? I am currently doing a course with the University of Tasmania and would like to store a record in FH.

[tatewise]

You may have read it in "Where to record it in FH v5" by Wm Clegg but that has misleading advice, and nobody knows anything about William Clegg, who is not a member of this FHUG under that name. See Entry Date in citations.

Using it as your Citation creation date may be useful to you but is meaningless to anyone you send your GEDCOM to.

I use it to record the Registration Date (i.e. Entry Date) of a Birth or Death Certificate, which is very different from the actual Birth or Death date.

Unless you have subsequently edited the Source Record, then its Updated date is close to the date you created its Citations. If you have edited the Source Record then effectively you have updated all the Citations too, so that new date is your research log date.

This how_to:create_work_in_progress_or_research_to_do_lists|> Create Work In Progress or Research To Do Lists may give you some ideas about a research log.

[British Kiwi]

Thanks Mike I will check it out. I have only recently changed it so easily fixable