Family Historian User Group

Hi, just trying out FH6 after 5 years using Ancestry. Have copied over the gedcom file, no problems. But in looking through the online help videos earlier, I spotted one about entering details from a birth certificate, which was really useful (and which I'd use if I had any more BMDs to come). I didn't have any images saved on Ancestry, though plan to add all my certs to FH6, so the source is currently just the indexed entry. But do I need to go through all my mainline ancestors to source all the BMDs against the certificates, and if I don't, will I miss out on anything later?

Hope that makes sense!

Thanks,

Deirdre

The certificates tend to have more data than the indexes - depending on century / year, they can include details such as Mother / Father (Births), Residence, Informant, etc. Ancestral Sources (AS) is a great way of adding the data from these certificates when you get round to it, and also allows you to attach an image of the certificate.

The important thing to remember is that the index only tells you that someone with a particular name was born/married/died in the period in question. But there are often several people with the same or similar names.

Unless you are dealing with very uncommon names it is always advisable to get the full certificates for births of your direct ancestors. This (in UK) will give you the mother's maiden name and father's occupation, among other things. This will confirm (or not!) that you are following the right people in the previous generation, or possibly that this is not the right birth record if you have strong reason to believe the mother's name was something different.

Marriage certificates are also useful because they usually give the names and occupations of the fathers of the bride and groom (not always accurate, it has to be said) which is another important link to the previous generation, which the index alone won't give you.

Death certificates are less important but can still sometimes give useful clues from the name of the informant, the place of death and occupation of the deceased.

Finally, remember that each certificate can be used as a source for much more than just the birth/marriage/death event. It tells you occupations, addresses, ages etc. If you use the Ancestral Sources program to enter the data it will generate these extra facts for you and link the source to each fact.

Thanks, i have all the birth and marriage certificates already, most of the deaths, and lots of baptism and burial images too, and have added all the details to the person's records on Ancestry. The notes have come across perfectly.

What i'm trying to ask - but not explaining it very well - is if i should follow the video (which is what I'd do if starting a new tree) and add the source linked to the certificate (ie will it be useful later on for any reason), or as the detail is there and all the known parents etc are already in my tree, is there any need? I can presumably add images of the certificates if i want to as media files?

In TMG I tended not to link source images (like certificates) as I could easily access them in an easily located "source" folder", but since moving to FH I have tended to add certificates,etc., using AS as Media links to the source as it makes it easier to read / check that image if subsequent investigations throw up a ????? .

Thanks Brent, I think I need to try that!

LornaCraig wrote: If you use the Ancestral Sources program to enter the data it will generate these extra facts for you and link the source to each fact.

Thanks Lorna, I've just been trying to work out how to add father's occupation at birth etc, so will have a look at Ancestral Sources now.

Dierdre, welcome to the FHUG.

As a newcomer I advise you work through how_to:key_features_for_newcomers|> Key Features for Newcomers that offers detailed documentation, refers to Ancestral Sources, and much more about FH.

BTW: Don't overlook Census Records that can add another dimension to researching you family history.

Thanks Mike, I have got loads of census records too, my Ancestry tree is very complete (quite detailed notes on all B/ba/M/D/Bu and census records for all my direct ancestors, and some others). And it has all copied over to FH with all the additional stuff in the notes.

The trouble is, I tend to be quite pernickety about how things are presented, and wanted to test everything I could on FH before buying, but as I am still on the trial I can't use the AS plug in yet!

Looks like, with time, I can do everything I want to, so will probably take the plunge and buy it in a few days. Will read up and view some more videos in the meantime.

Thanks everyone for your help.

Dierdre, it is a common misunderstanding but there are two components to using AS.
The AS companion program application will run with the FH trial.
The AS Plugin is a convenient but not essential way of invoking the AS application from within FH.

Both FH and AS are highly customisable so will probably satisfy your pernickety requirements.
One big advantage of AS is its Templates for ensuring consistent naming conventions and formats.

Deirdre784 wrote: as I am still on the trial I can't use the AS plug in yet!

Deirdre, don't confuse the AS plugin with the AS application. The plugin is just a handy way of launching the AS application from within FH so that AS opens with the current person pre-selected. Although you can't use plugins with the trail version of FH you can still download AS itself and try it out.

Thanks Lorna, trying to run before I can walk I couldn't get it to link to FH so thought I'd gone wrong

I've run through a number of the AS videos - extremely useful and will go through more of them tomorrow - but I think I'm going to start a new project, so that I can tidy up my very large tree as I go. And do it properly.

Hi
I'm very new to FH as well (was using FTM), this series of emails is very useful. I want to include census & cert images as well. I will give AS a try.
Derek