Family Historian User Group

How do people keep a track of what research they still need to do. I have downloaded and installed the to do list and tend to use it on a bit of an ad hoc way. I have also set up a separate excel spreadsheet to record what certificates I have for each individual. It works ok but is there a better way to record it all in one place within FH.

I am a bit confused Maybe you are not using FH Source records to record your research?

You say you've installed the how_to:create_work_in_progress_or_research_to_do_lists|> Create Work In Progress or Research To Do Lists for research to be done.

I do not understand why you need a "separate excel spreadsheet to record what certificates I have for each individual."
Once you have obtained certificates, or any other records, they should be added to FH as Source records cited by the Facts that they confirm.
e.g.
A Birth Certificate should be added via Ancestral Sources to create a Source record with a transcript and image of the certificate, and citations for not only the Birth Event but also the Residence and Occupation of the parents, etc.
Then the associated To Do List entry can be deleted as that research has been completed.
The same concept applies to Marriage and Death certificates, Census records, Baptism and Burial church registers, etc.

From there on FH provides the database of certificates, etc, in its Source records, and there is no need for a separate spreadsheet.

Maybe I need to review how to use to do lists properly, so I apologise for asking the following. Within the To do list tab can I create a list of research items for each person such as

Birth Certificate
Birth Index
Baptism certificate
Baptism Index
Marriage Certificate
Death Certificate
Death Index

Then under / behind each item either add sub notes if I need further research for that particular Certificate or delete the item so I can then print of a list of items To Do associated with each individual.

Yes, within how_to:create_work_in_progress_or_research_to_do_lists|> Create Work In Progress or Research To Do Lists it discusses the Custom Attribute and Custom Tab that you have created, and also Custom Queries and Custom Report to produce lists.

They are all available in the fhugdownloads:contents:fact_set_to_do_lists|> Fact Set ~ To Do Lists downloads.

Each entry in the To Do tab should be a labelled paragraph, where each label is unique.
e.g.
Birth: Obtain GRO Index and then buy Certificate.
Baptism: Obtain Church Parish record.
Marriage: Obtain GRO Index and then buy Certificate.
Census 1881: Obtain Census record for household.
Death: Obtain GRO Index and then buy Certificate.
Burial: Obtain Church Parish record.

Usually the label is terminated in a symbol such as colon (:) to make it unique so it cannot appear anywhere else in the text.
It can also be followed by a tab character so it tabulates neatly in reports.
The notes after each label can be as long as you like but must be in one paragraph terminated by a newline character.
You can have blank lines between the labelled paragraphs if you want.

The Custom Report can be produced for any selected Individuals as illustrated in how_to:create_work_in_progress_or_research_to_do_lists#create_custom_report|> Create Custom Report.

It was your mention of a separate spreadsheet that confused me, when you should be using Source records to conclude your research.

Thanks. I'll review the guides and attempt to sort matters. I was using a spreadsheet as a cross reference.

After a little work I think I have got to grips with setting up my To Do List and producing an associated query. In some of my tasks (e.g. General Info) I have a longish sentence and I am now having a little difficulty printing out my To Do list so I can read each of the tasks. As can be seen in the attachment I have taken a screen shot of a small part of my query and an example can be seen for Elizabeth Mary ROBERTS. Under the column "Birth Certificate" I have only part of the note I have made which states "Date of Birth 187" the remainder of the note is missing. I could easily make the column wider but then printing becomes an issue. Is there any way of printing to a word document other than via a text file and then having to manually delete unwanted tabs or commas.

Did you start from the fhugdownloads:contents:fact_set_to_do_lists|> Fact Set ~ To Do Lists downloads as advised?

They give you two Queries and a Report to experiment with.

I am surprised that so many Individuals are listed in your Result Set without any tasks.
So I suspect you have not employed the downloads provided above.
I would also advise keeping your task type labels down to little more than the six advised earlier.
That will allow the Result Set columns to be wider for each task type.
For example combine Birth Index with Birth Certificate to form Birth tasks.
Then the Birth task might be Find Birth Index or Buy Birth Certificate.

The Report download offers an alternative way of listing the To Do tasks and show the full text - have you tried that?

Rather than use the custom tab that Mike is describing, I have a different approach.

When a new database comes online, or I start a new line of inquiry, I create a Named List for it and add to the list the names of the individuals I want to search for. As I find them in the database, I take them out of the Named List.

Here's an example: certain census records in the USA record information about whether anyone in the household is a veteran and some say which wars. After entering the census with Ancestral Sources, I go into Family Historian, turn on Auto-Source citation, and add information beyond the basics that AS doesn't help with. If I find a veteran of the US Civil War, I can add that person to a Named List of Civil War veterans, and as I work through individual databases, I can make separate Named Lists for those. So I might have a Named List for Confederate Veterans who served in the state of Georgia so I can look for their pensions in the digital collections at the Georgia State Archives (the 'Virtual Vault).

Mike may say this is not necessary, but I sometime create Genealogy Source Checklists like this one demoed by Crista Cowan at Ancestry when I am working a specific research question because it helps me review the data. I do not create one for every person in the database -- they are only done when I need to do a review, and am looking over what I have with a specific question in mind.

Before entering sources into Family Historian, I often create projects in Scrivener, the writing studio software from Literature and Latte. This is especially helpful when I am sorting out records from multiple people with the same name, and I'm not sure which records belong to the person in my Family Historian database.

I appreciate all the resources Family Historian has to offer -- the plugins, the custom facts, etc. -- but sometimes for my own thinking process, I have to work outside of it. As time goes on, I am trying to approach my online searches in the same way I would do a search at a repository offline, so I need my To Dos organized by repository and record group as well as by individuals or families.

My rule is "do what works".