Family Historian User Group

PP - I totally agree with you. The new way of working (DEA/Templates) has been implemented in software by Calico Pie. In my opinion they, not FHUG members, are best placed to explain to Users how the new process works, end-to-end, using real-world, genealogical examples.

Helen - Thanks. I have no problem at all with the Census DEA which meets my needs well. For reasons explained below the issues I’ve had relate to the Calico Pie Census Template and the underlying software code that allocates Citation data to Source Records

Lorna - Thank you. The answers to your second para questions are (1) yes, (2) no. I’ve finally reached an understanding. Please read on.

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1. Re my post of 14 Dec 2020, 20:46. I’ve taken my testing a stage further. I tried to add a second Citation to my existing 1891 England Census Source Record, by deleting all data relating to the first Citation in the Prepared Citation window. Having then used the Census Data Entry Assistant (DEA) to add the second Citation data to the Prepared Citation I encountered a problem. The second Citation data was correctly added to the Source Record for the 1891 England Census. But.. the first Citation data was overwritten. Hence, instead of Citations relating to 2 households, there is only one household. For “Source Lumpers” this is definitely not what is required.

2. After some searching, the explanation for this behaviour is in the FH7 top Menu Bar. The Tools drop down list -> Source Template Definitions contains the answer. By scrolling the list of Template Definitions to Census Return, then clicking the View/Edit button to the right of the selection pane, the next window contains the Calico Pie Description for the Census Template:

“One source record per census return (census household). This means that the same census (e.g./ UK 1901 may have many source records associated with it, …”

3. Explicitly, therefore, what the Census Template definitely doesn’t permit is multiple Citations to a single Census Source Record. As Helen pointed out the Template is designed around the needs of “Source Splitters.” I accept Calico Pie’s design decision. UnfortunateIy it isn’t consistent with my way of working with Censuses and used, as is, could screw up my database. I’ve decided to continue to use Ancestral Sources which applies multiple Citations to Single Source Records with ease, consistency and accuracy.

4. I encourage all FH7 users to read Calico Pie’s descriptions of their “Source Template Definitions” before using any of them. The Templates have great potential but please make sure they fully meet your requirements before making changes to your precious genealogy database.

Mal

OK, I understand problem. As Helen has indicated, it is because of the way the existing Data Entry Assistant has been set up. The DEA attaches the Text from Source etc. to the Source record by default, and has no option to attach it to the citation instead.

However, it's important to be clear that this is not a problem caused by the templated source itself. Templated sources can indeed be used by 'lumpers'. If you enter the citation details yourself manually, taking care to attach the Text from Source and Note (if any) to the Citation rather than to the Source, you will see that all is well. You can then use “Prepare Citation to Existing Source" and the Citation window will display the Source record with blank citation details ready for the new citation.

I suspect that in the fullness of time when the DEA authors (mainly volunteers) have had time to eat, sleep and recover from the aftermath of the launch of V7, some modified DEAs will emerge which are suitable for 'lumpers'. Meanwhile do bear in mind that templated sources in themsleves can be used by 'lumpers' if you are prepared to enter the citation details manually. In fact the Civil Registration Index template is intended to be used that way, with one just source record per index (birth, marriage, death) and all the other data in the citations. The DEA called 'Record Civil Registration Data (UK)' works exactly as you would expect, entering information into the citations.

The DEA called 'Record Civil Registration Data (UK) works exactly as you would expect, entering information into the citations.

I'm planning to steal some code from that, to cater for lumpers as well as splitters...