* How to update repository for multiple sources

[Anthony_Pigott]

I recently acquired a gedcom file that I want to use as a basis for a new project. It has many sources already included but I wanted to mark all these as being from the original file before I checked them and added my own source information. One way that occurred to me was to create a repository that represented the original file and assign that to all the original sources. Is there an easy way of doing that other than setting the repository manually for each source?

Apologies if it's already covered here or is obvious.

Anthony

ID:7034

[Jane]

If they don't have repositories already, you could do so with a simple plugin script.

Have you experimented with plugins at all?

[tatewise]

An alternative method uses File > Merge/Compare File that allows a single Source Record identifying the GEDCOM to be automatic added to new Records (&/or fields) to have.

The technique is as follows:
1) Create your new Project from the whole GEDCOM.
2) Delete all the Source Records.
3) File > Merge/Compare File the same GEDCOM, which will only add the missing Source Records and their Citations.
4) At the end of the Merge there are a multitude of options that include adding an identifying Source Record to just new Source Records via their Note field.

[Anthony_Pigott]

Many thanks to Jane and Mike. I tried Mike's suggestion first which worked fine, then 'bit the bullet' and, as Jane implied, wrote a simple plugin to create a repository record and then run through all the sources to link them to it.

I'd not tried writing plugins before. Having a computing background, the programmer in me always said 'do it, it'll be interesting', whereas the project manager in me said 'don't do anything complicated if there's a simple solution'.

I've left the results of both methods in the project for the moment. I think I'll end up keeping the repository information as that seems the nearest way to implement the 'source of a source' concept within the limitations of the data structure.

Thanks again,

[Jane]

Well done, I find being able to quickly add/change data using plugins very handy. In my case the Programmer normally wins over the Project Manager.