Family Historian User Group

Hi everyone

I've created my own source templates in FH to be compliant with the methodology used by the University of Strathclyde (UOS). I absolutely love this feature and it's working well.

Currently, when I add a new source in FH using my UOS compliant source template, FH creates a new numbered source record for the household (for the 'individual' for most other entries) - I then enable auto citation and create the applicable 'fact' entries derived from the information in the source document.

I've decided to try using Ancestral Sources (AS) for my data entry, and while it's pretty clear what a brilliant job AS would do of automatically creating the 'fact' entries for the new source (based on the applicable template in AS) - I can't figure out how to get AS to use my new UOS compliant source title and its associated source number as the source title and number in AS!

Thanks for any help
Wayne

Hi Wayne

Firstly, your template will need to have been imported into your project in Family Historian for AS to be able to see it. If you want to check this, open up your project in FH and go to Tools->Source Template Definitions and check that your templates have a green tick under the 'Used' column. If they don't, then select your templates and click 'Add to Project'. Save your project before opening up your project in AS.

In AS choose Options from the Tools menu and make sure you have Use Template Sources ticked and if you want the source titles to be based on your FH template you should also select Templates Source Title Generation: Generated by Family Historian. AS has its own templates for creating source titles but generally for users of templated sources they'll want the source title to be generated by the rules in the FH template.

Taking 'Census' as an example (you will need to follow the same steps for the other source types):

The first step is to create an AS Source Template to link to your FH template that you'll be using for Census records.

1. Make sure you've got 'Census' selected as the source type in the AS toolbar
2. Choose Tools->Source Template Editor...
3. Click New
4. In the 'All Templates' drop-down, select your template. If it isn't there then you haven't followed the instructions in the first paragraph.
5. AS will then display all the template fields and where possible will suggest some AS autotext template keywords to associate with each of the fields. When you save your census entries this will allow AS to automatically fill in some of the template fields for you. Some fields will almost certainly need to be manually filled in by you each time you save an entry and so these won't have autotext keywords in place. So in the screenshot below, the Address, Head of Household and Reference fields will be automatically populated as you create your census entry, but Collection and URL will need to be manually entered. Repository will be filled in when you select the repository in AS.
6. Click Save.

Now create your census entry in Ancestral Sources. AS will automatically generate a source id. You can ignore the Title that AS generates if you chose the option to have Family Historian generate the title for you as this won't be saved. When the entry is ready to save, click on Edit Templated Source... at the top. Make any changes required. In the screenshot below all of the fields with the yellow A symbol have been auto- filled by AS using the information entered on the main screen.
I hope this helps. I know the initial setup seems a bit complicated, but once this is done, you should find creating each source entry is pretty quick!

Best wishes

Nick

Hi Nick

Thanks for your very detailed and timely reply but I don't think AS is going to be a solution for me, which is very sad. I use very specifically designed source templates and they are obviously aren't able to be 'picked up' by AS.

For example, following your advise a fictitious example yields:
1861 England census, 12 High Street, Bletchley Park, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England, RG9, head of household:
John Michael Addison.

My FH source template would have yielded:
Census Records. England. Bletchley Park, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire. 06 June 1841. ADDISON, John Michael. ED121. SN 325. FL 325a. pp. 16-17. [Transcription] Collection: 1841 England Census. www.findmypast.com.au : accessed 3 October 2022.

...from:
Census Records. {country}. {place}. {date_of_census}. {name}. {number}. {enumeration_district_and_or_Scotlands_PDN}. {form_number}. {page_number}. {transcription} <Collection: {collection}.><<u>{URL}</u>><: accessed {accessed}.>

Obviously they're nowhere near the same - maybe a wish list request for AS given this powerful new feature in FH7?

Cheers
Wayne

It looks like you don't have the setting in place I mentioned in the 2nd paragraph (Templates Source Title Generation: Generated by Family Historian) or are not running the latest version of FH. If set up correctly, the AS source title you refer to will not be transferred to FH and the title will match your template.

If you've carefully followed the steps I've outlined but have found that it doesn't show the correct information when you view the new source in FH having added it in AS, then please do send me a copy of your FH gedcom file so I can see what's happening (via nick AT ancestralsources DOT com). This could be from the Family Historian sample project if you would prefer to not send me your actual file. Ancestral Sources has been capable of dealing with custom source templates from the version I released on the same day that FH 7 was released and I'm not aware of any reasons why it shouldn't work in your case too.

Hi Nick

Again, thanks for your swift reply. I 'think' I'm following your instructions to the letter, but we'll see! I've taken you up on your very kind offer and emailed you a zipped folder with the appropriate files, and am very happy for you to identify my mistakes in this thread so that other people don't make the same.

Cheers
Wayne