Family Historian User Group

I don't have the birth certificate for one of my third great-uncles, but I know for certain the Births Index entry at the GRO is correct. Is there a way to cite that in AS? I don't seem to be given the option for that template. Again, likely user error...

Thanks

Teresa

No. A birth index entry generally only leads to a single fact (birth) being created and there's no image to link (or no reason to do so anyway) so there's no benefit in using AS for this. What I do (and I think this is common practice) is just create the birth fact in FH with the quarter date and registration district as location and link back to a single GRO Birth Index source and I record the GRO index in the birth local note. I think whenever this has been discussed in the past, this seems to be the way that others do it too.

I certainly do as Nick suggests, which is add a note with the GRO info to the birth event (and marriage, death/burial etc.)
i.e. GRO: Q4 1937, Birmingham, 6d, 699 for older ones
and GRO: Q4 1996 Apr, Lewisham(2421D), D37A, 023 for the more recent ones.

I still have a few I occasionally come across in my FH before I got consistent with the style. Also, I always add and keep the GRO note even if I later get a proper image to transcribe (with AS of course) etc.

Thanks, Nick - I went ahead and did this while waiting for your response, as I suspected this might be the case. I definitely needed to replace the substandard one I had from Ancestry (my project is based on a file imported from RootsMagic, where I used to run TreeShare).

As I'm doing a full profile of this collateral, I will likely order both his birth and death cert (he died tragically), so will add those using AS when I receive them.

Thanks, as always, for your help and fast response

Teresa

NickWalker wrote: ↑

29 Oct 2022 19:06

No. A birth index entry generally only leads to a single fact (birth) being created and there's no image to link (or no reason to do so anyway) so there's no benefit in using AS for this. What I do (and I think this is common practice) is just create the birth fact in FH with the quarter date and registration district as location and link back to a single GRO Birth Index source and I record the GRO index in the birth local note. I think whenever this has been discussed in the past, this seems to be the way that others do it too.

Thanks, Chris - I went ahead and did that. Just wanted to ensure I wasn't missing something in AS. I appreciate your input.

Teresa

ChrisRead wrote: ↑

29 Oct 2022 19:21

I certainly do as Nick suggests, which is add a note with the GRO info to the birth event (and marriage, death/burial etc.)
i.e. GRO: Q4 1937, Birmingham, 6d, 699 for older ones
and GRO: Q4 1996 Apr, Lewisham(2421D), D37A, 023 for the more recent ones.

I still have a few I occasionally come across in my FH before I got consistent with the style. Also, I always add and keep the GRO note even if I later get a proper image to transcribe (with AS of course) etc.

In the note associated with Birth Index entries, I also include the mother's maiden name (mmn) when provided. This records all the information included in the Index entry and helps resolve conflicting information.

Similarly, for Death Index entries, I also include the age at death/birth date include in the Index entry.

Thanks - and yes, I do the same

Teresa

RJDoggett wrote: ↑

03 Nov 2022 02:19

In the note associated with Birth Index entries, I also include the mother's maiden name (mmn) when provided. This records all the information included in the Index entry and helps resolve conflicting information.

Similarly, for Death Index entries, I also include the age at death/birth date include in the Index entry.

I am in the minority here it that I do use AS to capture BMD Index records - this is primarily because historically (viz. pre my move to FH), I recorded each Index entry as a Source record (effectively, a Splitter / Method 1 entry) and I had too many like that to go back and re-enter - I also wanted to retain consistency of entry / recording (primarily for my website) so did not consider changing this approach when I started using FH.

Although the default I have for AS is "Parish Birth Records", I know I can make any relevant change to the Source Type in FH once I have finished entering records. I put the Index record details (year, quarter, etc) in the Ref ID field in AS and this is used to populate the Publication Info field in the FH Source record (which keeps it consistent with probably 95%+ of my source records where that field contains the reference data shown on the original source / transcript). I don't use the Autotext for any of the BMD Index entries except where the Mother's maiden surname is included and then I use my own "GRO Index With Mothers Maiden Surname" template to ensure this is recorded in the Source record "Text from Source" field.

RJDoggett wrote: ↑

03 Nov 2022 02:19

In the note associated with Birth Index entries, I also include the mother's maiden name (mmn) when provided. This records all the information included in the Index entry and helps resolve conflicting information.

Similarly, for Death Index entries, I also include the age at death/birth date include in the Index entry.

Yeah, I record that too, just forgot to mention it.
In many cases I will have have found a GRO BMD ref first and created an event from it. Later if available I'll use AS to add a full image and transcription and make sure to have AS retain existing event and note. If no register image (not everywhere has images available) but a decent transcription is given I'll still use AS to capture an imageless event.

And actually this is a good example of where a death index record that refers to an age or date of birth might also lead to me create a birth fact linked to the GRO Index source.

Also just to mention that It would be 'more correct' for us to be recording the note in the citation rather than in the fact itself because the birth or death might have other citations such as census citations and the note only applies to the GRO index. But personally I find it more fiddly to record the data in the citation and the data is more easily seen in the local note.

There are times when Ancestry give the GRO details in a transcribed format in a few rows like
Year and quarter
Place registered
Vol No
Page No.

I do a screen shot of this and copy it to the media folder of the person concerned. This suits me. If I do get a certifcate I add this later via AS

Victor

Ancestry is abstracting the image from the printed index.

I also use the searchable GRO index which adds the MMN (pre-1912) for births and age for deaths and cite it as well. I'm aware it does contain occasional errors, so don't rely on it as my only source.

Teresa

victor wrote: ↑

03 Nov 2022 17:25

There are times when Ancestry give the GRO details in a transcribed format in a few rows like
Year and quarter
Place registered
Vol No
Page No.