* Recording sources

[British Kiwi]

Hi
Not sure if I should post this here or in the Genera Usage board, but here goes...

I am trying to keep to a standard on how I enter sources in FH. I also want to record information about what the source collection is. I just thought I would ask to see what everyone else does with recording it within FH.

As an example I have found my Great-Grandfather's cremation record in Ancestry. Their collection is called "New Zealand, Cemetery Records, 1800-2007" and the description is:

"These transcriptions of headstones from cemeteries in New Zealand typically include details such as name, birth date, death date, and the cemetery name and plot location. But they may also provide family relationships with name and other details about a spouse, cause of death, military dates, an epitaph, or even a description of the headstone."

I can't decide if I Source Type as Cemetery Records and then use that same type for all cemetery records or whether I should put it as the collection name. I also can't decide where to put the description. I don't to be pasting it to every single source I add for that collection. It is a shame there isn't a description field for the source types.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Mel

[AdrianBruce]

I would suggest putting the description of the collection into a Shared Note Record and linking to it from every Source record of that type. Not sure how that will come out in a report but clearly if you run off a narrative report you don't want to have the same description printed against every source of that type.

I wouldn't use the Source Type to specify the collection as there's so many of them. What I use that item for is a multi level type that indicates what items to complete in what format. For instance, "parish register; microfilm" or "parish register; transcript" or "parish register; website", all of which require slightly different items to be captured. I have dummy source records for each.

[British Kiwi]

Thanks. I keep forgetting about the shared notes! That should help. I might put the collection name as the first line of the shared note and maybe the publication details or author. For the parish details what do you put? I have a lot of images from published by the Dorset Family History Society and I think I put them as the author.

[AdrianBruce]

For me, parish records differ depending on whether it's
(1) a derivative copy such as a microfilm or digitised image that can be regarded as pretty much identical to the original - so author = the church in this case and publication details say something like 'digital image in "digital image in "Staffordshire baptisms", FindMyPast'
or
(2) a index or transcript which should have author = the society / compiler / whatever and publication details are that of the index or transcript but modified by a bit to say where the original source is, e.g. 'Ancestry.com, accessed 27 April 2014, index citing original data: "State of California. California Birth Index, 1905-1995"'

So case 1 looks pretty close to the case for an original parish register, probably modified only to say where the digital image is found. Case 2 majors on the details of the index or whatever as its own publication.

[tatewise]

It seems that a Repository Record is ideally suited in this case.

Create a Repository Record for say Ancestry, New Zealand, Cemetery Records.
This can hold its Web address, etc, and Notes transcribed from their description.

The Repository is linked to each Source derived there from.

Then you can have a more general Source Type such as Cemetery Records.

[tatewise]

Referring back to Adrian's posting about media types, there is a GEDCOM field for that detail.

I you add a Repository Record, then there is a subsidiary Identification field specific to each Source Record and that has a Media field but it can only specify: audio, book, card, electronic, fiche, film, magazine, manuscript, map, newspaper, photo, tombstone, or video.

By default these are only accessible via the All tab but can easily be customised into the Main tab.

[British Kiwi]

Wow two extra things to try. Thanks Mike I am going to try that approach and try the added media field. How would you suggest I set it up so that if I every need to list all the Ancestry records etc in a report/query? Not sure if I am likely to, but would hate to make things difficult for myself in the future. Maybe make the title start with Ancestry?
Mel

[British Kiwi]

Yay I have had some success with the data entry form. I have combined the media with the type field. Super happy.

[tatewise]

It should be quite easy to create a Source Type Query to list all Source Records filtered by some characteristic of the linked Repository Record such as the Title containing "Ancestry", but you should set it up so the search term is a Parameter that allows you to filter on any text such as "FindMyPast", "FreeBMD", etc.

[British Kiwi]

Great. I will do that. I am experimenting using the three main parties I am investigating for my course. If it works, I will gradually migrate everything else. Thanks for all your help.