Family Historian User Group

When I imported my TMG project all of the sources were imported into a "generic" category. I would like to take my generic source/citation items and work on the sentence structure that is used to create the biblio, footnotes, etc. Is there a way to do that?

Yes, see Tools > Preferences > Sources and click Generic Source Formats... button.
At the top choose which Format you want to customise, then View Format or Customize at bottom.

This dialogue also determines which generic fields are included in the Sources section of Reports.

Note that the settings in this dialogue apply to all Generic Sources in all Reports.

Thanks for that. Next question, is there a way to take specific generic sources/citations and import them into a custom source/citation and then reconstruct the various sentences - in more simple terms turn a generic template into a custom template?
Rick

Not sure what you mean by 'custom source/citation'.
Are you talking about templated Sources derived from Source Templates?
If so, then there has been much discussion on that topic but there is no simple solution.
The reason is that every user has their own 'style' of generic source records, so there is no 'standard' conversion process.
You would have to write your own plugin to perform the conversion for your style of source records, and that is only feasible if you have a very consistent style. Otherwise, each generic source would need converting by hand.

I was meaning - create generic source record/prepare citation feature I believe. Since a large number of my source/citations come from one or two sources (my largest is 25K records) it would seem to be a real time saver if I could import those into a create generic source record/prepare citation template and then rebuild the sentence structure to meet my requirements. The point is - I am 75 now and have 40 years of research material from TMG that I have to fit into the FH structure. At my current rate I will never finish unless I can re-jig the generic sources/citations into something that is more readable and appropriate in FH. As I am sure that you can appreciate, the single template for multiple sources is a less than adequate solution.

To give an example, here is my most extensively used source:

Ancestry.com. Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2008. Citing Institut Généalogique Drouin; Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Drouin Collection; Author: Gabriel Drouin, comp.

This would then be followed with the citation that identifies the individual, the date of the event, the type of event (baptism, marriage, burial), and the parents, plus other relevant information.

If I can do just this one source/citation it would cover about 70% of my project of about 55K people.

I have just noticed that your profile on the right of your postings still says Family Historian: V6.2
Could you please edit that to say Family Historian: V7 so there is no doubt about what you are using.

Are you referring to the + Sources > Create Generic Source Record / Prepare Citation command?
If so, then that feature does NOT use Source Templates. They are the same as the generic source/citations you already have.
It uses the Tools > Preferences > Sources and Generic Source Formats... I mentioned earlier.

Anyway, that command is intended for creating new Source records & Citations for newly discovered documents.

Your TMG database including source/citations has already been imported into FH and thus exist as generic source/citations.
All the information is already present and correct. The Create Generic Source Record / Prepare Citation will not help you.

Because I am new to the program I may have my terminology wrong. I have checked out my sources and you are correct - the information is there but when it is used in reports it does not come out the way I would like to express it. If I go to source template definition>new I can create a new source type with the fields that I like, in the format that I choose. If I do that can I apply that new template to my existing source and have it populate the template? Perhaps I should go ahead with the idea and see what happens in an incremental fashion until I achieve my goal. Your thoughts on that approach?

No, there is no automatic way that generic source/citation fields can migrate to templated source fields.

From your description, it sounds like most of your information is in the Citations rather than the Source records.
That is what we call Method 2 'lumped' Source/Citations. Very few existing Source Templates support 'lumped' mode.

As I said before conversion from generic to templated source/citations depends on your personal style of source/citations.
So you would need to write a plugin tailored to your style of source/citations to perform the conversion.
You would also need to design your own Source Templates that incorporated Citation specific fields.

See FHUG Knowledge Base article Sources and Citations in Version 7 (for Upgraders) and review all the sections which reiterate what I've said above. Effectively, you are an 'upgrader' because you already have a massive amount of generic source/citations. The companion article Sources and Citations in Version 7 (for New Users) is for new users with no existing source/citations.

It might be better to understand how you want your information to appear in reports.
Please explain your objectives and it may be possible to find a suitable solution without converting your data.
i.e. What information is in your citations and how do you want it to appear in reports.

This is the boilerplate for the source:
Ancestry.com. Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2008. Citing Institut Généalogique Drouin; Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Drouin Collection; Author: Gabriel Drouin, comp.

This information is contained in the note tab of the citation in FH:
Record Type: burial
Subject: Marie Ranger
Date: 20 Jan 2019
Second Date: 1921
Location: Saint-Alphonse-de-Liguori, Hawkesbury, Prescott, Ontario, Canada
Subset: 16 Nov 1921, S67
Page: 20
Memo: photographed in the parish church

Based on the data in the memo tab, I want to produce the the following for the citation (less of course the bracketed text):
Burial (from Record Type)Act; Marie Ranger (Subject); Date (of Act): 16 Nov 1921, S67 (Subset); Parish: Saint-Alphonse-de-Liguori, Hawkesbury, Prescott, Ontario, Canada (Location); Folio: 20 (page); Memo: photographed in the parish church.

So the output into a report would look like this:

Ancestry.com. Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2008. Citing Institut Généalogique Drouin; Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Drouin Collection; Author: Gabriel Drouin, comp. Burial Act; Marie Ranger; Date: 16 Nov 1921, S67; Parish: Saint-Alphonse-de-Liguori, Hawkesbury, Prescott, Ontario, Canada; Folio: 20; Memo: photographed in the parish church.

and an abbreviated version would look like this:

ibid. Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968. Burial Act; Marie Ranger; Date: 16 Nov 1921, S67; Parish: Saint-Alphonse-de-Liguori, Hawkesbury, Prescott, Ontario, Canada; Folio: 20; Memo: photographed in the parish church.

That is what I am trying to achieve in terms of output based on my existing imported source/citations. I hope that helps explain my dilemma.

I have focussed on the Citation labelled Note details and the Footnote Format customisation.
The illustrations below may not be complete but demonstrate the principles.
Similar customisations are possible for the Short Footnote and Bibliography.

This shows the Citation Window with the local Note memo on left and the formatted Footnote top right.
This focusses on the format for the Author and the labelled Note and not the Source boilerplate.
(I presume you have designed the boilerplate customisation for the Source record details.)


That is derived from the Tools > Preferences > Sources > Generic Source Formats... mentioned earlier.
It makes use of the =GetLabelledText(...) function designed to extract labelled Note text.


Those Generic Source Formats... will be applied to EVERY Citation, so all your Citation Notes must use exactly the same labels, not just for the Drouin Collection Source but for every Source record.

If you need to cope with different Note labels for each separate Source record then similar customisations can be created using a Source Template for each one and linking that to the Source record.

There is no need to convert your generic Citation Notes to Source Template Citation specific metafields.
You could do that later if you wish, but you would have to write a conversion Plugin.

Mike, Thank you very much for that code and suggestions. I have another question related to the sources tab on the records page. There is a column titled "Template" and in all my generic sources it is empty. If I right-click on a source record name I can apply a template. If I define the template as shown in your code above, could I not just apply that template to the applicable records? Would that template still affect all other records? Another thought - Is there a way to test the template name (or other variable or text - say Drouin) such that if it were true then your example code above would apply. Your thoughts on that question?

I suspect you have not really understood the final comments in my last reply.
That Template column is how you associate/link a Source record to a Source Template record.
Then the Footnote and other Formats in that Source Template apply to that Source record and its Citations.
The Footnote Format would be similar to the generic version in my last screenshot but tailored to the associated Source record and Citations.

So you would create and customise a 'Drouin Collection' Source Template and link it to the 'Drouin Collection' Source record such that it appears in the Template column. The 'Drouin Collection' Source Template would have Footnote Format, Short Footnote Format and Bibliography Format templates similar to the example I just posted. That would rely on the 'Drouin Collection' Citations all having a consistent set of Note text labelled values.

Another Source record would link to a different Source Template with different format templates that applied to all the Citations of that Source record, with their consistent set of Note text labelled values.

So there is no need to test anything, as it is the link between Source record and Source Template that identifies the custom templates to apply to the Citations of that Source.

However, none of the existing predefined Source Templates will work for your imported Source Citations.
You will have to create and customise your own set.

Mike, One more question. How do I delete a user generated source completely. I was experimenting with creating specific source/citations for my project. I created a source/citation template, decided I did not like the results, and then deleted that source/citation template and started over. When I created a new source/citation with the same name and restructured the fields it looked like I was finished. However, when I ran a test I found that some or all of the fields that I created in the first source/citation still existed in the template when it was called. However, the new template did produce the expected output without those fields that I thought I would have destroyed when I deleted the original experimental source/citation. How do I delete all parts of a user generated source/citation including any data that may have been created during the test.

Finally, many websites now produce fully formatted, cut and paste, citations. How would you go about implementing that in FH. As an example, Find a Grave has a fully formed citation generated for each record. If I cut and paste the citation, how do I preserve the formatting and implement it into FH. Based on what I have learned thus far, I would create a user source/citation template called Find a Grave and add a citation, repository, and note field and then fill in the footnote, etc boxes to produce the output. If this is a sound methodology, could you tell me how you would perform the task?

Any record can be deleted using the same technique described in the FHUG Knowledge Base Delete One or Many Records.

When using Tools > Source Template Definitions... do not Edit any existing standard Template.
While experimenting, use Clone... to create a copy or New... for a new Template in your Custom collection.
Click Help for advice about how to use the dialogue and the purpose of all the buttons.
The Compare/Sync with Source Template Record... is crucial when updating Templates and Sources.
There is also a growing amount of advice in the FHUG KnowledgeBase on Sources and Citations for V7.

Before moving on to creating new templates and citations can we please complete the process of handling imported source citations and associated Templates, otherwise I find discussing two aspects gets confusing. Also, the details of such new entries may be governed by how you have handled imported citations if you want to maintain a consistent approach.

Mike, Thank you for all your time and explanations on this topic. However, given the amount of time it will take me to just set things right in FH, and some very convoluted processes in comparison to what I am used to in TMG, I have decided to abandon FH for the second time. There is nothing in FH that I can not do in TMG easier and faster. I appreciate the time you have taken in assisting me.
Rick