Family Historian User Group

With help from the excellent on-screen tutorials about entering a birth certificate I have managed to create a source and attach the document to my self which shows up in the property box all good so far.

I am embarrassed to say, that I can't for the life of me understand how to use the citations and I have really struggled with this for some time now and thought I would ask for help before giving up! I'm sure it's really easy but for the life of me I just don't get it.

I already have my dad and mum's details on my family tree and just want to add a citation for the residence and occupation for them as I was born at a different addrss and my father's occupation has changed since I was born.
Thanks in advance
Jane
[confused]

ID:6597

With help from the excellent on-screen tutorials about entering a birth certificate I have managed to create a source and attach the document to my self which shows up in the property box all good so far.

I assume the tutorial is this Entering from a Birth Certificate ~ Animated Introduction.
I also assume the Property Box you mention is the one for the Source Record NOT your Individual Record.
The article on Sources may help put Citations into context.

Each Citation links a Fact in an Individual Record to a Source Record.
Any single Fact may have many Citations.
Any single Source Record may be cited by many Facts.



To add a Citation the yellow Sources Pane must be displayed by clicking the yellow scroll icon Show Sources at the top of the Individual Property Box.
You can add Citations via the Main tab, but the Facts tab offers more details and more Facts.
Select a Fact and then click the Add Citation button in the Sources Pane.
Select an existing Source Record from the popup list and click OK.

Perhaps, you do not really mean 'add a Citation' for an existing Fact, but mean 'add a new Fact'.
To do this on the Facts tab, click the Add Fact button and choose Residence or Occupation from the list.
Enter the Date, Place, etc with all the details you have.
Now you have to find the Source Document that provides evidence for the new Fact.
Just like the Birth Certificate this must be entered as a new Source Record.
Then it can be cited by the Fact as above.

I apologise if I have misunderstood your problem.
Just give some more details if you need more advice.

I think I understand Mike. It worked anyway! I navigated up one to my fathers property box, clicked on his fact tab and entered a new occpuation from the events/attributes list and then used existing source to find my birth certificate and linked to this. Having a pile of birth certificates to put in I want to get this right from the start.

Thank you.

Having a pile of birth certificates to put in I want to get this right from the start.

May I offer some advice?

Firstly, use File > Project Window > More Tasks > Samples > Reset Sample Project to create the Family Historian Sample Project.
Then you can experiment with this Sample Project without risking disrupting your main Project.

I don't know if you have discovered Ancestral Sources that simplifies many of the repetitive data entry tasks for new Sources and Facts.

Currently AS supports Fact data entry for Census, Baptism, and Marriage, but Birth, Death, Burial, and Probate are planned in due course.

AS offers a number of data entry strategies, but what it calls Method 1 is very popular, and similar to your current strategy.
Often the same strategy is applied to all the data entry Sources and Facts.

While at this early stage it would be worth your while studying how AS works, by installing it, and working through some of its Tutorials.
Then if you like the look of it, you can ensure your Birth Certificates are entered in a compatible manner.

Lastly, when entering a new Source (Birth Certificate) that supports several Facts it is time saving to use Automatic Source Citation.
This involves creating the Source Record first, then use Tools > Set Automatic Source Citation and select the new Source Record.
Thereafter, every new Fact you enter will automatically cite this Source Record.
Just remember to switch it off when finished!!!!

I took your advice Mike and looked in the Family historian sample project and had a play around with the automatic source citation feature, it all worked well and I even managed to turn it off afterwards!

I already use AS census, marriage and baptism using method 1 for my data entry.

[smile]