Gedcom - Entering details

marklydarkly · Post by **marklydarkly** » 13 Mar 2006 19:49

Sorry if Gedcom questions don't belong in the Usage Forum, but.......

I've just started using Gedcom and I, not sure what to put in the Source Text box.

Surely everything you need to put in goes in the boxes below that? (Rec ID, name etc)

The Help file suggests putting all the names ,occupations etc in the Source Text, but isn't that just repeating whats in below. Could it be left empty then?

Thanks for any suggestions

ID:1434

YouTube · Post by **Jane** » 13 Mar 2006 19:58

I presume you are talking about 'GEDCOM CENSUS' ?

Once you transfer the information to FH only the source 'joins' the family together, you might want to populate the source text with a list of people on the census.

Personally I don't always add all the unrelated people in a household, eg lodgers or servants (or for my family the people they are servants to, but I do list them in the source text for future reference.

Post by **nsw** » 13 Mar 2006 20:42

Hi

A census record contains various items of information which are recorded as events and this is what the bottom part of the screen is for. The data entered in here will create census events for each person, occupation events (if relevant) and birth events if there isn't currently a birth event for each individual. However, there is some other information which doesn't really map onto these events. For example, the way the relationship between people is described (e.g people described as visitors), also places of birth don't always match previously found places of birth. There might also be details of mental illness, etc. As Jane says there might also be people mentioned in the census record who are not really part of your family tree. I use the source text to transcribe the census record to show all of the information recorded in it.

If you don't want to record the census record then just leave the source text blank.

marklydarkly · Post by **marklydarkly** » 14 Mar 2006 13:18

Thanks for your replies - yes that makes sense.

Just one more thing - if I add people who are in that census, from the right hand list into the Record ID list at the bootom will it automatically add the census record (ie Source Text to that persons own record. If not you would surely have to type out the source text for every person. Did that make sense????

Post by **nsw** » 14 Mar 2006 13:46

If you are using the default 'method 1' (see help files for details) then it creates one source with the source text in it. Then for each individual it creates a census event (linked to the source) with the place, address and age of the person. It also creates occupation attributes (linked to the source) with the occupation and place recorded. For any people who don't have a birth already recorded it creates a birth event (linked to the source) with date of birth calculated from the age given in the census and the place of birth as given in the census (Gedcom Census will ask you for this when you save the census entry).

You only need to enter the place, address, etc. once and Gedcom Census will copy it into all of the relevant places in the file for you.

Nick Walker
Author of Gedcom Census

Family Historian User Group