What shall I do next?

Post by **nsw** » 14 Apr 2010 16:57

Next Version of Ancestral Sources

I've been making a few changes to Ancestral Sources following some of your suggestions and fixing one or two minor issues that have cropped up. I'm also building in the ability to add images to existing sources: this is a function available in Gedcom Census and I want to make sure I can drop GC knowing that Ancestral Sources does everything that GC does (and more of course). This should relatively soon hopefully in the next couple of months.

Future versions of Ancestral Sources

Then I need to start working on the other source document types. I want to know what your top 3 'most wanted' source types are. For my own purposes my number 1 is baptisms. I don't get many birth certificates but with the Cheshire, London, Lancashire and other counties putting huge quantities of parish records on line now I'm getting a back log of lots of baptisms to enter. So my response to this post would be:

1. Baptisms
2. Burials
3. Marriages

You may also opt for: Birth Certificates, Death Certificates, Wills/Probate.

I will listen to your 'votes' but I do reserve the right to be selfish and do baptisms first

ID:4492

Post by **hsw** » 14 Apr 2010 18:42

My preferences are:

1. Birth certificates.
2. Baptisms.
3. Marriage certificates.
4. Marriages (chuch/chapel etc.)

I'm assuming that the difference between PRs/BTs/ non-conformist records will be accounted for in Source rather than in a different data entry process.

'Selfishness' of course trumps everything -- why else would you put in the development effort?

Post by **nsw** » 14 Apr 2010 18:55

Cole Valley Girl said:
3. Marriage certificates.
4. Marriages (chuch/chapel etc.)

I was going to treat marriage certs and church marriages in the same way as they're basically the same anyway after 1837 (in the UK).

I'm assuming that the difference between PRs/BTs/ non-conformist records will be accounted for in Source rather than in a different data entry process.

Yes that's right.

Thanks for your 'votes'

Nick

gerrynuk · Post by **gerrynuk** » 14 Apr 2010 19:06

Hi Nick,

I would be very happy to settle for the same priorities as you list in you post.

As I have many more baptism, marriage and burial events rather than GRO (or equivalent) certificates, parish registers certainly are the more urgent requirement for me.

By the way, for those of us with ancestors in Norfolk LDS/Family Search has posted up images of parish registers for most of the county - a real treasure trove! And, of course, it creates many more events to be recorded.

Happy programming!

Gerry

Post by **nsw** » 14 Apr 2010 19:44

Gerry Newnham said:
By the way, for those of us with ancestors in Norfolk LDS/Family Search has posted up images of parish registers for most of the county - a real treasure trove!

Yes, Cheshire & Durham BTs (Via Familysearch pilot) and London (via Ancestry) have the images available too (or had until recently in the case of Cheshire).

ireneblackburn · Post by **ireneblackburn** » 14 Apr 2010 20:38

I would prefer

1. Baptism
2. Marriage
3. Birth Cert
followed by burials and death certificates

arshawbrown · Post by **arshawbrown** » 15 Apr 2010 08:35

I would prefer
1. Baptism
2. Marriage
3. Burials and death certificates

Thanks for a great program

JonAxtell · Post by **JonAxtell** » 15 Apr 2010 11:30

My choice is

Marriage certificates
Birth certificates
Death certificates

rbryce · Post by **rbryce** » 15 Apr 2010 14:20

I am another one going for
Baptisms
Marriage Certifcates
Birth Certificates

Thanks

Robert

Stevebye · Post by **Stevebye** » 15 Apr 2010 14:22

My preferences

1. Baptism
2. Marriage
3. Birth Cert

PatrickT · Post by **PatrickT** » 15 Apr 2010 15:02

I would go for

1. Baptisms
2. Burials
3. Marriages

rt · Post by rt » 15 Apr 2010 16:05

Nick,

My initial data entry is normally from Parish Registers. On the basis that marriages entail the greater number of navigation keystrokes to enter in FH, I'd put them ahead of burials in the list of wishes. So...

Baptisms (allowing your preference)
Marriages
Burials

To ease processing of data from queries etc, I often create associated events at the same time, with an estimated date e.g. baptism would also entail creating a 'born' event, just with an estimated date and (perhaps) a lesser level of assessment in the citation. For burials I place a date of the burial month & year in the 'died' field. So... one question ahead of the development activity would be to ask a little more about exactly what you're considering...

Very pleased with the initial release of AS, and have used it to enter approaching 100 households. Pleased also you'll be adding the facility to add further images to existing census entries, as I bumped into that requirement earlier this afternoon!

Ramble over....

Post by **nsw** » 15 Apr 2010 18:44

rt said:
So... one question ahead of the development activity would be to ask a little more about exactly what you're considering...

Yes once we've decided what to start with I intend to start a thread to explain my thinking and ask for confirmation that my ideas meet the requirements of all of you and suggest further ideas. I'm glad that so many of you seem happy with the idea of baptisms appearing first as I had a feeling there would be some disappointment if I chose that one.

rt said:
Very pleased with the initial release of AS, and have used it to enter approaching 100 households.

100 entries already! That's amazing!

Best wishes

Nick

gerrynuk · Post by **gerrynuk** » 16 Apr 2010 17:06

Nick,

You may have considered this already but when you do launch the BMD version of AS, users may have entered up the basic facts as I have (eg date/place of baptism, residence, etc) but not yet linked the source and/or image. I have a backlog in expectation that AS will make the task easier and do a more thorough job. Will AS look for existing entries and just add the source/image rather than creating new, duplicate entries? (I usually link the image - and repository - to the source and then the source to the record.)

If not, I don't suppose it will be a big issue but it will potentially create lots of duplicate entries and I'm not sure the best way of deleting them in bulk.

Gerry

Stevebye · Post by **Stevebye** » 16 Apr 2010 17:18

Gerry Newnham said:
Nick,

You may have considered this already but when you do launch the BMD version of AS, users may have entered up the basic facts as I have (eg date/place of baptism, residence, etc) but not yet linked the source and/or image. I have a backlog in expectation that AS will make the task easier and do a more thorough job. Will AS look for existing entries and just add the source/image rather than creating new, duplicate entries? (I usually link the image - and repository - to the source and then the source to the record.)

If not, I don't suppose it will be a big issue but it will potentially create lots of duplicate entries and I'm not sure the best way of deleting them in bulk.

Gerry

Good thinking that man ! [wink]

Most of my Paternal family come from the Middlesex area, I've already entered a stack of Baptisms with links to images

Post by **nsw** » 16 Apr 2010 18:05

Gerry Newnham said:
Will AS look for existing entries and just add the source/image rather than creating new, duplicate entries? (I usually link the image - and repository - to the source and then the source to the record.)

I've not thought of every option/possibility yet but to be fair it will difficult to suit everyone. I suspect I'm more likely to do what was suggested in another thread which is that it will warn if you already have another baptism and offer to replace it. This would effectively delete the existing baptism and then create a new one linked to source, etc. If you've already created occupation, residence, birth, etc. associated with the baptism then I don't think realisitically I'll be getting Ancestral Sources to deal with these as it will be difficult to know which facts are associated with each other unless you've linked them to a single source or a shared source with the same 'where in source' reference, in which case you've probably already done everything Ancestral Sources would do so no need to re-do the entry!

Stevebye · Post by **Stevebye** » 16 Apr 2010 18:31

I'd be happy with that.

gerrynuk · Post by **gerrynuk** » 16 Apr 2010 18:59

Nick,

That sounds fine!

Gerry

philjo · Post by **philjo** » 16 Apr 2010 19:51

Nick,

my preferences would be:

1. Baptisms
2. Marriages
3. Burials

A couple of points:
I have a lot of Dade-style entries from Yorkshire parish registers for the period 1780-1812 (which are very useful to verify you are looking at the right family!), so AS needs to be able to allow these to be entered.
for baptisms this give the names/occupations/parishes of the child's parents & their parents & also the names of the father of the child's grandmothers. (4 generations of names on a single entry)

sample baptism entry from 1782:
John Bulmer, son of : Father: Stephen Bulmer of Tadacster, Miller, son of Stephen Bulmer of Pontefract Singing Master by Elizabeth daughter of __March of Hatfield. Mother: Sarah daughter of Samuel Beetham of Fenton Farmer by Margaret daughter of William Wardle of Stutton Yeoman.

The text above is stored in the text from source field at the moment for the baptism entry.

Burials:
I have collected a number of digital photographs of gravestones, so if AS could allow these to be linked to the burial record as you can with the census images at the moment that would be great. (& allow a transcrption of the stone to be entered would be useful) The gravestones obviously may contain more than one family member so these would ideally link a single grave record to each person buried there.

Many thanks,

Jeremy

ireneblackburn · Post by **ireneblackburn** » 16 Apr 2010 20:11

Hi Nick

I have some baptism certificates, copies of entries from baptism registers which I would like to link with the baptism entries.

I also have mourning cards, notices from newspapers and photos of graves which I would like to link to deaths/burials if that will be possible.

Irene

jmurphy · Post by **jmurphy** » 07 May 2010 17:22

Nick,

Obviously this will be far down on your list, but for the far future may I suggest, for those of us across the pond, a template for the draft registration cards for WWI and WWII that are available here in the US?

Like the US Census, the forms are rich in data, e.g. birthplace, birthdate (explicit dates), residence, employer, immigration status, marital status, number of children, etc.

The military custom fact set which is available on the forum for download covers most of the other facts on the forms (physical description, etc.)

I realize this is a huge request, and seemingly for little gain, especially since the WWI form had three different formats. But the data is so useful, I find seeking out these records essential for any male born within the time frame covered.

Images of the cards are available on the Family Search record search pilot, and blank forms are available for download on Ancestry.

For your original question, I have so few parish records or certificates yet, I have no strong preference.

Jan

Post by **nsw** » 07 May 2010 19:13

jmurphy said:
Obviously this will be far down on your list, but for the far future may I suggest, for those of us across the pond, a template for the draft registration cards for WWI and WWII that are available here in the US?

Like the US Census, the forms are rich in data, e.g. birthplace, birthdate (explicit dates), residence, employer, immigration status, marital status, number of children, etc.

Hi Jan, nice to 'see' you again. Would it be possible to create an Ancestral Sources Census template for this or are there just too many items of data that would need a custom fact?

Nick

jmurphy · Post by **jmurphy** » 08 May 2010 14:56

Nick Walker said:Hi Jan, nice to 'see' you again. Would it be possible to create an Ancestral Sources Census template for this or are there just too many items of data that would need a custom fact?

At the moment, I don't have space on the new computer to install FH4 and AS to experiment myself, but yes, that's my question -- assuming the user has already installed the military custom fact set, would it be possible to make custom templates for these cards?

The data is rather census-like in that you have common registration dates, a residence address, an occupation, etc.

Most of the items that would need a custom fact deal with physical description of the person registering, and are in the military fact set which is available for download here. I'm assuming that if such a template were created, it would take advantage of that custom fact set.

IIRC when I was entering most of the data, I added an association or note for the question 'name of the person who will always know where you are', and a custom event for the registration itself, since men did not always register in the same area in which they lived. (If you see a person who lives and works in NYC but his registration is in Massachusetts, for instance, it might be a clue that he is visiting his relatives and registered in his hometown.)

However, I expect most people will be interested in recording the residence and employment information, the immigration / naturalization status, and so on.

Here's a link to the list of questions that I found online (thanks to the St Louis MO County Library that saved me the work of making a list for you myself [wink] ):

http://www.slcl.org/branches/hq/sc/sc-ww1-q.htm

An article at the (US) National Archives is here:
http://www.archives.gov/genealogy/milit ... index.html

I found an older article reviewing the WWII draft cards here (written before the images were made available on Ancestry):

http://www.rootdig.com/draft/worldwartwodraftcards.html

Jan

Post by **nsw** » 08 May 2010 19:29

Physical Description (DSCR) is one of the standard GEDCOM facts and is already supported by Ancestral Sources.

When you do get a chance please have a go at creating the template(s). I have no plans to support custom facts but by recording data in local notes, etc. it may be possible to come up with something close to what you want.

I don't have any plans to add other census templates (when I do get time I prefer to work on the programming side) but I'm hoping that users who do create templates may choose to export them and share them via this site.

Best wishes

Nick

laurajhardy · Post by **laurajhardy** » 25 May 2010 17:01

I have been busy reworking all my census entries (AS makes it so much easier, I decided it was worth doing to keep all entries consistant, especially as I realised I'd recorded some as census and others as residence. If anyone else has considered this but worried about having to hunt through for duplicated entries after doing so, I just sort all my records in FH by 'updated' and at the end of the day quickly go through and delete the unwanted entries) and have now added over 250 household entries using AS.
Anyway, I don't really mind what comes next - although only having a few certificates I think baptisms, marriages and burials (in any order!) would be preferable.
I would like the ability to add an approximate date of birth with baptism entries, and also (as I have often found it included in baptism records I have come accross) the fathers occupation. Likewise, the ability to add an approximate date of death with burial entries.

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