* GRO & FreeBMD sources - how to demerge B, M & D

[arthurk]

Up till now I've been using a single source for each of the GRO Index and FreeBMD, with no differentiation between Births, Deaths and Marriages. I'd now like to separate them out into GRO Birth Index, GRO Marriage Index etc etc. I thought I remembered seeing something about this here in the past couple of months, but I haven't been able to find it, so apologies if this repeats the question.

When I use a GRO Index or FreeBMD source my citation (Where Within Source) is in the format "Mar qtr 1880 Leeds Reg Dist, 9b 123", so there's nothing in either the source or the citation to indicate whether it comes from the birth, death or marriage index. (Probably a mistake on my part ) The question is how to convert these to separate sources.

I've found one possible way to do it, but it's a bit convoluted and I wondered if there was anything better. My way:

1. Use Search and Replace plug-in to change start of citation from "Mar qtr" to "XXMar qtr" - scope of change is sources for Deaths only. Repeat with Jun/Sep/Dec qtrs.
2. Use Replace Selected Source Citations plug-in to convert "GRO Index" source to "GRO Death Index", using Where Within Source contains XX as a criterion. (Or possibly 'contains XXMar', XXJun etc separately)
3. Repeat step 2 to change "Free BMD" to "FreeBMD (Deaths)"
4. Use Search and Replace to change XXMar etc back to Mar (reverse of 1 above).
5. Repeat steps 1-4 with Marriages.
6. This should leave the original GRO Index source referring only to Births, so simply edit its name (and long & short title etc) to "GRO Birth Index", and similarly change "FreeBMD" to "FreeBMD (Births)". (Note: I've left Births till last because the final category doesn't need the same amount of processing and I have more of them.)

Check at each stage with List All Citations for a Source plug-in that nothing untoward has happened. There may also be a few anomalies to sort out manually, such as more recent BMD events that are listed by month rather than quarter. I've already dealt with cases such as where the death index gives an age that can be used as a source for an approximate year of birth.

Finally, it's worth mentioning that I'm finally contemplating upgrading from v.6 to v.7, so if there are any relevant plug-ins etc that work in one but not the other it would be useful to know before I upgrade.

I've done a very limited test of my method on a copy of my project and it seems to work, but can anyone see any flaws in it, or suggest anything better, please?

[Gowermick]

For what it’s worth, I use the following format for my GRO entries,:- GRO B 1920 Q2 Maidstone 2A 123

To keep my typing to a minimum, I use Q1 etc for the quarters. I know Maidstone is the RD, so don’t need extra text to state that.
Putting the year first, followed by the quarter, also aids the natural sorting of the references.

Hope this gives you some useful ideas to consider

[arthurk]

Thanks - it's only relatively recently that I've started using Q1, Q2 etc in the fact dates, and my use of 'Mar qtr' etc in the citations goes back a lot further than that - in fact long before I started using Family Historian. And since my source has been 'GRO Index' I don't feel the need to repeat 'GRO' in the citation. However, your use of the B is a clear improvement on my omission, and would probably make life easier for you if you decided to do what I'm doing.

Having said all that, it would be relatively simple to use Search and Replace if I did decide to change anything - and so long as there's a consistent text string in the 'Where Within Source' wording, the method I'm proposing here ought to work.

( Thought: maybe instead of adding an arbitrary prefix to 'Mar qtr' ('XXMar qtr') I could use 'Births Mar qtr', 'Deaths Mar qtr' etc - and would I then even want/need to demerge the categories?)

[tatewise]

Whether you decide to split the GRO Index source into three or not, the Where within Source changes are worthwhile.
The Search and Replace plugin is the tool to use and can do more than just add the prefix.
e.g.
To add the Birth prefix for all Birth event citations:
Search: ^([MJSD]%l%l) qtr
Replace: Birth %1 qtr
but ensure you select LUA Pattern Mode
Search explanation:
^ anchors the pattern to the start of the Where with Source field
[MJSD]%l%l matches any of M J S or D followed by two lower case letters, i.e. Mar, Jun, Sep, or Dec
(...) parentheses capture that month quarter text
Replace explanation:
%1 substitutes the captured text from the Search

The above must be repeated for Marriage and Death event citations.

To convert to Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4 following the year regardless of whether there is a prefix or not:
Search: Mar qtr (%d%d%d%d)
Replace: %1 Q1
but ensure you select LUA Pattern Mode
Search explanation:
(%d%d%d%d) captures the 4 digit year
Replace explanation:
%1 substitutes the captured year from the Search

The above must be repeated for Jun qtr > Q2, Sep qtr > Q3, and Dec qtr > Q4

[arthurk]

Thanks, Mike, that's very helpful - particularly the explanation of what the expressions actually mean. I haven't fully decided how to proceed; my last post indicated a bit of hesitation, but I am now thinking it would after all be preferable to split the GRO Index source into three separate ones.

However, unless there's another clever method that I don't know, in order to do that with the Replace Selected Source Citations plug-in I would need to add something temporarily in order to differentiate between the three types. It might as well be 'Birth', 'Death' or 'Marriage' as anything else, so the LUA Pattern Mode expression would certainly save some time there.

Because it involves changing the order of things that vary, I'm guessing that LUA Pattern Mode would also be the only sensible way to change to Q1, Q2 etc, and/or switch the years and quarters round. That wasn't part of my original plan so I need to give it a bit more thought, and may in fact decide to deal with the upgrade first.

[RS3100]

With the risk that I am missing something obvious, and bearing in mind that I only use generic source records, this is how I record BMD sources.

Title: Birth (or Death) SMITH, Arthur 1905 Q2 Bingham, Nottinghamshire
or for marriages, Title: Marriage SMITH, Albert & JONES, Ada 1925 Q2 Basford, Nottinghamshire
Generic Type: Entry in register of births (or marriages, or deaths)
Publication Info: 1905/Q2/Bingham/1A/123
Repository: General Register Office

For the citation specific details, I enter the appropriate quarter date and assessment. For birth sources, I enter the mother's maiden name (where given in the index) in privacy brackets within the Note field. For death sources, I enter the age at death or date of birth (where given in the index) again in privacy brackets in the Note field.

It works for me.

[tatewise]

@RS3100: You are clearly creating distinct Source Citations for each BMD event.
The problem the OP has is that ALL his BMD GRO Index citations link to just ONE Source record.
He wants to split them up to achieve something nearer to your strategy and needs advice about automating that process.

[johnmorrisoniom]

Tatewise,

I don't know if this is a similar case or not, but 10 years ago (I just looked at the date) you created a plugin for me to do something that would appear to be similar.
It was called "Seperate BMD Sources" and the last version I have is V2.1 30/04/2012. It would almost certainly need updating for FH7 (I used it on FH5)

I had already created the new generic lumped source for each category

John

[tatewise]

Yes, well remembered, John.

I have reviewed that plugin and it does not need any significant changes for FH V7.

The version attached below detects BMD citations of a GRO Index source and substitutes GRO Birth Index, GRO Marriage Index and GRO Death Index respectively.

The specific Source titles required can be edited on lines 17 to 24 and include Baptism, Christening, Burial & Cremation.
i.e. Change them to Free BMD and FreeBMD (Births), FreeBMD (Marriages) and FreeBMD (Deaths) respectively.

For the plugin to work the common citation must be the first citation on the event.

[arthurk]

Interesting, John. Is this the thread it arose from:

https://www.fhug.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=6803

It looks to me as though you and the OP there were looking for more or less the same as I'm asking about here, though the thread then changed tack and unless I missed it, there didn't seem to be a link to an actual plug-in.

For myself, now, I'm quite happy to proceed on the basis of what's already been suggested here. In fact in some ways I'd prefer it - doing it all step by step with the existing plug-ins means I can keep an eye on things a bit better, so if there are any problems due to inconsistencies in my data I can spot them as they happen.

Edited to add:
Mike posted while I was writing this, so thank you for the link to the updated plug-in. In my case, though, I'm afraid not all my GRO sources are first in the list. However, don't go to any trouble to amend it on my account (if it's even possible), as for the reasons I've stated here I'm happy to use the more long-winded approach.

[tatewise]

I've looked more closely at the plugin and it actually does not depend on the citation being the first one.

So you could give it whirl, perhaps in a copy of your project.

Bear in mind that all the changes made by a plugin can be easily reversed by using Edit > Undo Plugin Updates before closing FH. So you can review what the plugin has changed and decide to keep or undo the changes.
Any inconsistencies can still be detected either manually or by using Queries or Search and Replace.

[arthurk]

Thank you, Mike, I've now tried the plug-in on a copy of my project, and it works perfectly, changing the single GRO Index to three separate ones for B, M and D. However....

The specific Source titles required can be edited on lines 17 to 24 and include Baptism, Christening, Burial & Cremation.
i.e. Change them to Free BMD and FreeBMD (Births), FreeBMD (Marriages) and FreeBMD (Deaths) respectively.

Just to clarify - having run it once to change the GRO Index source, do I then change lines 17 to 20 to refer to FreeBMD instead? And then do I just install it again in its FreeBMD version, or do I need to remove the GRO version first?

(Baptism, Christening, Burial and Cremation aren't part of the picture in my case, so I'm assuming I just ignore lines 21 to 24.)

[tatewise]

In Tools > Plugins... ensure More>> is clicked to display righthand side panel.
Select the Separate BMD Sources plugin and click Edit... on the right.
In the edit window change the lines 17 to 20 as suggested then use File > Save or File > Save As... (just like most editors).
'Save' will overwrite the existing plugin.
'Save As...' will create a new plugin.
Click the X Close icon top right.
In neither case is installing required.
Now you can Run the edited plugin.

If you used 'Save As...' you can also still Run the original plugin.

Yes, ignore lines 21 to 24.

[arthurk]

Thanks - as I don't write plug-ins that's somewhere I've never ventured.

[arthurk]

All done now - many thanks to Mike for the advice and plug-in, and John for remembering about it.

I successfully edited the GRO version to create one for FreeBMD, and after testing on a copy have applied both to my main project file. I'm still undecided about re-ordering the various bits of the citations, but I now know how to do it.

Thanks again.