* Referencing Sources To Individuals

[Baboon281]

I am sure this would have been discussed previous but I can not find the appropriate entry. When I started my research I created a number of lever folders to safely store my paper documents originally 1 (but now 2) lever arch folders that contained my original source documents. I then copied any source document relevant to an an individual and put these in a separate folder so I could quickly look for a person in my ‘Individuals Folder’ and see all the source documents that relate to them. This was okay when I Had a 100 individuals but now I’m over 300 Individuals in my tree my system is becoming unwieldy.
So my question is how do people cross reference the source documents they have to individuals on their trees. My thoughts were to have a folder containing all my individuals and then just append the source document numbers relevant to each individual rather than put a copy of the actual document. If so is there a standard query in FH to list all the source documents related to an individual.
Thanks for any help.

[BillH]

I don't do what you are doing, but I do know of one query that may be of help. There is a standard query called Sources for Given Record. Select record type Individual and then select the person in question. That will list all sources linked to the person.

[BobWard]

What Bill suggested is a very quick and clean way to get what you are looking for.

[Jane]

Don't forget if you simply want to see all the Source media, you can just use the View Media drop down and select all related media.

[tatewise]

OR, you could customise that Query to include the Media records linked to the Source records.
It all rather depends on whether you want the Source Record Id or the Media Record Id or both.

In addition, most Reports on Individuals include a Sources section that includes those cross-references to cited Source records and their Media. See glossary:standard_reports|> Standard Report Types.

Note that both the above include indirect links via Family records for Marriage Event citations of Sources.

It also begs the question: Why have cross-referenced paper records at all?
Just keep the master Source Documents recorded by Source Record Id or Media Record Id.
The PC is ideally suited to maintaining all the cross-references.
Just make sure you have secure backups on different media in physically different locations.
See glossary:backup_and_recovery|> Backup and Recovery.

Imagine how users with thousands of Individuals cope!

[Baboon281]

Thanks all plenty to think about. I’ll try the suggestions and see what suits best. The thought of just relying on a computer concerns me a little but I want an easy and manageable paper back up system.

[tatewise]

You are right NOT to purely rely on a computer. That is why everyone must keep backups somewhere else.
Then when (NOT if) the computer breaks down, you can restore the backups to a new computer.
You should be keeping backups whether you keep paper records or not.
Otherwise, just think of having to re-enter all your 300 Individuals and the Sources from your paper records!

[jmurphy]

I have very little in the way of paper documents, except for what was passed down to me in the family, so for the most part, this reply is talking about the folder arrangement for the digital folders on my computer, both for the scans we made of our own family papers, and the images downloaded from websites (what Ancestry calls "citation media"). But the same principles can be applied to a paper system.

I keep my document image copies in archival arrangement, sorted by where I got the images from.

I was prompted to do this early on, when I discovered two brothers living next door to each other on the census -- not from reading the census page, but by downloading the digital image, and discovering that I had downloaded it already. That taught me that 1) I wasn't spending enough time to analyse the whole image, and 2) if I saved a copy of the image for every person in the census household, I would quickly be up to my ears in duplicate images.

I know it is popular to keep everything in folders associated with the particular people. I do that also -- for my research notes, not for the image copies.

The reason I do it this way is to provide separation between my own work product, and the material which comes from another entity. Suppose I wanted to publish a book, and needed to ask for permission to reproduce an image. If I rename that image (as so many people do) to indicate the name of the person in the image, and store it in that person's folder, I now have no idea where I found the image, and I have to go out and look for it all over again so I can know who to ask for permission.

I have heard from some professional genealogists (if I recall correctly, it was a post on the RootsWeb mailing list TRANSITIONAL-GENEALOGISTS-FORUM-L, but it might have been in the Q/A session of a webinar) that in some instances they were not allowed to provide their clients with the documents they had looked at for the client's research, and could only provide the information for the client to access them with their own personal subscription!

I use several methods to keep track for all the records I have about a single individual. For the images where I'm sure I have a good identification, I refer to Family Historian to see what documents I have gathered about a person. Also, when I am working on a problem, I create a Genealogy Source Checklist like this one demoed by Crista Cowan on her Ancestry Desktop Education playlist on YouTube, and place it in that person's research notes folder.

Before I'm sure where a particular source belongs, I make notes in Scrivener. And as part of my review cycle, I plan to inventory all my media and enter it into the source-centered software Clooz.

I also have Evidentia, which walks the user through the process of writing a proof statement about specific research questions. It produces reports too, and those can be stored in a person's research folder with my work notes.

If you want a paper solution, instead of relying on the computer to cross-reference your records, then what about making a Source List for all the sources you've found so far? Assign a number to every document that comes in, and list it on that person's Source List. You'll be able to see at a glance what records you have for an individual.

The FamilySearch Research Wiki article on Research Logs has an example of a simple research log with a space for a document number -- the blank form is available for download here. If that log doesn't suit you, there are many others available for download or purchase. The Wiki article includes links to videos in FamilySearch's learning center where G. David Dilts demonstrates how he keeps his own research log. Do what works best for you.

[Baboon281]

Once again you’ve all come up trumps. I’ve gone for a customised version of ‘Sources for a given record’ as suggested by Bill Henshaw. I’ll also make sure I keep back up records of the FH programme. Thanks to all for your help.