Newby getting a little confused - hellllllllllllllllp

[Perkymite]

Hi I am new to Family Tree Maker. I am using FMT 2012 ver 21.0.0.723 with Windows 7.

My confusion arises from Sources and Source Citations. Having read my manual several times I think I have now grasped the concept. However, I am unsure where Media under People/Person (Fact, Source, Media & Notes - being the headings) fits in.

I have for example a media item, 1911 Census - 6 ancestors on it. Now, if I link that media item to each one of them under People/Person/Media do I then need to go through the paper chase of designating it as a source or does the media item itself become a Source?

Many thanks for any help given

Perkymite

I have moved your thread to Family Tree Software Perkymite as I thought that people who could help were more likely to see it here.

[Elaine ..Spain]

I am sure you could ask a number of people the same question and get different answers!

In my mind the purpose of a source citation is to record where the piece of information came from. If it came from the 1911 census then that for me is the source citation. The fact that I may or may not have the image of the 1911 census attached to that person or persons is irrelevant to me.

Personally I don't think there is a right or wrong way of doing it. You decide how you think it would be best suited for your purposes and then be consistent with that throughout your tree.

[DavidNewton]

I can understand the confusion here.


If you enter a source citation for your fact and attach an image to the citation itself then that image will show for everybody who links to that citation. and if you change the image or add more images then they will still show for everyone linked to that citation. On the other hand if you directly attach media, via the media tab, then that will show just for that individual.

Just for the record this is the FTM behaviour and other software may behave differently.

[Perkymite]

If I have posted this twice I apologize, still finding me feet :o. Thank you for moving my post.

Both of you make good points, Consistence is the key as you say Elaine and I was interested in the way FTM behaves with regard to images attached to Citations David. I am not a natural "genealogist or Clerical person", I prefer hitting things with a hammer! I am going to attache Media directly, I have already done this in many cases, I feel this give you all the information a Citation gives and more, and you can see it directly.

Many thanks

[AntonyM]

There are many ways to use sources and source citations - some people just use the citations that Ancestry produces automatically when you link a source such as a census to a person or fact, others prefer to use an academic style of referencing,such as the Harvard system, and many others just use their own bespoke solution. There are even books written on the subject.

For me the 2 main things to consider are:
1) That ALL facts in your tree have a source attached to them, so that you know where the information came from, and clearly identifies the status of the source (original document, transcript, etc.) and how/where you accessed it.
2) That another researcher should be able to easily access the information given using the source you quote, so just "1911 census" on its own is no use, but "1911 Census, England, COTTAM, John. Blackburn, Lancs. RG14 ED 27 Piece 25087" would be.

[Christine in Herts]

I often have more than one source cited for any individual fact. That means I can see how "strong" that piece of information is - how reliable. It's also a means for spotting (if necessary) if something is not truly "strong" because the not all the sources cited can be shown to be independent.

If a source is someone else's tree/research, I know that I need to go back to them if some associated piece of info comes up - whether to reinforce or undermine the data.

Christine

[DavidNewton]

I am not particularly in favour of the "me too" posting but in this case I think it is worth a vote in favour of the points made by AnthonyM and Christine.


It is so tempting to gather information, get engrossed in the chase and ignore the tedious task of recording where all this information came from. All I can say is don't go down that track. At some point you will sit back and look at what you have and ask yourself "Where on earth did that information come from?" and if you are conscientious you will dig it all out again and waste many times over the little bit of time you saved by not rcording your source. Believe me I am talking from the experience of doing just that.

[Perkymite]

I am not particularly in favour of the "me too" posting but in this case I think it is worth a vote in favour of the points made by AnthonyM and Christine.


It is so tempting to gather information, get engrossed in the chase and ignore the tedious task of recording where all this information came from. All I can say is don't go down that track. At some point you will sit back and look at what you have and ask yourself "Where on earth did that information come from?" and if you are conscientious you will dig it all out again and waste many times over the little bit of time you saved by not recording your source. Believe me I am talking from the experience of doing just that.

Actually, I have already done that David . Hence my investigating this aspect of FTM.

However, If I have a picture(media) of my 1911 Census entry it has all the information about source on it and it is quicker than then researching the source to find out what it said. That is what prompted my question. As I have said I am not a natural "Genealogist" but I think a picture under Media linked to the person is a lot better that source details of where I can find the information.

[Christine in Herts]

Actually, I have already done that David . Hence my investigating this aspect of FTM.

However, If I have a picture(media) of my 1911 Census entry it has all the information about source on it and it is quicker than then researching the source to find out what it said. That is what prompted my question. As I have said I am not a natural "Genealogist" but I think a picture under Media linked to the person is a lot better that source details of where I can find the information.

I reckon it may worth noting where you acquire such images - if only for proper acknowledgements at a later date - or to help you to work out whether or not your sub has been worth the money. Having said that, I don't think that my census-based records have that - just the reference info. But I'm not using conventional s/ware.

Christine