Thursday, November 10, 2011

Exploring Family Tree Maker 2012 - Post 22: Creating a Civil War Pension File Source

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See all posts in this series at Exploring Family Tree Maker 2012 Compendium.

One of my major criteria for selecting a "preferred" genealogy management program is the ease in creating source citations. I want to demonstrate the source citation creation process in Family Tree Maker 2012 in a number of posts for several different types of records, both for my own education and, hopefully, to help others navigate this fairly complex process.

Another Source record type is Military Pension Files. I want to create a source citation for a Civil War Pension File for my great-great-grandfather, Isaac Seaver (1823-1901).  I received the full pension file for Isaac and his widow, Alvina M. Seaver, early in 2011. 

The process I used to create this source citation was:

a. Go to "People" workspace, and "Person" view for my great-great-grandfather, Isaac Seaver.
b. Select (single click on it) the Pension Fact (previously created)
c. In the right-hand panel in the "Source" tab, click on "New" and select "Add new source citation."
d. In the "Add Source Citation for Burial for ..." window, click the "New" button
e. With the "Source template" window open, click on the "More" button
f. Pick the "National Government Records" template from the "Select Source Template" list, then pick "Original Materials (United States)" in the Category field, and "Manuscript: National Archives" in the Template field.

The "Source Template List" is shown below:



g. Click "OK"
h. The "Add Source" window opens, fill in the template fields with:

* Series:  Widow's Certificate
* Sub-group title:  Case Files of Approved Pension Applications ..., 1861-1934
*  Record group title:  Civil War and Later Pension Files, Department of Veterans Affairs
*   Record group number: 15

True confessions:  I looked on the National Archives website for military genealogy  records  (http://www.archives.gov/research/military/genealogy.html) and used some search terms, but could not figure out the appropriate information for the above entries.  The NARA site is really difficult to use to find information like Series numbers, Record Group numbers, etc., at least for me.  Perhaps my readers have some handy hints?  So I consulted Evidence! Explained, and found excellent examples on page 604, which I used to create the entries above.  That was much easier than trying to wade through the NARA site, but it doesn't help me with pension files for service in other wars.

The "Add Source" window looks like this:


i. Click "OK" and you're back to the "Add Source Citation for Pension ..." window,
j. Fill in the template fields for:

* Citation detail: Alvina M. Seaver, widow’s pension application no. 738,086, certificate number 667,027, service of Isaac Seaver (Pvt., Co. H, 4th Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, Civil War)
* Citation text: [blank]

The "Add Source citation..." window looks like this:


k. To get the "Reference Note" for this source citation, click on the "Reference Note" tab:


The completed Reference Note source citation, including the Citation text, reads (source template elements in purple, citation details in red):

Alvina M. Seaver, widow’s pension application no. 738,086, certificate number 667,027, service of Isaac Seaver (Pvt., Co. H, 4th Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, Civil War), Widow's Certificate; Case Files of Approved Pension Applications ..., 1861-1934; Civil War and Later Pension Files, Department of Veterans Affairs, National Archives record Group 15; National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.

That matches the Evidence! Explained example very well, with the only small glitches I see being having "Widow's Certificate" after the citation detail, and capitalizing the word "Record" the the Record group entry.  I had to have an entry in the "Series" field, so I deleted "Widow's Certificate" from the Reference Note and edited the Reference Note to capitalize "Record" to give me:

Alvina M. Seaver, widow’s pension application no. 738,086, certificate number 667,027, service of Isaac Seaver (Pvt., Co. H, 4th Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, Civil War); Case Files of Approved Pension Applications ..., 1861-1934; Civil War and Later Pension Files, Department of Veterans Affairs, National Archives Record Group 15; National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.


As long as I don't click the "Reset" button on the "Edit source citation for Pension..." Reference Note tab, the citation as crafted above will remain in the system.

However (isn't there always a "however"?), there are many Facts that could be added for a Pension File - the soldier's application, the soldier's affidavit, the pension award, the requests for an increase, the widow's application, affidavit, award, etc.  How can that be sourced?

Let's use the "Declaration for an Invalid Pension" filed by Isaac Seaver on 11 June 1892.  The additional information for this document can be added to the "Citation detail" field so as to read (using the Evidence! Explained model again):

Declaration for Invalid Pension, 11 June 1892 (submitted by Isaac Seaver), Alvina M. Seaver, widow’s pension application no. 738,086, certificate number 667,027, service of Isaac Seaver (Pvt., Co. H, 4th Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, Civil War); Case Files of Approved Pension Applications ..., 1861-1934; Civil War and Later Pension Files, Department of Veterans Affairs, National Archives Record Group 15; National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.

I kind of winged it above, since Isaac Seaver filed this Declaration, but all of these papers are filed in the Widow's Pension File rather than the Soldier's Pension File, according to information on the NARA website.  So I think that the actual Pension File cited should be the Widow's File, since the Soldier's file appears to be included in the Widow's File.  I would appreciate comments on the appropriateness of that!

A user could create a series of Facts for the events provided in a Pension File by using the "Pension" Fact in Family Tree Maker (or by creating a new Fact type), and adding the location when the paper was created, and then adding a "Description" of the Fact.  For example, for the citation above:

Pension:  11 June 1892; Clinton, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States; Declaration for Invalid Pension (submitted by Isaac Seaver)

Now I'm wondering how that will look when printed in a genealogy report.  I created an Individual Report for Isaac Seaver, and the entry says:

Pension:  Declaration for Invalid Pension (submitted by Isaac Seaver)

That does not provide a date and a place for the Fact, even though the date and place were entered into the appropriate fields.  If I put the date and place in the Description, it shows:

Pension: 11 June 1892; Clinton, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States; Declaration for Invalid Pension (submitted by Isaac Seaver)

That works, but I think that I really should not have to do the work-around - FTM 2012 should put the date and place in the Fact list in the report similar to other Facts in the Report.

I seem to be finding niggling little problems with Family Tree Maker 2012.  That wasn't my original intention in this series of posts, but it seems to be turning into a series of complaints (which I think are justified).  This is a very powerful program, but it still needs development and attention to detail, especially in the source citation area.

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