Previous posts in this series can be read in the New FamilySearch Family Tree Compendium.
In this post, I'm going to attempt to add source citation information to the vital records for Isaac Seaver (1802-1870) into the New FamilySearch Family Tree while online in the tree database.
Starting from the "Details" page for Isaac Seaver (PIN LHRX-R59), I clicked on the "Edit" link for the Birth Fact that I wanted to add a source for. That screen looks like this:
On the screen above, I clicked on the "Add a Source" link. This new window opened, and I filled in as many of the form fields as possible, as shown below:
In this Source form, there are fields for selections of Source Type (e.g., government record, published book, etc. -- you have to pick one to add anything else), Source Detail (the type of record, e.g., birth, death, etc.) and Media Type (e.g., paper, website, microfilm, DVD, etc.).
I added as much information as I could, and clicked on the "Done" button (below the bottom of the screen above. The complete Source citation appeared in the window:
All of my information is in the "Source" field above. It says:
"Source type: Published information, Source detail: Birth record or certificate, Media type: Book, Title: Vital Records of Westminster, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849 , Author: Systematic History Fund, Publication information: Worcester, Mass.: F.P. Rice, 1908, Repository type: Library, Repository name: Family History Library, Repository city: Salt Lake City, Repository state: Utah, Repository country: United States, Page number: 83, Actual text: SEAVER, Isaac, s. Benjamin and Marthy, Dec. 20 1802, Comment: This book has birth records from the Westminster town records., Contributor: randyseaver1, Contributor of repository: randyseaver1"
That took about three minutes, by my estimation. I copied and pasted the information from my RootsMagic 4 database, then cut/pasted it into the different form fields.
That was so much fun that I did the same thing for the Death record. The summary Source screen for the Death is:
The source information for the death record is:
"Source type: Government record, Source detail: Death record or certificate, Media type: Website, Title: "Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841-1910," online database, Author: New England Historic Genealogical Society, Publication information: American Ancestors (http://www.AmericanAncestors.org), Repository type: Archive, Repository name: Massachusetts State Archives, Repository city: Boston, Repository state: Massachusetts, Repository country: United States, Page number: Deaths: Volume 231, Page 338, Comment: This data is on FHL US/CAN Film 960197 , Contributor: randyseaver1, Contributor of repository: randyseaver1"
I also entered the source information for the marriage record:
Here is the source information entered for the Marriage record:
"Source type: Published information, Source detail: Marriage record or certificate, Media type: Book, Title: Vital Records of Westminster, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849 , Author: Systematic History Fund, , Publication information: Worcester, Mass.: F.P. Rice, 1908, Repository type: Library, Repository name: Family History Library, Repository city: Salt Lake City, Repository state: Utah, Repository country: United States, Page number: 186, Actual text: SEAVER, Isaac and Abigail Seaver, int., Nov. 29, 1832, Comment: Abigail Seaver had maiden name Gates, and was previously married to Isaac's brother, Benjamin Seaver, who died in 1825., Contributor: randyseaver1, Contributor of repository: randyseaver1"
Back to the "Details" page and I clicked on the "Individual Sources" link at the bottom of the screen and saw:
They're all there! Cool. Success the first time!
The Source citations are not exactly Evidence! Explained quality, are they? But all of the information that I entered is present, and a researcher could find the records cited.
There are some drawbacks with the current Source form. It is fixed and inflexible, geared to published books and journals, although many Source Detail types can be entered fairly easily. There are no "Master Sources" like in the genealogy software programs - the user has to add the information (author, title, publication, repository, page, etc.) for each assertion in every field every time.
The ideal situation would be something like genealogy software has - a set of "Master Sources" and "Repositories" entered by each user, along with standardization suggestions. Then the user would have to enter the information only once, and then have to enter the "Page number" information for each use of the Master Source. Creation of an Evidence! Explained quality Footnote would be good to have also.
I'm going to take the weekend off in working in the New FamilySearch Family Tree, but I'll post again about it next week. I think using RootsMagic 4 to enter persons into the nFSFT is next!
1 comment:
Here's a tip for entering sources in new FamilySearch Randy.
If you are quoting a source that is listed in the Library Catalog on FamilySearch, simply bring up the source there, copy the info line by line and paste it into the new FamilySearch source you are creating.
You have to have two active tabs or two monitors open, but that isn't a problem.
From that point, all you need to do is enter the detail info .. i.e. Page #, Detail Text, etc.
Now that you've had an opportunity to 'play' with new FamilySearch, you can appreciate my longstanding and repeated requests to FamilySearch to issue an API so the creators of genealogy programs can use it in their applications.
Once it is in them, we'd simply upload our sources like we do data now and eliminate their slow manual entry that we have to use now.
If we've taken the time to enter the source correctly into our database, we shouldn't be required to manually enter the exact same info into new FamilySearch a second time.
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