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Tutorial:
Using Family Tree Maker's New Source Documentation Features
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Family Tree Maker version 4.0 introduces a new, more detailed method
for documenting sources. In previous versions of Family Tree Maker,
the only place for documenting sources was a "free-text" field (the
Source dialog box) associated with several specific event location fields.
If you used the same source twice you had to copy it or retype it. Of
course, Fastfields helped a little, but you still had to customize the
information for each field. On the surface, the new method for documenting
sources appears the same; you will still see the small letter "s" next
to a field that has a source associated with it. But the similarity
ends there. When you access the source, Family Tree Maker version 4.0
displays a brand-new dialog box called the Source-Citation dialog box.
Upon looking a little further, you will see that the Source dialog box
has actually been replaced by two components: the Master Source
dialog box and the Source-Citation dialog box.
Master Sources are any books, documents, people, pictures,
etc. that you have collected information from (much like the entries
you would find in a bibliography of a book or report). In Family Tree
Maker, these are also intended to be items that you could use to prove
one or more pieces of information about one or more individuals. The
Master Source dialog box lets you document these sources with fields
such as: Title of Source, Author/Originator, Publication facts, Source
media, Call number, Source location, Comments, and Source quality.
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Source-Citations are used to identify the specific
piece of information contained in the Master Source that pertains
to the actual field you are documenting. For example, the Source-Citation
would contain the title of the Master Source it was from (Title
of Source), the page number of the Master Source on which the
supporting documentation was found (Citation Page), and perhaps
even the text from the Master Source (Citation Text). In other
words, if you have a birth certificate for John Doe, you would
enter this as a Master Source. You could then create separate
Source-Citations based on this Master Source to prove John Doe's
full given name, his birth date/location, or his parents' names.
The number of fields that you can record source information for has
also increased. You can record source information for all the fields
listed below.
- Name
- Birth date/location
- Death date/location
- Marriage date/location
- Marriage ending date/location
- Marriage fact date/fact
- Each of the 13 Fact fields
- Cause of death
- Medical information
Now, let's take a look at how you can use Master Sources and Source-Citations.
Let's assume that you have an individual in your family by the name of
Joseph Michael Milkovic. You have just found a court order registering
his birth and want to use this to document his birth date. The court order
gives you the following information:
- Joseph was born on March 12, 1908 in Cleveland, Ohio.
- This information was recorded in the Probate Court of Cayahoga County,
Ohio, in a journal entry dated October 31, 1952.
- The journal entry recorded the Finding and Order of Case 463340
which is the request by Joseph Michael Milkovic for the Court to register
his birth. It states that this is based on "Clear and convincing documentary
evidence" but does not list it the evidence.
- The court's journal entry was made in Vol. 60B on Page 340, and
the birth date is recorded in Box 4 of that page.
To record this information, first you will establish the Source-Citation
for to his birth date field. Then you will create a Master Source to describe
the birth record. And lastly, you will fill in additional information
on the Source-Citation to make it specific to Joseph's birth date field.
Establishing
a Source Citation
- From the File menu, choose New Family File.
We are opening a new Family File because Joseph Milkovic is not
really your relative and therefore doesn't belong in your actual
Family File.
- Type a name for the new Family File in the File name
field.
Since you are going to enter source information about Joseph Milkovic
in this tutorial, type MILKOVIC.FTW in
the File name field.
- In Windows 95/98 click Save, or in Windows 3.1
click OK.
Family Tree Maker creates the new Family File and displays an
empty Family Page.
- Type Joseph Michael Milkovic in the Husband
field.
- Click his Date born field and enter March
12, 1908. You can also enter Cleveland,
Ohio in the in field.
- From the View menu, select Source,
or press CTRL+S.
Family Tree Maker displays the Source-Citation dialog box.
Note: Since this birth information has
not been documented before, the Source-Citation dialog box is empty.
Entering
a Master Source
- In the Title of source field, type Registration
of Birth for Joseph Michael Milkovic
Top half of the Source-Citation Dialog Box.
This will be the name of the Master Source identifying this birth
record. If you had entered this Master Source previously, you could
have chosen it from a list of existing Master Sources by clicking
the "Find Master Source" button.
Note: You can use anything you want
for the Master Source title. Make sure, however, that the names
you chose for Master Sources are descriptive so that you can tell
the difference between similar documents. For example, many of your
birth dates may come from birth certificates. If you simply entered
"Birth Certificate" in the "Title of source" field, you wouldn't
be able to tell the difference between your mother's birth certificate
and your grandmother's birth certificate.
- Click Edit Master Source to enter the following
detailed information about this birth record:
Author/Originator -- Joseph Michael
Milkovic
Publication facts -- Probate Court
of Cayahoga County, Ohio, Journal Entry dated October 31, 1952
Source media -- Official Document
Call number -- 463340
Source location -- Certified copy
of Journal Entry in possession of Barbara Ann Milkovic
Comments -- This is a journal entry
for the Finding and Order of Case 463340 which is the request by
Joseph Michael Milkovic for the Court to register his birth. It
states that this is based on "Clear and convincing documentary evidence"
but does not list it.
Note: The information that you type
in this field will be common to all Source-Citations that use this
Master Source so make sure that you only use general comments here.
Source quality -- 3
Note: The source quality of 3 is based
on an arbitrary scale of 1-4 where 4 is reserved for the actual
original document. You could also use a scale of excellent, good,
poor. There are many accepted ways to document sources. You can
consult the Genealogy "How - To" Guide under "Documenting your sources"
for examples. You may also want to check the genealogy books at
your local library, or ask a local genealogy society for information.
Completed fields in the Master Source dialog box.
- Click OK to complete the Master Source entry and
return to the Source-Citation dialog box.
Now that you have created a Master Source, you need to complete the Source-Citation
for Joseph's birth date.
Entering
a Source-Citation
- The Citation Page field can be used for page numbers,
record numbers, brief location descriptions, or even the date of a
supporting conversation. In this case, the birth certificate is a
single-page document, so type the following: Vol. 60B
Page 340, Box 4
- The Citation Text field contains what was found
in the location you just specified in Step 1. In this case type the
contents of Box 4: March 12, 1908
The "Footnote" field shows you how this Source-Citation will appear
when you print it. It is automatically generated from the information
you have typed. You can however, create a custom footnote by typing
over the default footnote text. If you later change your mind and
want to return to the original footnote text, click Restore
Footnote to undo your footnote changes. Keep in mind though
that the Restore Footnote button can't return you
to your previously entered custom footnote if you change your mind
again.
- Select the Include citation text in footnote check
box.
- At this point, you have the following options:
New -- Click this button if you want to add another
Source-Citation for the same field. This button saves the current
entry and clears the screen for the next entry. For example, we
just documented Joseph's birth date from a court record. If we also
had a birth notice from the newspaper, we could click the New
button to document the newspaper source as well.
Delete -- Click this button to delete the current
Source-Citation.
Next, Prev, First,
Final -- If you've already entered other Source-Citations
for this field, you could click these buttons to scroll through
them.
- After you finish entering and viewing sources for this field, click
OK.
Family Tree Maker returns you to Joseph's Date born
field and places an "s" next to Joseph's born In
field indicating that you have recorded source information for the
Date born or In fields.
The "s" source mark appears to the right of the birth
date fields.
Using
Sources in your Family File
Once you've entered source information, you can include it as part of
your trees and custom reports. For example, to include source information
in a Descendant tree, you would display a descendant tree on your screen,
and then from the Contents menu, choose Items
to Include in each Box. When you are choosing items to include
in your tree by highlighting them in the Available items
column and clicking the include ">" button, Family Tree Maker displays
an Options dialog box for many items. Items for which you can record sources
have an Include source information check box in their
Options dialog box. Select this check box when you want source information
for a that item to appear in your tree. To display an Options dialog box
for an item that is already in the The boxes in your tree contain
these items column, highlight the item in that column and then
click the Options button.
You can also view and print a Bibliography report listing all of your
sources, and a Documented Events report which lists the events in your
Family File that you've documented with sources. These are available
from the Report view under Report Format on the Format
menu. More detailed instructions for including sources can be found
in your Family Tree Maker 4.0 manual on pages 299 and 313 or in the
on-screen Help system.
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About
the Author
This article was written
by Genealogy.com staff.
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