User Question - Create Source Template

A Reader's Question

I would like to learn how to CREATE Source Templates.

Answer:

You can NOT. The Source Template Feature is built into the program. I am suspecting that you might want to learn HOW TO USE the Source Template Feature. The Source Templates are very close to the EvidenceExplained Standards. It's a matter of selecting the Correct Source Template and filling in the Citation Details to complete the Reference Notes as described in EvidenceExplained.

The book is available on the Family Tree Maker website store.

I have a number of blog posts on this Topic.

REMEMBER:

What am I looking at

Where did I get it

The Keyword search uses the first 3 characters of your search screen, Source Workspace, Add, and New.

Blog posts on this Topic:

FTM2017 Sources Template

____________________________________________________________
Copyright © 2019 by Cousin Russ

Citation for Personal or First Hand Knowledge

A Question on Facebook caused me to write the blog post. How to Cite information about First Hand or Personal Knowledge

Evidence Explained
Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace
Third Edition
by Elizabeth Shown Mill
2015
Genealogical Publishing Company
Baltimore, Maryland

http://astore.amazon.com/dearmyrtlerecommends-20/detail/0806320176

There is an awesome website to visit

Evidence Explained

Is a must have book at your fingertips. The inside cover and following pages are Must Reads, followed by Chapter 1 and Chapter 2. The rest of the book is the icing on the cake.

Page 49 would be the first stop, then proceeding to pages 153-155.

I break it down to What am I looking at and Where did I get it from? But, you say, that doesn't apply. I suggest it does. You told me a story and I want to record it in my database. BUT, I need to include in my Citation something about the relationship between you and the story you are telling.

I hope you realize that all of my citations use the Source Template Feature. I want to have my citations as close as possible to EvidenceExplained. I say as close as possible because of the way Family Tree Maker, back in FTM2010, implemented this feature. The citations are close, The information is there, but may not be in the exact order that is the standard.

The hardest part is to select the right Source Template. We are talking about Personal or First Hand Knowledge. So the Keyword (3 characters) are FIR or PER. In this case I entered FIR, was presented with First Hand Knowledge. The Left Side are the fields to be entered.

• Individual surname
• Individual forename(s)
• Individual address
• Individual location
• Information type

It should be noted, and the hints will tell you, that the Address will not be included in the Reference Note (citation)

You "fill in the blanks" and click OK,

We have defined What am I looking at, and where did I get it.

A new window will open for the citation. Now for the Citation Details. Simply, for this case, "the son of Shirley U Hubbard, attended Mrs. Hubbard's burial on 27 April 1966", is what I put. I know who gave me the information that is in the Source Template, based on that person's personal or first hand knowledge.

Notice that you are given hints as to what is to go into that field.

The Citation Text, in the above is not seen, but I put in

entered 09 Apr 2017

Notice that the two check boxes, Include in reference note, Citation test, and Web address, are removed. I always make a note in the Citation text for my information. I do not include that or the full web address, if I have one, in the Reference note.

The relationship is there, that the informant was at the burial of that same person and the date of the event.

The citation screen looks like this

The reference note is as close to Evidence Explained as I can get it.

[Informant Last Name, First Name], [Town, State, Zip], firsthand knowledge; the son of Shirley U Hubbard, attended Mrs. Hubbard's burial on 27 April 1966.

The Name Fact, Shirley U Hubbard, the Burial Date, the Burial Fact would be linked to this Citation. I would also Cite the Informant's Name Fact as well. Both would have an entry in the Research Log for both.
_______________________________________________________________
Copyright © 2017 by H R Worthington

Time out for a little Database Clean Up

While we await the arrival of FTM2017, I am taking some time to do some database clean up. I do a lot of file clean up and file management all of the time. For example, I run the Undocumented Fact Report daily. I want to make sure that ALL of my Facts have a citation. I run the Data Error Report frequently, usually daily, I want to keep that clean. I make sure that ALL of my Source Groups are using the Template Feature. Of course, Compacting and Backing Up my file frequently.

I am thanking this down time to go a little deeper into the Sources Workspace. It was a long time before I found this, and I am guessing that others have missed it as well.

To start with, I went to the Plan Workspace, and clicked on the More Button for more File Statistics.

There are two items here that I want to talk about. There are 36 Sources in this file, but am only using the Template in 35 of them. I missed on. Will fix that shortly. This means that when I add information into Family Tree Maker, I put the Source of the information into one of the Template features in the Source Workspace and this is one of the areas I really focus on when I merge records into the program. Many blog posts on this topic. I will deal with that source group at another time.

When I look at the Sources Workspace, All source citations in the List By, 

I have 521 Citations. These two numbers match up, as expected.

There is a dropdown menu where we  have 4 choices. The All source citations, Source Title, Repository, and Person.

When I am working in the Sources Workspace I select and use the Source Title option. It's easy for me to find the Source Group I want to work on.

I want to look at all of the Source Groups by PERSON. I then can look at what Source Groups are Linked to that person. For this Clean Up, I want to scroll down to the Bottom of the list to find the UnLinked Source Groups.

When I select that, I see that I have 0 (zero / no) Source Groups not linked to a Person. That is what I want to see ALL of the time. All of my Sources are linked to someone's Fact.

One down, two to go.

Now I selected List By Source Title, scroll down to the bottom, again to Unlinked, This will give me a list of any Source Titles, and again All Source Groups have Citations.

2 down, 1 to go

The List by Repository has a problem, or ate list one problem.

This specific database had totally relied on Online Records. Any Record found Online, should NOT have a Repository. This List By should not have any repositories listed. There are two Source Groups and the first one has three Citations that have a Repository of Ancestry.com.

I won't go into this now, but when I looked at the Source Group, Template, I determined that I had selected an Incorrect Template, one that called for a Repository. I will blog about how I resolved that in the near future.

Also,that "FamilySearch" Repository, when I looked at it, was NOT using a Source Template. That is the difference of 1 in the File Statistic screen at the top of this blog post. 

I have two clean up items to do:

• Select the correct Source Template for the Ancestry.com Source Group
• Put the FamilySearch Source Group into a Source Template

_______________________________________________________________
Copyright © 2017 by H R Worthington

Change in Citation Details in an Ancestry Member Tree

Documenting an Observation in an Ancestry Member Tree, Citation Detail for a fact or event


_______________________________________________________________
Copyright © 2017 by H R Worthington

Choosing a Template for an Ancestry.com Database with an image

How I select a Template for an Ancestry.com database, where a Digital Image is included, and that image is from a Book.

I will refer to an Elizabeth Shown Mills QuickSheet. Here is a link to the QuickSheet mentioned

http://www.genealogical.com/products/QuickSheet%20Citing%20Ancestry%20com%20Databases%20%20Images%20%201st%20Revised%20Edition/3859.html



_______________________________________________________________
Copyright © 2017 by H R Worthington

FTM2014 - How to select a Template for a Citation

This is the process I go through, to select a Source Template and Craft A Citation in FTM2014.1


_______________________________________________________________
Copyright © 2017 by H R Worthington

Use of a Template

I don't know about others, but it's taken me a while to understand how to use the Template Feature, looking at Input and Output. What fields do what, and how to get the output you want.

The Family Tree Maker Templates conform to EvidenceExplained!

But the output is made up of Two pieces. The Source, the document that information is to be taken from, and the Citation, where in the Source did you take the information from. The citation is linked to the data or facts that you enter into your database.

Lets take the 1940 Census. Go to the Source Workspace, select Add, More, then use the "cen" for census, keyword. This will offer a number of Census formats for you to choose. There is NOT a specific listing for 1940, but the data required for the Source can also be found in the 1880 - 1930 Census. For this example, I will use the Census Year and Location format.

The Template looks like this, filled out:

1940, New Jersey, Camden County, Publication Number is T627, Film Roll Number, Website, Database Publisher, Publisher location, Database year, URL.

This example is for Ancestry.com. Archives.gov would the same template but would require a different (new) Template for that provides (the Roll Number will be added later)

Keeping the output in mind, I entered "County" after the County Name.

The Comments are what I put in there as a reminder for me, as to the data that I will use for the Citation Details, and the Citation Text fields.

Looking at the Reference Note, after clicking OK, you will see the following:

 There are two pieces, so far, in the Reference Note:

1940 U.S. census, population schedule, New Jersey, Camden County

and the publisher

Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com)

There are two pieces of information that have not been entered. Citation Details, and Citation Text.

The Citation Details will include:

(ED) _____, page __ [(stamped)] or sheet __ [(handwritten)],

The Citation Text will complete the details:

_______ [Civil Division], _______ [Household ID], _______ [Person of Interest], digital image

As these two fields are entered, AND a check mark is selected to be included in the Ref. Note, the Reference Note will be complete.

1940 U.S. census, population schedule, New Jersey, Camden County, Enumeration District (ED) __, Page _-_ page __ [(stamped)] or sheet __ [(handwritten)]. Civil Division, Dwelling ID,Person ID household, lines __ - __, digital image; NARA microfilm publication T627; digital image, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com).

Here is what the EndNote will look like before the blanks have been filled in.

I have posted other examples on this. I am only focusing on the make up of the Fields that go into the EndNotes.

________________________________________________________________  

Copyright © 2012 by H R Worthington

City Directories - Citations

During the 1940 Census Preparation, I found that the use of City Directories were very helpful. But, how to cite them using the Family Tree Maker Template Feature.

Here is the Ancestry.com City Directory (Beta) version that came with a Web Search.

http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=2469

It had the Street address, occupation, place of employment for the person in question.

First, go to the Sources Workspace, select the Add ICON and that will bring up a window where you can select a New Source.

The next window will present a window where you can enter a Keyword (or the first 3 characters of what you have in your hands). In this case, there weren't any Keyword results for City Directory. So, I selected More, and did some choosing.

 
The best selection is Publication - Books, CDs, Maps, Leaflets & Videos. With the two pull down menus, I selected Categories of Image Copies, and Online Publications. That described what I was presented from Ancestry.com.

Looking at the Top of the Image, I was able to fill in the fields in the Template form.

The Prompts pointed me to Polk & Co', for the "Surname" field, and R. I. for Given Name.

I filled in what information that was provided.

Linking the Citation to the Fact, the Citation looks like this.

Citation Detail:

West Chester, Pennsylvania, City Directory, 1930-31, p. 98

Citation Text:

Record for Jacob Finley

The resulting Reference Note is:

R. L. Polk & Co's, West Chester, Pennsylvania, City Directory, 1930 (1930-31), West Chester, Pennsylvania, City Directory, 1930-31, p. 98. Record for Jacob Finkey; digital image, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com).

Just to check what the EndNote looks like, I ran a report to see the EndNote:

That is in the format, as I understand it, based on Evidence Explained!

Please visit Elizabeth Shown Mill's website:

https://www.evidenceexplained.com/

________________________________________________________________  
Copyright © 2012 by H R Worthington

1940 Census - Source / Citation Creation

In the previous post 1940 Census - What Data to be Captured I listed the Facts that I want to capture. Each of us might want to do that. Unlike previous census years and that there isn't a "printer friendly" page that can be printed and written on, I created a spreadsheet.

In the past, I would print the "printer friendly" page and take notes from the Image. This gets me to look at the image to gather what I want to capture, but it also lets me look at the whole page, or preceding and following pages for Neighbors.

The spreadsheet does the same for me. I revised it a couple of times until I "got it right" for now at least. But on that spreadsheet I added some other details, that will be used for the Citation.

• NARA File Series
• Series
• Roll
• State
• County
• ED
• Description
• Page # A/B
• Filename

I download and save the image and give it a filename that is meaningful to me. Remember, that at this point, there is no index, no user friendly features, just looking at an image and capturing the data.

Looking at the Image, Recording the data, looking at the neighbors, as usual.

Now to Family Tree Maker.

I am using the Source Template feature in Family Tree Maker. There isn't a set template for the 1940 Census, so for now, I will use the 1930 Template with the Year and Location. All of my Census Templates are in that format. Creating a new Source Template for the County, I paste a "blank" Citation, that will be copied for the remaining Citations for the 1940 Census.

 1940 U.S. census, _________ County, _______ [State], [Location], population schedule, enumeration district (ED) _____, page __ [(stamped)] or sheet __ [(handwritten)], dwelling __, family ___, line ____, [Name of Person]; digital image, Archives.gov (http://1940census.archives.gov: accessed ________ [Date]); citing NARA microfilm publication T627, roll _______

I will then ADD a new Citation for the first family / household and fill in the blanks from the worksheet.

I will switch to the Media Tab, and Add the 'new' Media file to that citation. That's where the Filename come in handy.

So, the Citation screen looks like this:

That top line, on the left, is the "fill in the blanks" citation. I then copied that to the first real Citation, which appears on the Right. The media file has been selected, and I put them into the Media Category of Census - Federal.

So far, not data has been entered, only the Citation has been completed. From here, the data entry will begin, and when an entry has been made, the Link To Existing menu will be used to Link the Fact to this Citation.

________________________________________________________________  

Copyright © 2012 by H R Worthington

Free Form Sources to Templates

 For 2012, I have taken on the task of cleaning up my family file. I started this file, "in the beginning", with Version 3.4. Many, many things have changed, both within the Family Tree Maker program and how I do and record my research. This will not be an easy task.

For this blog post, I will focus on how to get the Source and Citations from the Free Form Source / Citations what have been with Family Tree Maker, into the Template feature that was introduced in FTM2010. The end result, being the End Notes, and Bibliography Reports are so much improved using the Template, that it's worth the time, for me, to address this issue first. I have done some testing before, and with cleaning up about 5 Sources, I took 10 pages off of a report that I did.

This may sound complicated, and it may be for some, but once you have done it, it becomes easy.

BEFORE you do Anything, BACK UP YOUR FILE !!!!

I am going to do my Sources for the 1850 Census.

Below I have selected the Source Workspace, scrolled down to where the "collection" of 1850 Census Records are, that are in the Free Form format. I can tell, because it just says 1850 U.S. Census, Population Schedule. Other years will say YYYY United States Federal Census. That is the hint, to me, Free Form.

I want the Census to be by Location. (1850 U.S. Census, State, County)

The first entry is Jefferson County, Tennessee, and will select that entry.

 In the upper right, is the "Add" Button, to add a New Source, and in the pop-up window, will select New.

 This will bring up a new window, where a Keyword can be entered, to select a Template. Only type the first 3 characters of what you are looking for. In this case CEN (for Census)

Carefully select what Census you are working with. In this case, I am working with an 1850 Population Schedule. I have two choices, by  Census Year, and by Census Year and Location. That is the one I want. What this does, will allow you to save your Sources by State and by County. Having tried the first choice (by Census Year), I found that it was easier to choose the 2nd option. (users choice). I looked at the Output in both formats, and liked the output better, and locating Source and Citations later was easier, for me, with this format.

The following screen is presented. Entered the Census Year, State, and County. Let the next two fields blank, because at this point, at the Source level, that is unknown, but can be added later. The web site is Ancestry.com. The Database Publisher is Ancestry.com Operations, Inc, and are located in Provo, UT, USA. Looking at all of the Source Material from Ancestry, this is the information provided by them. The Publish Year, will leave blank, but will edit that later, and the website is www.ancestry.com.

Clicking OK, will create a New, Template, for the 1850 Census, for Tennessee, Jefferson County. Will leave the Citation Detail and Citation Text blank, as that will be filled in later.
 

 Returning to the unformatted Source, (1850 U.S. Population Schedule) and selecting that first Jefferson County, Tennessee Citation, in the Right Hand Panel, on the Right of that Source title, is a Pull Down Menu. Will now select the newly create, Template for the 1850 Census for Tennessee, Jefferson County.

What this will do, is to take this existing Citation, currently in the 1850 U.S. Population Schedule, and MOVE it to the 1850 U.S. Census, Tennessee, Jefferson County Template.

Going to that Source (Left Hand panel), you will now see TWO entries. The one we just put there, and the "no Source-Citation information" or Empty Citation. Right click on that Entry, after making sure there is nothing in the Right Hand Panel, and Delete that Entry. That entry was created with we just clicked OK a couple of steps ago.

This Citation is shown on the Right, and the Links (Facts) that came from that Citation are shown in the Linked Tab.

Not quit done, for me at least for this clean up.

I want to make sure that the Citation Detail information is complete. Some times, all of the citation details do not make it into the Citation Detail when doing a Web Merge. I want to make sure that I have the details.

In the lower right, there is a Link to View the online Record.

I pull up that screen and Copy (high-light and CTRL+C) the text as indicated below:

Back to FTM2012, selecting the Notes Tab, I will Paste (CTRL+V) that information into the notes. Then High-lite that first line and Paste it into the Citation Details in the Right Hand Panel.

The Citation Detail is now complete, but I want to make sure that I have the Image of that Census Record. The Media Tab is selected and I have that image. Other Blog posts have shown how to Add Media files to a record.

This process is repeated, moving or changing the Source from the Free Form format into the Template Format, adding New Census Sources as required.

It took me about 15 minutes to clean up my 1850 Census Records, from the Free Form format to the Template format. 10 new templates, 36 citations.
________________________________________________________________ Copyright © 2012 by H R Worthington

Which Template for an Index

In an ongoing dialog with Genea-Blogger, Randy Seaver, I mentioned to him that I followed a Hint on his Brick Wall, William Knapp. He posted what he found here: Exploring Family Tree Maker 2012 - Post 27: Doing a Web Search - Case 1 - Source Citations

Randy did a great job of documenting what he did and why. The end result is that he had actually seen the microfilm that had the information on it.

For me, I was having difficulty in selecting the most appropriate Template, within Family Tree Maker that would point me to find that Microfilm, or to the original document that was found. 

I did a websearch and found this entry.

I viewed the information in that link:

Confirmed that this was the right person, and noted two things. 1) the Source Information:

Ancestry.com, New Jersey, Deaths and Burials Index, 1798-1971 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011), www.ancestry.com, Database online.and 2) what listed next:

"New Jersey Deaths and Burials, 1720–1971." Index. FamilySearch, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2009, 2010. Index entries derived from digital copies of original and compiled records.


Ancestry's entry in an Index of information, which is where I found it, but that is an Index from FamilySearch.org. I am gussing, that if I go to FamilySearch that I will find the same record, or index.

BUT, this isn't the record, only an index. The record was in a book in Newton, Sussex County, New Jersey, was transcribed and sent to the New Jersey Archives. I may get there, so I would want to see the record itself, if it still exists. Randy has seen the Film. I am not looking at the Film, so that isn't the Template I want to use.

After I did the merge, I went to the Sources Workspace, selected the Source that the merge provided, and Clicked on the Pencil ICON to Edit that Source. That will bring up the Edit Source screen. In this case,  I wanted to Change the Source to a Template.

Clicking on Change and started to type Death (dea), as a keyword, so see what templates would be available. What seemed to be obvious was that this is a Local Record, from a Vital Record Register. So, I selected that template.

That brings up a screen for me to fill out.

Notice that as you tab through the fields, you will be prompted as to what goes in that field.

New Jersey, Sussex County, Local Jurisdiction would be Newton, etc.

So far, this looks good. But then I looked at the Reference Note for this new Citation:

Newton, Sussex, New Jersey, "New Jersey Deaths and Burials Index, 1798-1971", Database online.;  www.ancestry.com.

To me, that Reference Note is what I would "like to be looking at" directly (wishful thinking) and NOT the "Index" that I am actually looking at. So, that isn't the right Template.  Had I seen the actual register when I visited Newton last week, that is what I would have selected.

I then went back to Change and didn't use the Keyword but did the manual selection process for an Artifact and Archives, selected Archived Material, and Digital Archives.

Clicking OK brings up this screen;

What that gave me for a Reference Note was:

"New Jersey Deaths and Burials, Index 1798-1971", Ancestry.com Operations, Inc, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com), Online Database.

I'll keep that one. Like Randy, I am not sure that is enough information, but the Citation does tell me that it IS and Index, the name of the Document, and that I was looking at Ancestry.com when I found the information.

At this point, I can now check, since FamilySearch was mentioned, that I could go there to do further searches, especially for the MicroFilm Randy mentioned, or to the New Jersey Archives in Trenton, where this record should be located.

Thank you Randy.


Copyright © 2011 by H R Worthington

How To: Source a Book

So, you found and purchased a book that has genealogical information about your Family. How do you Cite your Sources from this book.

When I pick up a book, for the first time, I start at the Sources Workspace. This same process can be done from the People Workspace, Person Tab, and selecting a Fact. But I will start in the Sources Workspace to enter the information about this book. Will add Source-Citation information later.

Going to the Sources Workspace, selecting Add, on the Right side of that screen, an Add Source window will open. For this example, a Keyword will be used to locate the correct Template. "Book" is entered:

Below is the types of Books that have specific Templates.

The Book is a Print Publication. So that entry is selected:

Selecting that will bring up the Add Source Screen to be filled in. All of this information is in the front cover of the book. There is no call number or an ISBN number.

Clicking OK will bring up a completed Source Citation screen.

As it appears that there is a lot of information in this book, the other fields will be left blank, at this point.

Since some of the following steps have been covered in other blog posts, screen prints won't be here.

Going to the People Workspace, Person Tab, the information about the individual is entered. In this case, the Name is Ellwood Palmer Strode. The Name Fact is selected, at the top of the list of Facts, the Right Hand (RH) Panel will present his name and under the name is the Fact, Sources, Media, Notes line. Selecting New and select Use Existing Source-Citation selection, which will bring up a screen, where you select a New Copy. Keep in mind that earlier, the Source-Citation was left blank, but want to use that same Source-Citation for specific information about this person and fact.

The new (copy) of the Source-Citation screen is presented and is filled in. In this specific book, each individual has a Number followed by the name. In addition to the number and name, the page number is entered. Since there is more information on this page, the details of that information will be put into the Notes section for this individual. That is noted in the Citation text, for clarity in End Notes.

Going to the notes section for this individual, specific information is recorded. Because there are written notes in the book, they are also noted. Also, there is some missing information in the book. For clarity, the Text in this paragraph are marked in Bold, as a reminder to pick them up as Facts for this person and other people in this family.

Since this has his Birth Date, that Fact is entered, with birth date and location.

This time, since the same source-citation is going to be used, the New pull down menu, and the Use Existing Source Citation and the Link to Citation option is used. Since there may be multiple 'existing' Source-Citations, placing the mouse cursor over the specific Source-Citation will bring up more details on that Source-Citation. The screen capture would not show in the following screen. The right Source-Citation entry is selected AND the Link to Citation button is used this time.

Let's see what we have so far. Going to the Publish Workspace, Individual, Individual Report, the following Report is generated. The Items to include ICON, in the RH Panel, is verified to Include Sources in the Report. The Birth and Death Facts were entered and Cited. There are subscript number at the end of the Facts with Source-Citations and the Source is shown at the end. The text from the Notes section is also included.

After entering more information from what is indicated in the Notes, return to the Publish Workspace, Relationship Collection and the Family Group Sheet to see the current statue of this Family. As above, each fact indicates that a Source-Citation is associated with it, and is presented at the end of Family Group Sheet.

Going back to the Source Workspace, each Source can be Rated. In the Center panel, at the bottom, is a list of people using that Source-Citation. on the tool bar between the top and bottom of the center panel is a Start. Clicking on that Star will allow the user to Rate the Source. Selecting the "Use standardized ratings" check mark, there are four questions that you select and the details are on the Right. In this case, there are primary sources needed and needs some follow up. As noted above, some of the information on the page about this person are hand written. You can note your justification at the bottom of that screen.

Closing that window, with the OK button, the Source-Citation screen appears. So see details about that specific Source-Citation, hi-lighting it will provide the details on the Right and who is using that Source-Citation on which Facts.

Selecting the "[no source-citation information]"  link shows blanks on the right and the indication that no one is using it. This is there so that it can be selected for the next person listed in the text from the book. It is basically a blank Source-Citation and not being used. Because there is much more information, that [no source-citation information] line will remain.

Returning to the next person mentioned, selecting the name, or other Facts, the New Source, Link to Existing Source-Citation menu is uses, and Create New Copy

Returning to the updated Family Group Sheet, in the Publish workspace, Relationship Collection, the second Source-Citation appears. What was added, based on the text in the notes, the Birth Date and location was added, with it's source-citation.

These steps are repeated until the information in this book are entered and cited. 



© 2010, copyright H R Worthington