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Archiver > ROOTSMAGIC-USERS > 2005-08 > 1122934672


From: "Jerry Bryan" <>
Subject: Re: [RMagic] Sources and Citations
Date: Mon, 01 Aug 2005 18:17:52 -0400


>I have a rhetorical question for those of you who enter one source for all
>birth certificates, one for all marriage certificates etc.
>
>Where can you find the original, or what can you use for a repository or
>personal file number?
>
>Certainly not all birth certificates are in the same place. Unless you have
>a copy of each stored away in your file cabinet, in which case, they would
>probably need individual file numbers.

I think there are two answers to the question. One is that whatever can be
put in an individualized source can instead be put into the citation details
of a generic source. So the exact same information is there in a report or
in a GEDCOM or in the actual RM database in either case. I'm not saying
that one way is better than the other, just that both styles can contain the
exact same information content.

My second answer may be on a little shakier ground. I'm trying to document
where another person could find the data, not where I found it. For
example, I live in Tennessee and I used to have to write off to the
Tennessee State Archives in Nashville for death certificates. But a couple
of years ago, my local library obtained microfilm for all Tennessee death
certificates that are at least 52 years old (newer ones have privacy
restrictions). So now I get most of my death certificates from the local
library. What I document is that I got the death certificate for John Doe,
Certificate #12345, Xyz County, Tennessee, died 1 Jan 1927. That should be
enough. I don't document whether I wrote off to Nashville or whether I got
it from the local library. And if the local library, I don't try to
document their designation for how to find the certificate on their
microfilm (which after all, might be different than the designation for a
different library in a different city). I suspect that I may not be doing
it quite "right", but it seems to me that I am providing more than
sufficient data for somebody to follow my tracks.

Similarly, I have quit sourcing census information altogether in census
facts in RM. Rather, I consider census data to be "self sourcing". That
is, I transcribe year, state, county, district, precinct, page number,
dwelling number, etc. as a part of the text in the fact note for the census
fact. It doesn't seem to me to matter much whether I found the information
on microfilm at the library, if I had to order the microfilm from Salt Lake,
if I read an image of the microfilm on ancestry.com or genealogy.com, etc.
Again I suspect that I may not be doing it quite "right", but again it seems
to me that I am providing more than sufficient data for somebody to follow
my tracks. If they want to read microfilm at the library or subscribe to
ancestry.com or read Heritage Quest census images on a computer at the
library, then that's fine. (I think!) And the place where they read the
image may be different than the place where I read the image.

Jerry Bryan


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