Cleaning up Genealogy citations
Specifically, cleaning up US census citations in Family Tree Maker.
Let me explain. I have been an on-again, off-again person when it comes to research. And to citing. After all, I started researching in 1982 or so. Not that I'm really proud of anything I did then -- I was twelve and had much to learn about the ways of the Force. :)
My initial source citations back when I started doing computer genealogy was in PAF and was basic. For the US Census I think I just listed it as the Census year. Nothing more. Then somewhere along the way, long after I switched to FTM, they had this nifty automatic citing that would happen when you imported stuff into the file. So, I re-did most of my Census searches (done on the actual microfilm in the late80s-mid90s) and had FTM do all my citing work for me. Except that I didn't understand the primary difference between the way the program deals with COPYING citations as opposed to LINKING citations. (I'm still trying to clean that up, at least with the book record citations I have in there. I had over 30 citations to a single page as opposed to 1 citation that was used by 30 records).
And, things being the way they are, I would stop my research and come back to it over the years. And notice that along the way FTM and Ancestry would change the way they linked citations and searches. Which also means that even if I searched a person a few years ago, and imported/merged the info in to get the citation, the person will show up again as a little green leaf record. (Which is annoying in that I already have info on the person, but the leaf makes me think I don't, and then I click on it and am disappointed. Basically I end up ignoring leafs. Which is not the point of them.) But, the newer citations from Ancestry leave a lot to be desired on their side, although some aspects of it are cleaner than the old form of their citations. Now I am trying to figure out how to clean this all up (which also means re-doing some census searches but that's ok). I should let you know that I do not link an image from Ancestry to FTM since with our satellite internet connection downloading images adds up real quickly. And puts us past our limits fast. Not to mention it makes my genealogy file way too big. Especially since some of my famils have 12+ individuals, and I really dont need 12+ copies of the image in there. I prefer to have a handwritten extract of the Census to put into my paper files and a citation and the information in FTM.
So I am trying to figure out the cleanest citation form for the census stuff. For my fellow researchers, what form does your citation take? (Yes, I tried some searches, but there are too many forms that citations can take. And frankly, I'm lazy. I just need to know the form of the citation and go and edit what I have).
Let me explain. I have been an on-again, off-again person when it comes to research. And to citing. After all, I started researching in 1982 or so. Not that I'm really proud of anything I did then -- I was twelve and had much to learn about the ways of the Force. :)
My initial source citations back when I started doing computer genealogy was in PAF and was basic. For the US Census I think I just listed it as the Census year. Nothing more. Then somewhere along the way, long after I switched to FTM, they had this nifty automatic citing that would happen when you imported stuff into the file. So, I re-did most of my Census searches (done on the actual microfilm in the late80s-mid90s) and had FTM do all my citing work for me. Except that I didn't understand the primary difference between the way the program deals with COPYING citations as opposed to LINKING citations. (I'm still trying to clean that up, at least with the book record citations I have in there. I had over 30 citations to a single page as opposed to 1 citation that was used by 30 records).
And, things being the way they are, I would stop my research and come back to it over the years. And notice that along the way FTM and Ancestry would change the way they linked citations and searches. Which also means that even if I searched a person a few years ago, and imported/merged the info in to get the citation, the person will show up again as a little green leaf record. (Which is annoying in that I already have info on the person, but the leaf makes me think I don't, and then I click on it and am disappointed. Basically I end up ignoring leafs. Which is not the point of them.) But, the newer citations from Ancestry leave a lot to be desired on their side, although some aspects of it are cleaner than the old form of their citations. Now I am trying to figure out how to clean this all up (which also means re-doing some census searches but that's ok). I should let you know that I do not link an image from Ancestry to FTM since with our satellite internet connection downloading images adds up real quickly. And puts us past our limits fast. Not to mention it makes my genealogy file way too big. Especially since some of my famils have 12+ individuals, and I really dont need 12+ copies of the image in there. I prefer to have a handwritten extract of the Census to put into my paper files and a citation and the information in FTM.
So I am trying to figure out the cleanest citation form for the census stuff. For my fellow researchers, what form does your citation take? (Yes, I tried some searches, but there are too many forms that citations can take. And frankly, I'm lazy. I just need to know the form of the citation and go and edit what I have).