I am quite new in genealogy. I was using Family-Search for a couple of months before I moved to gramps a couple of weeks ago.
In the begining I was having fun building the family tree, but when I reached the 6/7th generation I had some many people that I start to be confused about where I got some data as birthdates, or birth location data that were contradicting each other.
Then I realized that genealogy more than a family tree game is a tracking documentation game.
Currently I am processing the records/certificates like this:
Family tree:
Family 1:
Parents: Martin & Mary
Children: Michael
Family 2: father family
Parents: Sebastian & Sophia
Children: Martin & John
Baptism record data points => update in gramps and adding citation to the given baptism record
baby Michael was baptized on 1 June 1860 in the parish of Saint Peter in Barcelona
=> on Michael person record I add baptism event with date and location parish of Saint Peter enclosed by Barcelona municipality place.
baby Michel was born on 28 June 1860 in Gracia neighbourhood of Barcelona
=> on Michael person record I add birth event on given date and location neighbourhood of Gracia enclosed by Barcelona municipality.
baby Michael was a child of the married couple Martin & Mary
=> on Michael&Mary family record I add a Michael as a child
=> on Michael&Mary family record set relationship type as married
Mary (mother of Michale) was 20 years old at that time
=> on Mary person record I set add birth event with “calculated” type date of 1840
Martin & Mary were living at that time in Barcelona
=> on Martin person record and Mary person record I add a residence event at that 1860-06-01 with location Barcelona
Martin is from Barcelona and Mary is from Madrid
=> on Martin person record I add a birth event on Barcelona with no birth date
=> on Mary person record I update the birth event with “calculated” type date of 1840 by adding Madrid as location
Martin was carpenter
=> on Martin person record I add a attribute occupation as carpenter
Sebastian & Sophia were paternal grandparents
=> on Sebastian & Sophia family record I add Martin as child
Sebastian (grandfather) was deceased at that time
=> on Sebastian person record I add a death event with date as “before 1860-06-01”
Sophia was a resident of Barcelona at that time
=> Sophia (grandmother) person record I add a resident event with the baptism date and Barcelona location
John (uncle) was the godfather
=> baby Michael person record I add an association to John person record as godfather
=> on John person record I link the already created Michael baptism record but with the role of godparent
I add the baptism record as citation to all this updates and events.
This could cause:
if Sebastian & Sophia had multiple grandchildren: Sebastian could be decease by 1860 due to baby Michael baptism record, but if later I have another grandchild baptism record that shows that Sebastian was deceased by 1850 I update that to “before 1850”, and later I could have the Martin&Mary marriage record at 1845 where Sebastian was alive, so the Sebastian record death event ends like “after 1845 and before 1850”. This death event had citation reference to both baptism and marriage records.
a person record could end with multiple resident events pointing to same city, if these residency was specify in multiple records
Do you think this is the way to go to end with a good picture of a person life or this will end with a lot of citation cluttering?
I little too complex for my brain this early in the morning to comment specifically.
I like to think of it this way (and there are many other ways). For each event created I need a citation as proof of the event. In most cases this is Birth, Baptism, Death and Burial. Other events such as Census, Military Service and Immigration.
I personally don’t do godparents or witness as they usually don’t have a connection to the tree which makes it near impossible to get birth and death information for them. My rule is that they need a blood or marriage connection for them to be added. I never thought to create a residence event for the mother/father because of a Birth or Baptism but I think that would be inferred and would show on the family maps (but that may be an error on my part).
Even if I don’t know yet marriage place nor date? In this sample I just know they were married, because in the baptism record is written they were a married couple at that time. Does it make sense to collect that piece of data? I think so but maybe after a few months I start to struggle for having so many quite empty events like this.
I believe the residency events for a family might be problematic. That applies to every family member, right? So it would apply on a child, a child that later in life will start their own family in another location.
There is no Source Citation specifically linked to the Type field in the Family Editor. But you can still add a "before <date> Marriage Event with that baptismal record citation. And you can search for events that do not have “regular” dates for attention.
No. Family events apply to only the spouses. (A marriage license in the family does not apply as a “Primary” role to the children of the Family.) It is one (of many) shorthand method in Gramps to reduce data entry for things that are implicit.
In the past, I would add a Census event to the Family level if both parents were listed. But later I chose to put those under the individual since they might use “Head” role for one parent, or maybe they were the Respondent. Although others have advised against the practice, I like to use Roles for the other persons too.
Til now I use to add citations only to events (birth, baptism, death, child…), but never to Person or Family records. Does it make sense?
When/why would I wish to have referred a citation from a person/family record?
After having narrowed the range to “between 1845 and 1850” we get the grandfather’s death certificate where we specify the exact day he died in 1848. Then I update the death event specifying the exact date of death and add the reference to the death certificate citation. But what should I do with the old references to the birth certificates of his grandchildren that helped me to narrow down the period in which he died?
Should I keep them even if I already have the death certificate, or should I just leave the reference to the citation to the death certificate?