Hello all! I’ve been using Gramps on and off during the last few years, and I recently started my journey anew. I would like to hear some suggestions.
I quickly found myself unsure of something: I have birth certificates that also marginally report a death, or a marriage, or a spouse, etc.
Most of these events also report a registry number of the event (eg. marriage n.126 Series A 1922)
Should I…
a) add a new citation with their belonging source/deposit even if I don’t have the original document? The registry number does tell me that the record exists. This method does not directly tell me where the information is found in my personal paperwork, though.
b) or just cite the birth certificate in a marriage event, and add the registry number as an attribute? This, on the other hand, feels very weird as I usually store registry numbers in the citations’ “volume/page” field, not in attributes
Margin data provide hints about other events. I then create such events where I can add the existing citation. I use to flag such “unproved” events so that I can identify them as needing further research.
My flags are:
new (with colour “red”)
partial (with colour “green”), useful for person when birth or death are missing, family when one spouse is unknown or I have no reasonable reason to think I got all children
lapse (with colour “orange”) when records are missing (lost, destroyed, …)
restricted (with colour “brown”) when records cannot be accessed due to legal restrictions
other flags related to my opinion about various status of data
The flag is changed when my research progresses (new → partial → lapse or restricted or “none”). When I deem record is complete, I erase the status flag and the record lists “ordinary black” on screen, telling me the record has been validated.
To answer question a): the citation of the new event references the source and repository but also has backlinks (`References" tab) to all events referencing this citation. I usually add a note to the original where I summarise the record, including margin data. This clearly tells where you got the information.
To answer question b): I don’t add attributes of this kind. The registry number is mentioned in the “Volume/Page” field. But this means you have created a specific citation (for the marriage event deduced from the birth event). Since this citation may be incomplete (missing repository for example), I flag it as “new” as well as its source.
This is my workflow. It could certainly be improved. I welcome comments.