How would you start a tree from a Source?

Genealogy
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There are many ways of approaching creation of a tree. It would be nice to share suggested workflows by several different users when starting with a very tiny source document… such as a newspaper article.

So here is a basic document (composited together from several sources) to serve as a fictional source. It has real data on real people. So it is a viable stepping stone for use with real research resources.

FDR, A Simulated Retrospective

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born on January 30, 1882, in Hyde Park, New York. He was the only child of wealthy parents, James and Sara Delano Roosevelt. In 1900, he enrolled at Harvard University, graduating in 1903 and remaining an additional year for graduate courses. There he became reacquainted with Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (born in Manhattan on 11 Oct 1884, daughter of Anna Hall and Elliott Roosevelt; died 1962), a distant cousin. After graduating from Harvard, Franklin attended Columbia University Law School from 1904 to 1907. He then worked as a clerk for Carter Ledyard & Milburn, a prestigious New York law firm.

While at Harvard, Franklin courted his childhood acquaintance and fifth cousin once removed, Eleanor Roosevelt, a niece of Theodore Roosevelt. In 1903, Franklin proposed to Eleanor. Despite resistance from his mother, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt were married on March 17, 1905. Eleanor’s father, Elliott, was deceased; Theodore, who was then president, gave away the bride. They had six children. Anna (Born in New York City on May 3, 1906; died in 1975), James (Born in New York on December 23, 1907; died in 1991), and Elliott (Born in New York on September 23, 1910; died in 1990). The couple’s second son, Franklin, died in infancy (born in Manhattan on 18 Mar 1909; died 1 Nov 1909). Another son, also named Franklin (born at his parents’ summer getaway at Campobello Island in New Brunswick, Canada on August 17, 1914; died in 1988) and the youngest, John (Born at Hyde Park on March 13, 1916; died in 1981).

The Democratic Party chose Senator F.D.Roosevelt to run for president in 1932. With the depression worsening, Roosevelt promised a “new deal” for millions of poor people. He won an easy victory over his Republican opponent, President Herbert Hoover.

By the time Roosevelt was sworn in as president in March 1933, about 13 million people were unemployed in the United States. Roosevelt began his New Deal programs, including the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to ensure that banks did not go out of business and by creating the Works Progress Administration to provide paying work for the jobless. In 1935 he asked Congress to pass the Social Security Act, which provided money to people who were unemployed, disabled, or elderly.

Roosevelt easily won reelection in 1936. By the time he began his second term in 1937, the economy had greatly improved. By 1938 the New Deal was coming to a close. On November 5, 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt won an unprecedented third term in office. His fourth term only lasted from January 20, 1945 to his death on April 12, 1945. Presidential term limits came into force on 27 February 1951 under the 22nd Amendment to the US Constitution.

On April 12, 1945, Roosevelt died while resting at his cottage in Warm Springs, Georgia. Vice President Harry S. Truman became president and within five months, World War II ended.

"FDR, A Simulated Retrospective." The Faux Press Quarterly News [Springfield, UT], Q4 2000, p. 25.

The starting point is to copy the content above and paste into a new Note in a New Tree.

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One approach would be to create a Citation and add the note to it. Since it is a newspaper clipping with no sources or known author, set the citation’s Confidence to “Low”

Open the Note from the Clipboard for use as a scratch pad.

Create the citation

Copy the MLA-style citation line at the bottom of the Note. Use that data to populate the Date and Volume/Page fields and to add the the Source title and pub info. Save the source. Drag the Note from the Clipboard to the Notes tab of the Citation. Save the Citation and drag it to the clipboard.

Create the parents and in-laws

In the Note editor, select FDRs parents and click the link button (this copies that text to the clipboard) then choose the Link Type of “Family” and the New button. Add the Father/partner1 and paste into Given. Cut the surname and paste to the field below. Cut the mother’s name and the Father data is ready to save. Add the Mother/partner2 and repeat. Save the family.

Repeat the process for Anna Eleanor Roosevelt’s parents.

You could select the “Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born on January 30, 1882, in Hyde Park, New York” and add a person in the same way, with the Note link. But I find it easier to link that later. Instead, I’d clipboard it and then switch to the Person list and add the Clipboard citation to the each of the 4 parents.

But for more efficient transcription, I’d switch to the Data Entry addon gramplet.

Adding the related people

Select James Roosevelt (notice that the Data Entry conveys not only names but also the primary source) and click the Copy Active Data button. Paste in FDR’s given name and copy&paste Birth and Death info from the Note. (You have to massage it a little to be in the format date in place with no extra punctuation.) Set the “Add relation” to “Add as a Child”, set the gender and click the add button.

Change the active person to FDR and repeat the process for each his children. Change the “Add relation” to “Add as a Spouse” and repeat for Eleanor.

Connect the families

In the Note, ctrl-click on Eleanor’s parents hotlink to open the Family Editor and drag Eleanor from the People list to the children tab.

At this point, the families are built and you only have to add the Marriage event and relationship type to FDR’s marriage and whatever Events you want to log to his Person.

With all the Persons created, you could link them in the Note fairly easily too,

Other tidbits

This sample data can be used to demonstrate:

  • connecting a third person via an Event role (President Theodore Roosevelt standing in as father of the bride for the Marriage event)
  • Creating a “fifth cousin once removed” as an Association
  • recording a child death and re-use
  • what to do with a suffix for a Sr, with two namesake children
  • recording a call name (Eleanor was known by her middle name)
  • recording a Nickname for President “Teddy” Roosevelt
  • Alternate Name for a changing title (FDR as Senator & President) with a date range
  • Support of a “quarter” when entering a date (source published Q4 2000)

Postscript: I find this process still awkward, requiring too much backtracking. There are workflows where modal dialogs prohibit a linear process. (e.g., when creating a New person/family via the Note Linker, you cannot switch to the Note and clipboard the birth/death/marriage info.) Which is another reason I switched over to the Data Entry gramplet.
Also, since the Data Entry gramplet creates separate citations for each added data record and does not propagate the “confidence”, it was necessary to merge all the citations in a post-process. (Tedious with the built-in Merge but easily accomplished with the MultiMerge addon gramplet. Similarly, their Place Tool gramplet can extract a place hierarchy from a breadcrumb.)

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In this situation, I would begin by using a tool like Obsidian to add the document as a source. I would then create wiki-links and notes for all the important information, including events, to ensure that every detail from the document is extracted.

Next, I would add relational parts as wiki-links with aliases in the note for the “active” subject. This approach ensures I can easily verify all subjects, objects, places, and links/relations, making sure nothing is missed, before moving the data to Gramps.

To semi-structure the text into notes (objects containing partial information), I would rely on notebook software like Obsidian or another program with a network graph view that supports wiki-links with aliases. Then, once in Gramps, I would add the document as a media file, link it to a source, and proceed as follows:

  • If this document were standalone, I would add it directly as a source.
  • If the document were a page from a book, I would first add the book to Zotero and import it into Obsidian using the Zotero-Obsidian addon. Then, I would add the book as a source in Gramps. The specific page would be added both as an extraction under Gramps Sources and as a citation under Gramps Citations. Furthermore, I would use CSL reference names (Citations and Bibliography) generated in Zotero as the name/description in Gramps, formatted in APA or Chicago style, as these are the most commonly used formats in my region.

Once this foundational step is complete, I would add all relevant subjects, relations, objects, places, events, etc., into Gramps. Markdown files would also be added as media files and linked to the corresponding Gramps objects.

For further research, I would continue working within notebook software (Obsidian and Zotero), identifying relationships and links between new documents and existing objects. New notes would be created for newly discovered entities in the document, including events and places, to ensure all information is thoroughly organized.

Additionally, I would utilize the Network Graph View in Obsidian to control all relations and add “Orphan Notes” to the graph. This feature would provide an excellent overview of connections and highlight areas where information might be missing, helping to ensure thoroughness and accuracy in the workflow.

The reason why I use these software is because all of them works with files stored on local storage devices, so I can reuse all the files in multiple software without copying them.

Note: Use of AI Assistance

This response has been reviewed, refined, and translated with the help of Microsoft Copilot, an AI assistant. The original content has been corrected for grammar and clarity, with adjustments made to improve readability and flow in English. Additional modifications were implemented to ensure alignment with the intended context and purpose of the workflow explanation.

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I should also add that once the information has been registered in Gramps, I would add a tag/status in both Zotero and Obsidian/Foam, such as “Registered in Gramps.” I would also include tags like “Missing Information” or “More Research Needed,” though I very rarely use the tag “Completed.”

If I post something on the local history wiki or any other online platform, I make sure to add a tag for that as well, such as “Added to localhistorywiki.” This way, I can easily track where the information has been shared. If I later update or modify the notes, I would ensure that the same changes are made in those locations or software where the notes have been shared.

Additionally, I have an entire structure with collections and folders in both Zotero and Obsidian specifically for this purpose. This organization helps streamline the workflow and ensures consistency when managing information across multiple platforms.

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Another Approach for Working Entirely in Gramps

This is another approach I thought of afterward. If you prefer to work solely within Gramps, and you can copy the entire text of the document as a Gramps note, here is a possible workflow, which is similar to the workflow mentioned above but with fewer control options and editing capabilities for further research:

  1. Create a Source:
  • Add a source for the document, ensuring it is appropriately named (e.g., the name of the user or the book from which the document originates).
  • Create a Gramps Citation linked to this Source, and attach the document as a media file to this Citation.
  1. Attach Media to the Source:
  • Attach the document and/or the book as media files to the Gramps Source. Optionally, include links and references to the source as needed.
  1. Link Media to the Citation:
  • If the document is part of the source, also attach the document as a media file to the Gramps Citation.
  1. Add Notes to Media:
  • Add a note to the media file in Gramps, copying the text of the document into the note and correcting it for accuracy.
  1. Create Internal Links:
  • Begin creating internal Gramps links/relations for all the information in the document that can be transcribed into a Gramps Object. For any link that does not have a corresponding Gramps Object, create the object and complete the linking process within the note.
  1. Handle Associations:
  • Ensure you also link any associations between Gramps Objects wherever possible.
  1. Apply Citations to All Affected Objects:
  • Attach the Gramps Citation to all Gramps Objects, including associations, that are created or modified based on the document.

By following this approach, you can ensure that all information from the document is properly added to Gramps. Each internal Gramps link created acts as a safeguard, verifying that the objects have been properly established.

This is a great example of a case where a “research” function, which has been proposed previously, in Gramps would be particularly useful—especially if it included a type of graph view to track progress, displaying all objects and links created before being finally committed to Gramps as “live” data.

Note: Translation and Review

The above post has been translated into English and reviewed with the assistance of Microsoft Copilot, an AI companion. The content was corrected for grammar and flow, ensuring readability and coherence. Additionally, the workflow described was fact-checked to confirm accuracy based on Gramps functionality, as far as it is possible to verify.

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I have started using gramps less that a year ago, so my workflow is not completely stable, but for now I’m happy with it. There are a few pain points though, so maybe you will have ideas on how to improve it.

The Process

Currently, to add a source, I create a first object where the citation would go. For instance, I would create a person named Franklin Delano Roosevelt, open the name and add a new citation to the name. By doing that, I can easily drag it to the clipboard. This is less easy when adding a source directly from the source list, because it might not even show (if I have an active filter for instance). In the citation, I would add “FDR, A Simulated Retrospective” as the page/volume field (yes I know it’s not the obvious choice, but it’s much nicer to have the title when looking at a list of sources, than a list of pages from various books…), “Q4 2000” in the date field, “p. 25” in a “page” attribute. Then, I create the source, which is named “The Faux Press Quaterly News [Springfield, UT]”. Usually, I also add a repository if I found the article online or at a library, so I have an easy way to go back to it later if needed.

In the citation, I also add a picture of the article (multiple pictures if there are multiple pages). If there is a permalink (ark:/ URI), I add it to an attribute in the citation. I also add a note to the citation with type “Transcription”. To do the transcription, I drag the note to the clipboard, open the picture(s), and close the citation window. I open the note window and move all gramps windows to one side of the screen, and the picture to the other side. I can then type the transcription as I read the document.

Once this is done, I close the picture and got back to gramps. I go word by word and get all information I can. For instance for the first sentence “Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born on January 30, 1882, in Hyde Park, New York”, I would add the following:

  • Create a person named Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Drop the citation from the clipboard to the name’s citation list. The idea is to list all variants of the name, and a list of sources where that variant was used.
  • Add a birth event to that person, add the date and place. If I had to create a new place, I drag it to the clipboard for managing it later. Sometimes I manage it immediately, see below.
  • In the birth event, I add two attributes : date, with value 1882-01-30 and place with value “Hyde Park, New York”. They both get a copy of the citation.

Then I read “He was the only child of wealthy parents, James and Sara Delano Roosevelt”, so I close Franklin’s window and add the parents (with my current patch, I can do that from FamilyTreeView, which is the main view from which I work). After adding the names and a citation to the names, I close the windows again.

“In 1900, he enrolled at Harvard University”. I open Franklin’s window again, and add a custom event “school” or similar.

I continue this process and add all relevant information from the source, and drop the citation to the relevant part (for events, only to the attributes, no to the event itself).

I use custom events for all the types of events given in the source that don’t fit in the standard events.

For people that are not yet linked to the person of interest, I still add a person entry in the database, but keep it unconnected from the family tree. However, when I have some ideas about the relation between some people in the database, I add a relation (not sure what the tab is called in English) between the two people. I always add the reverse relation too. For instance, I add Anna Eleanor Roosevelt to the relation tab in Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s entry, with type “distant cousin” and add the citation to the relation. Conversely, I add the same type of relation to Anna. If the relation is not symmetrical (uncle and nephew, etc), then I use the type “nephew” on the uncle, and “uncle” on the nephew.

I don’t record historical events though, because there doesn’t seem to be a nice way to integrate them to gramps.

Managing Places

Once the information from the source is added, I have new places I need to take care of.

First, I add the full hierarchy. I use wikidata as a first source of information for modern administrative hierarchy (looking for the “located in the administrative territorial entity” property). If needed, I go look for other sources that give me more information about an older administrative hierarchy.

To add coordinates I can either copy them from wikidata (if the place has a wikidata item, which is not always the case for smaller places like a house or an isolated dwelling). If there are no coordinates in wikidata, or I don’t want to use them, I use the geography tab, right click at the location, and “link to a place”. For this process, I only use the clipboard for the list of places I need to update.

How I use Citations for Research

I probably need to explain my use of citations. I don’t think it’s a common way to use them.

First, I represent a source with a “Citation” object, so I don’t use the confidence level at all (it could be useful in a citationRef object though). I mostly use primary sources (birth records, etc), so the confidence should vary depending on the information (I would be very confident about a birth date in a birth record, but less confident about the marriage date of the parents, because the birth record is a secondary source for that information). In any case, I don’t find a confidence level useful.

I don’t add citations to people directly, but only to their information. In the case of an event, I only add the direct source of the event in the event’s citation tab. For instance, I would only add the citation for the birth record in the birth’s citation tab. Other sources might give information about the birth date or place, but I don’t add the citation there. Instead, I use attributes to record all the different dates and places found in the various sources. I use the same attribute name when there are multiple values. This gives me an overview of what the sources say, and can help if I later figure out that there were actually two people with a similar or identical name.

I have a custom badge for FamilyTreeView, which shows when I am missing a direct source for an event. After adding all information from that source, it prompts me to look for a birth record for Franklin Delano Roosevelt. If the record was lost or destroyed, I add a tag to the event, and FTV doesn’t show the badge anymore for that event.

I also have another badge that shows which events might be missing for a person (birth, death, will, military records, etc) or a family (marriage, marriage contract, etc). This is pretty useful when I’m looking for a next step.

The only exceptions are occupation and residence events, because for these events I only use “as of” dates, so there can only be a single source (even if it is not a direct source).

Future Improvements ?

One frustration I have with this is that I don’t record my thought process at all. When I have two sources that give a different name, I record the different names and cite both sources, but why do I think they are the same person? I just learned that one can add links to a note, which seems extremely useful. I might experiment with a note attached to the citation that gives the thought process and links to the gramps objects (“This source gives the name … which is not the one given at birth, but I already know that name from that other source, so they are the same people.” or similar, linking to the person and the other source).

Dropping a citation always opens the citation window, which I immediately close. Is there an option to save me having to close windows all the time?

I would prefer more levels in source hierarchies (a citationRef, or multiple source levels). Usually, the sources I use are physically found like this : archive → box → folder → item, so it feels logical to also want that many levels. Currently, I mix folder and item together in the citation.

When linking coordinates to a place, it doesn’t work if two places have the same name, even if they have a different hierarchy. My only workaround is to rename one place, add coordinates, and rename it back to its correct name.

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I still add them as events, even if they’re sometimes unrelated, if only to mention them in a note with a link to the event record, as @StoltHD explained.

I may add a To Do note indicating that when the events attached to the places become available (in v6.1?), this event should be linked to a particular place.

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Fully agree. There, at least, a full - old - thread on this topic on this Discourse but unfortunately citationRef haven’t been improved that way for the moment.

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I often (but not always) created a new person from a new source.

In my process, after processing a source, I review the records created, particularly places and people that may be duplicates.

For places, I have a filter that I run in the ungrouped places view that indicates duplicate places. I position myself on the place and go to the unfiltered grouped view. I then find myself on the same record and next to it, its duplicate. All I have to do is merge them.

For created people, I sort the list of ungrouped person view by modification date and position myself on the first one created during my work session (then the next one after, until reviewing all created people). I then go to the grouped view and try to determine if other persons are likely to be merged with the one I’m on. Either right away, in which case I do it and indicate in the automatically created merge attribute the reason why I did this merge, as well as the date and time (to be able to come back to it in the future if I made a mistake, I will then reload an automatic backup with the closest date to see what I had before), or I create a To Do note that I associate with the two persons to try to prove that it is only one and the same person.

My To Do/Research note then contains my thoughts indicating why I think they are the same, my research hypotheses, etc.

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