While searching for information on how to record information from civil registration indexes (published in the UK by the General register Office) I came across this useful post to the Gramps forum which never received any replies. It covers a key area for recording genealogical information and I wondered if anyone has ideas on the recording of this registration index data? I have been thinking along similar lines, that the vol. no. and page of a certificate should go in the citation note.
"I’d be grateful for views on how to create citations in Gramps for a civil
registration index entry such as a birth which appears in the General
Register Office England and Wales civil registration index for Oct-Nov-Dec
1866. The index can be a source of information in itself, not just a means
of finding a reference to a birth/marriage/death certificate. You can use
the index to confirm an event to the nearest quarter. Strictly speaking, in
line with standard Gramps practice, if the index is used to confirm an
event, then the source should be the index (e.g. “General Register Office:
Birth registration index”) and the volume and page number should be the
index volume and the page number in the index. It’s then important to record
the citation for the certificate e.g. “Oct-Nov-Dec 1886, Melksham, Vol.6a,
p.142.” It’s technically incorrect to put “Oct-Nov-Dec 1886, Melksham,
Vol.6a, p.142” in the volume/page number for the registration index because
this is the citation for the actual certificate. Possibly the certificate
reference could go in the citation note.This approach would result in a main
citation like:
General Register Office: Birth registration index
Date: 1886
Page: Births registered in October, November and December 1866,
p.558 [of index]
And a citation note like:
Oct-Nov-Dec 1886, Melksham, Vol.6a, p.142
“Oct-Nov-Dec 1886, Melksham, Vol.6a, p.142” would then be the main citation
for the actual certificate if it is used directly as a source.
While technically correct, this approach doesn’t work very well if the data
is exported to GEDCOM and from there to an ancestry.com tree (which is a
useful way to share the tree). The citation note is preserved but the data
is shown in a rather confusing way. Also, some Gramps displays don’t always
show the citation note immediately, you have to click through to it. So an
alternative approach is to put the certificate reference in the volume/page
no. for the index:
General Register Office: Birth registration index
Date: 1886
Page: Oct-Nov-Dec 1886, Melksham, Vol.6a, p.142
The disadvantage is that this is not the volume/page number of the index.
However is this what is usually done for civil registration indexes by
Gramps users? Perhaps it is the most useful approach?"