So I’ve got a decent family tree going now but have tailored it to my certain use case. What I would like to know is
Are there any pitfalls I’m not aware of in how I’m doing this and
Does anyone else use a similar style or have tips on how to structure it?
Basically, most of the items (like Families, Notes, etc.) use the default ID naming scheme. But for primarily my repositories, citations, and sources, I am using a custom ID scheme so I can more easily search for things.
Ie. in some cases a marriage certificate not only displays the date, location, names (taken and maiden) for the primary people but also will tell you their parents, etc. Same with a death cert- can tell you the informant is related, etc. etc.
In any case, I might be adding this later on to people so I structure citations like MAR-First_First_Lastname where it’s the first name of each participant then the chosen last name (usually the man’s.) Deaths are D-First_Last, etc. etc.
Any issues with this? Does it play well in the event I ever need to export to GEDCOM or some other format/software (or is it just a PID for gramps only, etc.)?
Do you mean, for example, that the ID field of the Citation contains “MAR-John_Mary_Smith” instead of “C1234”?
You might consider using Attributes instead. And possibly attach them to the marriage Event rather than the Citation. (You can also create your own Forms to facilitate the data entry into event attributes.) There are some filter rules for building custom filters to search on attributes.
You would only need to store things that you can’s already search for using other filters (for example, the participants in an event are already searchable since the People are attached to the Event).
Before going into more detail, some specific examples would help to confirm what you’re currently doing.
For instance, let’s say I see on findagrave.com the grave of a relative. It could be a joint headstone (with dates) that I use to add more weight to another relative dying in X year. Or it could be used in both the death and burial events. It might have the death cert on there too. Mainly the idea being one citation can prop up multiple events (ie. someone’s birth year, etc. etc.)
Well, I would initially fill out the event for relative A since it’s their death. So the event is done. I close that out but I want to go add burial too, and perhaps if it’s a death cert then I want to add that the informant John Smith was in fact their son or that their occupation was Homemaker. All different events or attributes that I want to create but also reuse the same citation since it’s supporting evidence.
When I go to add those events, it seems far easier to me to go “Source ID contains: D-MaryWilliamSmith” rather than searching any other way. That and I’m not sure how I would search via an attribute.
The source title or Citation volume/page wouldn’t work for me because I have it structured as so-
Repo- familysearch.org
Source- Georgia, County Marriages 1798-1976
Citation- Vol/page = 234/Cert 222
Yes, attaching the same citation to multiple things makes perfect sense. It sounds like you’re just having trouble finding the existing citation. Have you tried using the Clipboard feature? After creating the citation, you can drag it onto the clipboard. From there, you can drag it onto the additional events that you create.
Or you could just drag it from one person to the other. Numerous times I have more than one person open at the same time. Just layer them so you don’t click on the wrong OK.
One alternative is adding more information to the citation’s V/P field.
Vol/page = 234/Cert 222 | Smith, John & Doe, Mary
But I think your major stumbling block is doing a search again and again for the same Citation. Once you create a citation for the main event you can drag it onto the Clipboard. on the toolbar. Then you can drop it into any other ancillary event, etc. A headstone shared by both spouses (and others), add it to one person, drag it from that gallery to the clipboard then add it to other burial events for the other people.
And the clipboard will hold anything you are working with. You can drag the FindAGrave source off a citation to the clipboard. You start working on another record. Drop the Source into the Citation tab of the new burial event and it prepares the new blank citation.
Dragging Places to the clipboard is probably the biggest time saver.
I’ve been using gramps off and on for a few years (and more earnestly this past year) and never knew about the clipboard. I am so far in and I still don’t mind the workflow so I think I’ll keep the naming as such but I do think with a little bit of window resizing I could get used to the clipboard. The drag and drop functionality is very, very nice.
You drag a place from an event record to the Clipboard. Right-click the place record on the clipboard and make it active. Now when you navigate to the Place list view, you will land on that record. It works with all objects, except media. (Media object can be selected in any Gallery tab and right-clicked to make active.)
on the toolbar. Then you can drop it into any other ancillary event, etc. A headstone shared by both spouses (and others), add it to one person, drag it from that gallery to the clipboard then add it to other burial events for the other people.