In over 45 years of research a lot has changed. From paper I went to a DOS program, it couldn’t hold much extra information.I was satisfied whith the little it offered. From that I went to a Windows program that could hold anything I wanted. I went overboard doing that. Me ending up making a many links as possible. Whenever a person was mentioned in anyway I made it an event within that persons’ record. Then I went on using Gramps a few years ago and imported everything I had. Making the database very heavy with al those unneeded entries. Now, finally, I have begun restructuring (The database is large enough to be daunting) and am struggling. I have decided to stay away from making every link possible. If a Family has children then it is logical the male of that family was their father. No need to give the father an event called ‘Father’ unless for specific exceptions. So I have begun streamlining at record one, (now at record 22) but will probably never finish that. It’s a lot of work. So I might still decide that only from now on I will do it the new way. And leave old records as is.
Needing to make decisions like: If Marriage supplements contains a National Militia discharge form. I could just enter it as source with citations to the marriage where found it. But also could add a ‘conscripted’ event to the groom and share it there. Thus showing in his record clearly that he was conscripted. This is only one example. There are many comparable. It would be nice if I can come to some sort of conclusion, a guide what to include where and how. I know this is a personal choice and I know I have asked similar questions lately. Want to find middleground between doing too little and too much. And perhaps after that a way of ‘cleaning’ the database. I am a little frustrated to be honest with my previous choices. I do not need to be ‘historically 100% correct’, but it helps if information can be found easily. (giving a conscripted man an event ‘conscripted’.) Important will be to maintain a set of guides that I can follow, without having to look up how I did it last time.
Thank you for your attention and any answers.
I too am going person by person, family by family cleaning the database making sure that the sources I find (I was not always meticulous in the early days) support what I have.
I am not one to add source/citations to every spec of information. A Death Certificate does not prove the birth record so the death s/c is not added to the birth event. It is a strong clue (and often proven correct) but not proof.
You mentioned the military record as part of the marriage documents. That would be proof of the military service and I agree with you in adding the s/c to the military event. But if the marriage only says his occupation is ‘soldier’ I add the Military event for the person but not the s/c to the event.
I know others use a different method wanting to know where the clue came from that said the person was a soldier adding the s/c. I just think all those s/c just clutter the record. When I start working on a person/family, I review all the information again so that reminds me of the facts as currently known.
Ah, so i‘m not alone. I do like to know where the clue came from. With citing the source I also prove that I have checked the info and am not just quoting an otherwise unknown source. An event without source means to me I do not have proof.
As to birth records. They hold a lot of different amounts of information. I have made a script where I only enter the things I need, the script then sumarizes the info in a standard way.
I have at least verbal proof of one birthdate being lied about. So am aware of the amount of errors that might creep in, including spelling differences of names. Mentioned age at death is wildly guessed often.
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