Prior to the release of the 1940 U S Census, I created a list of everyone in my database who should be in that census. Each Saturday I hope to be able to introduce an ancestor and his/her enumeration sheet from my 1940 Census “Wish List”:
Jack Dixon Carr (1917-1981) was my great-uncle.
(click to enlarge)
Ever try to study a photo or transcribe a document, but find yourself having to toggle back & forth between the image and your notepad/blog/genealogy program?
A pain in the backside, ain’t it?
I found a very simple and free solution to this problem.
This morning, I was trying to transcribe the information from some of my Mom’s documents into my RootsMagic database source citations. I had several windows and programs open as I researched these documents. I was getting pretty annoyed, having to toggle back to the document in question and getting lost among all the open pages and programs.
Why can’t I have that document “always on top” on the desktop?
So I Googled my question and this is what I found:
See that red circle and the little stick pin inside? Here it is in action:
Just click on the stick pin and that image will stay on top of your desktop. Click it again to disable the pin.
How simple is that! It works with images and other programs, too, such as Evernote and Paint Shop Pro. 4t Tray Minimizer is a free download recommended by MakeUseOf.com, one of my favorite tech sites. Check it out!
For the past several days, I have been reviewing/reworking my source list for my RootsMagic database.
Why?
When I moved my genealogy database from Family Tree Maker to RootsMagic almost 5 years ago, most of the sources and citations came through… sort of… kinda like when your house comes through a tornado…
When I originally created those sources and citations for FTM, I didn’t do them correctly (not a clue!).
A couple of years ago, I started a project to go back through my RootsMagic database, examine each person’s information and create new/correct old sources and citations, since I still hadn’t done many of them correctly (still clueless…).
But a lot of the sources and citations are still not quite right (pardon my OCD).
Ok, but what is the correct way to cite a genealogical source?
After a couple of long days of online research, I discovered that there is no one correct way! Many different citation styles…
Well, that certainly cleared things up!
My solution is an Alphabet Soup of sorts. These are what I am using to learn to “correctly” cite my sources:
I had purchased both the Citing Ancestry.com QuickSheet and Evidence some years ago and have never really used them, so I haven’t spent any new money on this project. I eventually want to get Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace, but at $59.95, it’s a bit out of my budget right now.
I thought about changing all of my citations to a free-form format, but with 189 pages of sources… not gonna happen. So I’ll use RootsMagic’s Source Templates, except for census entries and a couple of other much-used sources, such as FamilySearch.org’s various Texas Death databases. These master sources have been used hundreds of times, so I’m not too keen on rewriting each and every citation. Enter Randy’s post above.
Yesterday I reworked several citations in my Mom’s file. A lot of work, but I think I’m beginning to get the hang of it. Remember:
“Genealogy without proof is Mythology”
