Do you find it best to list all the details under the husband (head of household) and list facts for the household members (such as occupation) under the individual; or would you put the full detail page under a marriage event.
This is perhaps software related but I only am familiar with Legacy so don't know if the question arises with other software. I like to put the census under events even though there is some controversary as to whether it should only be used as a source?
Would I find such answers in the over 800 page EE? Would it be difficult to locate such specific answers?
Thank you,
Peggy (An elderly newbie!)
Peggy,
Peggy,
EE focuses on principles of evidence analysis and citation. It covers many hundreds of record types. However, as you suspect, how to take research notes and how to organize our research findings, manually or in a database, lies outside its purview. Some of EE's supplementary QuickSheets in the "The Historical Biographer's Guide to ...." Series do focus on the research process, and one focuses on tips for finding elusive materials in databases, but advice on data entry is best sought from your software's user-group.
For one of your questions, EE will offer a bit of "logic" based on general documentation principles. You ask whether census data should be recorded under a "marriage event." There are circumstances under which a researcher uses census data to guesstimate the time frame of a marriage, in which case the typical citation would identify the census and say why it was being used to support a marriage assertion. To EE's way of thinking that would not be the prime location to store all the details for a census entry. If you are using a relational database to store your data, then the full data from the census would more logically be stored with the census event, would it not?
Thank you. I've started
Thank you. I've started revising (much needed) my database and decided to put the full census information including transcription under the head of household (event). Then when I use it to source other events such as "residence" I'll just give the main source and a short pertainent transcription, if applicable.
I got the Ancestory laminated pages today and now have more to try digest!
Hi, Peggy, you may know this
Hi, Peggy, you may know this since your post was from 2012 and it's now 2014, but the newest version of Legacy enables you to easily "share" events between individuals. So you can enter all the census event information under the head of household, then share the event with all the other family members who were living in the home.
Peggy,
Peggy,
EE should also comment on your last question about the ease of locating a specific item within EE's "terribly intimidating" 885 pages. With the electronic edition of EE, it's a breeze to locate anything. Once you download your copy, you can run a word search on any type of record, any type of problem, any specific publication, any particular author, any specific website, or just about any other thought that comes to mind!
Thank you. It does sound much
Thank you. It does sound much easier than trying to use an index or find the right section. I'll go for it!