TMG-L Archives

Archiver > TMG > 2002-03 > 1015005149


From: Joe Makowiec <>
Subject: Re: [TMG] newbie questions
Date: Fri, 01 Mar 2002 12:52:29 -0500
In-Reply-To: <00a801c1c145$5de6de40$6de6950c@94bde>


At 12:20 PM 3-1-2002 -0500, Colleen and James Conlan wrote:
>-Many of my sources are copies of birth, marriage and death certificates.
>Some I got from my mother, and some I got from Vital Records, either in
>person or by mail. Is each certificate a source? Does each have its own
>entry and source number in the master source list? I know its "up to me"
>how I want to enter sources, but how do you folks do it? The examples in
>the SAMPLE dataset don't include any birth records or certificates.
>
>I had entered my birth certificate as source #1, abbreviated as "Birth
>records, Connecticut" but I have many birth records from CT. Should I call
>it "birth certificate-Colleen" instead? Do I then end up with a master
>source list filled with "birth certificate-Colleen O'Neill", "birth
>certificate-Bernard O'Neill" etc? Is this appropriate or desirable?

How many factors go into this decision? That's why the answer is "it
depends". Many people, including me, do some of both.

How many certificates from the same source do you have? If you have dozens
from Connecticut Vital Records, you might want to make that a generic
source. Then put the details from the specific certificate in the Citation
Detail (the text box that opens when you add a source to an event).

On the other hand, if you have a lot of information from a specific source,
you may want that to be by itself, even if there are a bunch of other
Connecticut birth certificates.

As to the list filling up - if you have a source you use only once or
infrequently (a birth certificate, say), on the right hand side of the
source entry screen, you can select No in "Source active Y/N:" That way,
the source will not show unless you press the "More>>" button on the bottom
of the Master Source List (MSL). It's still available; it just doesn't
show up on the shorter MSL listing.

>-As I was entering new sources, I was clicking back and forth between the
>SAMPLE set and my PRACTICE SET. A few times I cancelled entry of the
>source, then went back to it. Now my automatic numbering is off. I have to
>renumber each source after I have entered it. Is there a way to remedy this?

Don't sweat it. The program is the only one that cares about source
numbers, unless you want to memorize a few that you use frequently. To the
best of my knowledge, they never print anywhere. If this really bothers
you, go to the MSL, click the "Renumber" button, and tell it to renumber
all sources.

>-In Person View, in the narrow column between Type and Date, what does the
>asterisk (*) signify? Not all items in this view have one.

It means a "primary" tag. TMG puts tags into groups - name, relationship,
birth, death, burial, marriage, divorce, history, address, other. Only one
tag in each group can be primary for each individual (or two individuals
for marriage and divorce). Multiple "other" group tags can be primary.

As an example, Christening is in the Birth group. So if you have a
christening/baptism date for an individual, but not a birth date, *and the
group you're studying practiced infant baptism*, you can mark the
Christening tag primary, and TMG will use it as a substitute for the Birth
tag. Or you may have evidence from a couple of sources of different birth
dates, but you think one is more likely than the other. You can enter two
birth tags, with appropriate source information and notes for both. Then
you pick the one you think is more likely, and make it primary (click the
"*" button on the left of the person screen). In reports/charts that use
all events, both birth tags will print, but in reports/charts that pick
only one, the one you designate as primary will print.

>-My program came with the Getting Started Manual. Is there a way to
>purchase the User's Guide and Reference Manual?

Look in your TMG directory (probably c:\tmg\ if you did a default install)
for refman.pdf - full text of the printed reference manual. The printed
manual comes with the Gold edition - consider upgrading when v5 comes out.

Hope this gives you enough to keep you going for a while...

Joe
--
Joe Makowiec can be reached at:
mailto:
http://makowiec.org/

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