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Archiver > TMG > 2005-07 > 1120313519


From: Terry Reigel <>
Subject: Re: [TMG] Formatted Sources
Date: Sat, 2 Jul 2005 10:11:59 -0400
In-Reply-To: <BAY108-DAV12CAD3B3DCF8C29027B35CD7E50@phx.gbl>


On Fri, 1 Jul 2005 19:40:07 -0700, Ken Boyce wrote:

> I think I understand the concept of Tags and basic data
> entry. It's the Citations that go with the Tags that I
> have an interest in and which I loosely called sources in
> my posting. In particular I'm referring to the non-unique
> repeating words (similar to field labels in Tags) that
> form the data input to the Citation.

Welcome to TMG, and to TMG-L, Ken.

There are two separate aspects involved when you attach (cite) sources
to tags in TMG. First, you create the source definition itself - that
is, describe the source. Then, you attach it to the tag with a
Citation. It's in the citation that you add anything specific to how
that source supports the information recorded in that tag.

When you enter information into the Add Person screen you are actually
creating several tags - at least the Name tag, generally one or two
Relationship tags or a Marriage tag linking them to the previous
person, and often Birth and Death tags. The Add person only allows
citing one source, and uses the same citation details for all the tags
(which may not be appropriate, in which case you have to then open
some of the tags and edit their citations.)

For some background on creating Source Definitions, you might look at
my Source Tutorial at http://tmg.reigelridge.com/source-tutorial.htm

> When adding a New Person there are several sources and
> Birth Tags that in my case are relevant for entering
> birth details.

Only one source can be cited in the Add Person screen. You need to
open the individual tags to cite other sources.

> One of these is Birth-Reg using data from
> the BMD Index. The person unique data (which may be what
> I think you experienced users call sourcing the source)
> that goes with the generic (BMD) Citation is very
> structured and on a spread sheet would have the inputs
> labelled Year, Quarter, Reg District, Vol, Page.

This gets you straight into the middle of an age-old debate in
creating Source Definitions in TMG - the so-called "lumper" and
"splitter" schools. According to "splitter" theory, you would create
one source definition for the record for each person. Thus all the
details you mention would be entered in the Source Definition itself,
using appropriate source elements. That way, each element goes in a
properly labeled field, and gets arraigned correctly in the printed
notes by the output template of the source definition. Then, when you
enter the next person, you create a new Source Definition (actually,
I'd copy the previous one and the edit the required fields). The
problem is, you end up with very many source definitions ("sources")
in the Master Source List.

"Lumper" theory would have you create one "generic" source definition
for that source, and enter all the record-specific details in each
citation. Thus you would create one Source Definition ("source") for
the BMD Index, then enter all the details each time in the citations.
Using this approach, there are two ways to enter the details:

1. You format the source definition so that none of the details are
specifically called, but are expected to be placed in one location,
usually at the end, where you use the Citation Detail source element,
<[CD]>. Then, when you create citations to a specific tag, you add the
details "freehand" in the Citation Detail field. Presumably you would
want to do so in a consistent fashion, but no guideline is provided.
If the elements are to be labeled (vol, page, etc.), the labels will
need to be entered each time in the Citation Detail.

2. You use what is called split CDs. With this approach, you create a
source definition that places each element of the detail exactly where
you want it, and can include labels in the source definition itself.
Where the detail data is to appear, you place the split CD elements,
like <[CD1]>, <[CD2]>, etc. Then, when you create the citation, you
enter only the data for each detail in the correct segment. For
example, your Year, Quarter, Reg District, Vol, Page elements might
look like:

1840||IV||London||B||231

(I'm making this up - I have no idea what the values really should
look like <g>) The double bars separate each segment of the CD.
Unfortunately, there is no guide for entering the elements (that has
been suggested as a program enhancement) so you either have to
remember the order, or refer back to the Output Template of the Source
Definition to see what's expected.

An example of this approach applied to US census records can be found
in my article at http://tmg.reigelridge.com/Sources-Census.htm

There are some other linked articles on the mechanics of editing and
creating custom source types that may be helpful.

Terry Reigel

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