Entering from a Birth Certificate

See Sources for an explanation of how to use sources.

The following link will take you to an animated tutorial showing how to record details from a Birth Certificate. For versions 2 and can view it here.

Although most of these steps are shown in the animated tutorial (V3) or the Video above, there are other pieces of information that could be recorded from information on the certificate. All of this assumes that none of the people referred to in the certificate are already in your file.

1. Create a source for the birth certificate, giving the source a meaningful title (as explained in the animated tutorial)
2. Optionally type in a transcription of the birth certificate into the 'Text from source'.
3. Link an image to the source (as explained in the animated tutorial).
4. Turn on “auto citation” (as explained in the animated tutorial).
5. Create the person that the birth certificate refers to.
6. Choose their sex as specified on the certificate.
7. Enter the name of the person.
8. The certificate will probably name the father so create a record for him.
9. Enter the name of the father if included on the certificate.
10. Create a record for the mother.
11. Enter the name of the mother.
12. Create a birth event for the person the certificate refers to. This should include the date and place of birth
13. Create an occupation attribute for the father if specified. This should include the date of the birth and the occupation at that time.
14. The informant is usually the mother or father and so a residence event can be created. This should include the date the birth was registered and the place they were recorded as living at that time.
15. Later birth certificates may also include:
    • Father's place of birth
    • Mother's place of birth
    • Father's home address
    • Mother's home address
    • Mother's occupation
16. Remember to turn off the auto citation facility.

It is interesting to note that this one source can lead to 3 individuals and between six and eleven Facts being created. The great thing about the auto citation facility is that all of these records will be automatically linked back to the certificate source.

Very often the people mentioned on the certificate will already be in your database. Where this is true follow steps 1 to 4 above to create the source and turn on the Auto source. You can then add any new events and update existing ones from the information on the certificate. If you use the All Tab, or Records Window you can make use of the right click option to add the Auto Source citation to any existing event.