* Entering information

[GeneSniper]

I know I asked a similar question back in August last year, but not the same. So here goes, when entering information into FH (or any other genealogy software for that matter) is it better/easier to add the names you have then adding the sources/citations afterwards or do it one person at a time. I ask this because lots of my (and no doubt others) family have family members as bridesmaids/witnesses/etc at weddings and if I don't have the family members already in the tree they would have to be entered as Name Only rather than an Individual witness and once I eventually got to them in my tree I would have to go back and change them to an Individual as a witness.

I have decided to start the redo of my tree and not wait for FH7. As it is a redo I already know the layout of the family and that they are family members, so not worried about maybe adding the wrong person to the wrong place.

An example is my marriage, my best man was my best mate who was married to my wife's sister, she was also a bridesmaid/maid of honour, two other bridesmaids were cousins from my wife and I's families. So from the very start of entering people I would have this problem.

[tatewise]

Adding Fact Witnesses is an anomaly because it is the only link I can think of that does not allow a new Individual to be created. All the add Father, Mother, Spouse, Child, etc, options allow you to Create a New Record.

So in most circumstances, the order does not matter much, but you must review potential Fact Witnesses to create their records beforehand.

If you use Ancestral Sources then a record must exist before you can name a Fact Witness, so you have to use Edit > New ... to create the person and they automatically get named as the Fact Witness if you were on that tab.

[GeneSniper]

Mike,

It is not really the close relations that are the problems it is the slightly more distant, say a son-in-law registering a death when you don't know the daughter or as in my example a cousin as a witness (you have the parents from marriage cert, you have to add the grandparent, their daughter/son and then the cousin). This was why I asked the question- put the people I know in, then create the sources/citations even though that may be further down the line or go the round about route of (from my example add the parents from birth cert, then grandparents from son/daughters birth cert, then add their son/daughter from death cert and then add the cousin from birth cert & interview) adding the original marriage cert last once I have the people added and cited.

I was just wondering the best way to do it. Mainly so that things don't get forgotten.

[tatewise]

That is where how_to:create_work_in_progress_or_research_to_do_lists|> Planning and Tracking Your Research comes into play.

I think you can only pose your problem, and consider alternative solutions, in hindsight.
In practice when capturing Source documents you often don't know the relationship between all the people mentioned.
That largely affects witnesses and non-family relationships on Census records.
Whenever you encounter a new person you are faced with the same dilemma of creating a record or just using a name.
All you can do is keep notes, etc, for those cases until they are resolved.

[pwe]

Could you create a named list and then add to it any BMD certs where you have not yet identified witnesses. Then later you could periodically look through the list to see if you have now added a particular witness name. If so you can delete that certificate from the list.
Peter

[tatewise]

Yes, you can add any mixture of record types to the same Named List.