GEDCOM Source Fields – Family Historian User Group

Skill Level: New User
FH versions: V4, V5, V6, and V7
In Topics: Gedcom files Sources and Citations

Introduction

If you’re creating a source in Family Historian V6 and below, or a Generic SourceFamily Historian 7 introduced the concept of 'Templated Sources' and renamed Version 6 (totally Gedcom compliant) sources as 'Generic Sources'. in Version 7, you have a small number of fields with which to identify the source:

Title	This uniquely identifies the source within your ƒh projectA Project is a Windows folder, created by Family Historian, which contains all your Family Tree information recorded in Family Historian. Normally located in the Documents\Family Historian Projects folder., for example: Birth CertificateBirth Certificates are a formal record of the birth of a child, and typically include the date and place of birth together with information about the parents. of James Smith born 15th Aug 1873, Clerkenwell, London; or Memories of Joanne Philips
Short Title	Optional extra identifier, which can help with filing or finding information more easily if the Title of the Source is very long, e.g Birth 1873 James Smith. We recommend that you adopt a standard format for Short Title
Type	Another finding aid, used to categorise sources, e.g. CensusCensus records are national collections of population statistics. They usually record details about members of a household on a particular date, and are typically collected every ten years.; or Newspaper etc. More about Source Types The Type field on Gedcom-compliant sources allows you to specify, for each source record, what kind of source it is. The choice of values for this field is up to the user (e.g. you might prefer to use general terms like certificate, or more detailed terms like death certificateDeath Certificates are a formal record of the death of a person, and typically include the date and place of death, the age or date of birth, and sometimes information about close relations.). The field supports auto-completion, and there is a Work with Data dialogue for Source Types which is accessible either by double-clicking on any source type field (or pressing the button with 3 dots next to it); or by clicking on Tools > Work With Data > Source Types. The dialog allows you to edit, view and merge source types as you can with other auto-completion fields. You can also view records that use a given source type and jump to them. Source types come into their own when you use the “splitter” Source Method 1, which means you may have hundreds of Birth Certificate Sources for example. Using the source type with QueriesQuerying is a very powerful feature that allows you to specify and save criteria for identifying a set of records of a given record type. would allow you to check for a source of type birth certificate even though the actual source name could be Certificate Birth Fred Blogs. They can also be added as a column on the Records WindowThe Records Window provides a comprehensive view of all the information stored within a Family Historian project. Sources tab to allow sorting by the type as well.
Author and Publication Information	According to the GEDCOMGEDCOM, an acronym for GEnealogical Data COMmunication, is a specification for exchanging genealogical data between different genealogy software. It is a file format that most genealogical programs and online trees recognise. Standard, Publication Information could be used to include “the dateWhen an Event happened, or an Attrribute was true. the record was created and the placeAccording to GEDCOM, a Place should hold "The jurisdictional name of the place where the event took place…" where it was created. For example, the county and state of residence of a person making a declaration for a pension or the city and state of residence of the writer of a letter”. This can be used in conjunction with the Author field (“The person, agency, or entity who created the record”).
Custom ID	As with all Record types, an optional Custom ID can be used to give each Source a unique identifier based on a numbering system of your choice.
Repository	If applicable, you can link a Source to a RepositoryA repository is a place (physical or online) where collections of original source data are stored and maintained. which is the location of the source document you consulted e.g. Leeds Register Office.
Text From SourceBoth Source records and Citations have a Text From Source field intended to hold transcripts of source documents.	A partial or full exact transcription of the Source, including the information you’ve relied on to form a conclusion about one or more FactsFacts are one of the key concepts at the heart of Family Historian; they are how you record the things that happened to, or described, each ancestor (Individual)..
Note	You should record comments about the Source recordSource: "where information was found". This could be anything from an archive in a county records office, a book, or even a relative's recorded recollection. Citing your Sources helps to show how you reached a particular conclusion about an Individual. itself here: for example: Very hard to read so transcription may be inaccurate;or The interview took place by phone and was not recorded other than by notesFamily Historian version 6 and below supports two types of Notes: Local notes (associated with a single person, record, or fact); and Note Records (sometimes called Shared Notes), that can be linked to multiple records and/or facts. Version 7 introduced taken at the time. This is not the place to record comments about the information in the source — those belong in the Notes for the Facts you link to this Source.

You should specify either a Title or a Short Title, or both; the other fields are all optional. We strongly recommend that before you get too far into recording your family history, you think about how you are going to use each of the source fields, or whether you are going to use them at all.

For example, some users put all the information into the Title and use Short Title, Type, and perhaps Custom ID as finding aids, and leave the other ‘Source identifying’ fields unused. Some users don’t use Repository but use the other fields.

Last update: 07 Oct 2020

Introduction

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