PAF
I -- Class
2:
DATA
ENTRY AND SOURCES
©Copyright 2006 by Donald R. Snow
Sections of the Class Notes
Return to Don's
Class
Listings page or to the home page of Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group . This page was last
updated 27 Nov 2006.
WELCOME
AND SUMMARY OF LAST TIME
- Instructors
are Donald R. and Diane M. Snow, 801-225-7123 in Provo, Utah
and 435-673-1932 in St. George, Utah (snowd@math.byu.edu,
dms34@juno.com)
- These notes with active Internet links are posted on the
Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group website http://uvtagg.org
under Class Outlines, Don's Listings.
- Last time -- installing PAF 5.2.18 --
How did the download and
installation go and
setting up a new database? Questions?
- Don't
panic if you get "snowed under" (pun intended!) with too
much info now -- absorb what you can and work with it a little at a
time -- you learn by doing
ENTERING
AND EDITING
DATA IN PAF 5
- Need to be accurate and complete in your family
history
- The PAF 5 Lessons are excellent
references -- go
to Help/Lessons -- these are very helpful to go through
- See Lessons 1, 2, and 3 on Getting Started, Making Changes,
and
Sources and Notes
- To enter and edit
data get to the Individual Data screen --
several ways to get to Individual data screen
- (1)
Click on space in Family View, (2) Pedigree View,
(3) Individual List, (4) "+" icons at top, (5) "Add" item on top menu,
and (6) Right clicking in various places
- Names
are entered all on one line just as you would speak it,
including Suffix (e.g. Jr., Sr., III), but enter Prefix (Dr., Rev.,
Capt.) in field near bottom of Edit screen in the Prefix line in Other
-- then it doesn't think that's part of the name when you sent it in
for temple work
- Be sure preference is
so that it puts slashes (//) around
surname, e.g. Donald Ray /Snow/
- For
your own database enter your own name first so you are
assigned RIN 1 (Record Index Number 1)
- If
you are not RIN 1 and want to be, you can do it as follows
- (i) Set up a new database with
only your
name
- (ii) GEDCOM your entire
database into the new one
(will discuss GEDCOM in a later class)
- (iii)
Match/merge your old record into your new one at
RIN 1 (will discuss Match/Merge later)
- Dates -- genealogical format is 24 Dec 1805, but
dates
entered in other forms will convert automatically, e.g. 12/24/1805
changes to 24 Dec 1805
- Places -- enter places as
City, County, State, Country
- Separate
by commas and spaces, e.g. Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois,
USA
- Include counties or provinces, states, and
countries all
spelled out completely, except "USA"
- Enter places
uniformly so you can search on them later
- Use an
extra comma if you haven't found the county yet, e.g.
Nauvoo, , Illinois, USA
- Earlier
PAF's removed the spaces after commas, but PAF 5
doesn't remove them, so be uniform.
- To see
whether places are entered uniformly, Preview
Places Sorted Alphabeticallyl of all places in your database by
clicking on
Printer/Lists/Places-Sorted- Alphabetically/Preview -- details in a
later class
- PAF 5.2.18 has a Global Search and
Replace for place names,
people names, temple codes, etc., so you can change all occurrences at
once
- Click on Help on Tool Bar (at
top) at any time to get info about
items or how to accomplish something
- Hovering
with mouse over any icon will give a short
description
of
what it does
- As you enter info, e.g. names and
dates, PAF keeps track of what
you entered and saves it in "Pick Lists" for later selection on
other records -- click on the small down arrows at right end of field
- Shows the last 10-15 items you entered in
comparable fields --
select the one you want and press Enter
- Saves
typing and prevents spelling errors and helps make things
more uniform
- Autocomplete feature also helps --
you type first few letters
and it completes it
- Can
add or correct data later
- PAF 5
allows changing the template (the form you fill in) by
clicking on Template and setting up a new one -- very helpful when you
need a different format of data entry -- can use one for default and
change to another when needed
- All
data entered is saved in the database whatever template you
use -- you just don't see some of it when using a template that doesn't
show some of it
ENTERING
SOURCES IN
PAF 5
- Basic philosophy -- "A genealogy without sources
is only
hearsay." "In God We Trust -- all other must have sources."
- DOCUMENT YOUR INFORMATION AS YOU
ENTER IT!
- Basic principle is to cite where the
data came from so someone
else could find and verify it
- Some say sources
are more important than the data, since with
sources someone else could find the data, but not the other way around
- References
- PAF
5 Lesson 3 on Notes and Sources -- excellent helps
- "Family
History Documentation Guidelines", Second Edition,
updated for PAF 5.2, 2003,
$10 + S/H, from Silicon Valley Computer Genealogy Group, P.O. Box
23670, San
Jose, CA
95153-3670, http://www.svpafug.org
--
very helpful booklet
- SOURCES --
Sources are where the data came from and are attached
to an event, e.g. birth, marriage, death, temple ordinances
- Good idea to enter sources as you enter the data
- Sources
print as footnotes after the notes -- PAF puts
superscripts by the event referenced so you know what it refers to
- Click on the small "s" at end of line to open a Source Entry
screen
- Asterisk by the s,
e.g. "*s", means that that event has
at least one source already
- See all sources
entered for that individual by clicking on
the "Open Book" icon at right of Individual Entry screen
- Source descriptions are in three parts
- (1) Title and author of source;
- (2)
Repository -- where the source can be found so someone
else could check it; and
- (3) Specific citation,
e.g. volume number, page, etc., from
that source for that person
- Can
use titles and repositories more than once -- just select
from list you have already entered
- Sources
entered are shown alphabetically by title in
Source List -- select the one you want and press ENTER
- Then
fill in the specific Citation for this new individual,
e.g. page, item, or certificate number of that source
- Can enter exact text of source and even a scanned image of
the document -- give the path and name of the image file
- Suggestions on titles of sources
- (1)
Enter the titles in a consistent manner so they will
alphabetize where you will look for them
- e.g.
"California--Marriage License" will alphabetize under
California, but "Marriage License--California" will alphabetize under
Marriage
- (2) Make titles specific
enough so you know what it refers to
and can find it in a long list
- (3) Make titles
broad enough so you can use the same source
title and repository again, e.g. "Utah--Birth Certificate" (rather than
"Birth Certificate"), so you can use the same source and repository,
but with different details (citations) for other individuals
- Can edit and merge sources later, if needed you
inadvertently
entered the source twice
- After
editing or merging the sources still refer to the same
individuals as before -- only have to change it once and it does it for
all references to it
- Can print out or
preview list of sources and a list of
records citing any given source -- go to Printer/Lists/Sources Citing...
- When converting a PAF 2.31 database all the old
notes and
sources go into Notes since that was the only place PAF 2.31 had -- can
cut and paste them from Notes into Sources or can use a combination of
locations, e.g. exact references in Sources, but data in Notes
- NOTES -- biographical, historical, research
notes, To Do lists --
will discuss next time
ASSIGNMENT
- For your PAF database change some of the
Preferences (under
Tools/Preferences) and see how it affects it.
- Work
through the PAF 5 Lessons 1, 2, and 3 (under Tools/Lessons)
on getting started,
making changes, and on Notes and Sources.
- Enter
data for a few families, including children, and some
sources for the data.
Return to Don's
Class
Listings page or to the home page of Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group .