I have sent a request about the subject some time ago but received no responses, I do not even see my inquiry listed. What am I doing wrong? I would like some help on how to identify my sources. I must not be using a correct title or something. When I go in to the source list I see dozens of duplicate sources listed. I am considering going over to the Master Genealogist Program as I see it assigns a number to each source. I used to enjoy giving sources in PAF 4 but in PAF 5 it seems to be very cumbersome. There must be a better way. Bill Williams

Bill, The Sourcing features in PAF are very good. I believe your frustration must be arising from a mishandling and misunderstanding of the setup - this is not unusual in the learning curve for something like sources - and the learning curve would even be greater in TMG! From the outset it is important to realise that there are 3 distinct parts to defining and assigning a source in PAF. 1. Definition of the Source This is a generic setup and description of the source so that it can be selected and used over and over again and applied to many different individuals. There must not be any specific information in this source definition that relates to a specific individual or event. The definition of the Source allows for a great deal of potential information to be supplied that helps to define and identify the source - in my experience, up to 90% of the potential information I usually find is not needed but is available to cover the widest range of descriptions that may be needed for a wide variety of source descriptions. I suspect that the appearance of duplicated sources in your list arises because you may have included individual/event specific information in your source definition. Examples of Sources are: - "Birth Certificate" / "Census - England & Wales - 1861" / "Parish Records - Lydiard Tregoze" / "Family Knowledge" / "Family Bible" etc. There are many preferred approaches to defining the source titles - and can be as simple or as complex as you want it - ultimately, the list of sources should be searchable (by you) as easily as possible - rule of thumb tells me that if the list grows to over 3 figures you are likely to have too many and should revise your structure of source titles - is alphabetic, so keep like sources together. 2. Repository This is not mandatory - but allows you to give the address location of where the (generic) source being described can be found (library, archive etc. - I would advise against using internet web addresses, rather - use a repository address where the real/physical source can be found). Note that only one repository can be assigned to a (generic) source title. For a source like "Family Knowledge" I would not assign a repository, but in the specific citation details (see below) I would include the details of who supplied the information but specifically omit any address information as a matter of privacy. 3. Citation Having selected a source to use for a specific individual and event you are presented with the Citation screen - this allows you to fill in specific references that describe and allow you to locate this specific occurrence of this source. For example - select the "Birth Certificate" source for the Birth event for John Doe and complete the citation details that describe the specific archive location of this certificate (date/volume/page etc.) - complete any comments relevant to this particular birth certificate (I like to put in a cross reference to my copies of source documents here) - add a transcription of the source details in the Actual Text feature if required - attach a scanned image of the source document if required. There are further "fine" details to using Sources in PAF, but the above are the essentials. My own view is that it is the addition of sources to the PAF data base that is the most exciting part of the whole genealogy experience. Good luck in working your way through it! Regards, Stewart -----Original Message----- From: Bill Williams [mailto:billwilliams25@juno.com] Sent: 25 July 2005 00:47 To: PAF-5-USERS-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [PAF-5] Citations, sources I have sent a request about the subject some time ago but received no responses, I do not even see my inquiry listed. What am I doing wrong? I would like some help on how to identify my sources. I must not be using a correct title or something. When I go in to the source list I see dozens of duplicate sources listed. I am considering going over to the Master Genealogist Program as I see it assigns a number to each source. I used to enjoy giving sources in PAF 4 but in PAF 5 it seems to be very cumbersome. There must be a better way. Bill Williams ==== PAF-5-USERS Mailing List ==== PAF-5-USERS Mailing List Search http://searches2.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl?list=PAF-5-USERS