I'm not sure whether you're asking about recording specific bits of information from your cousin's many emails or recording the emails as sources. If it's the former, I think your proposal to excerpt (or abstract) the pertinent parts is practical and appropriate for situations where you want to quote or paraphrase what your cousin wrote, provided you have his/her permission to do so and you credit his/her email as your source. However, since you're dealing with a large volume of information, you might prefer--at least in some cases--simply to cite a specific email as a source for a particular fact that you enter in RootsMagic. (For example, a residence fact, a death date or place, etc.) If you're asking about recording the emails as sources, I'd suggest using the source template for "Email, personal, privately held, filed by collection." If you don't want to use all of the fields, you can copy the template and change it to suit your needs. Treating that cousin's emails as a collection and using the source details fields for information that varies from one citation to another will save you a lot of time and repetitive typing. That source template is based on Elizabeth Shown Mills' Evidence Explained. If you still have questions about citing the emails after studying the template, I recommend searching the archives at her web site at https://www.evidenceexplained.com/ for similar questions. While you're there, be sure to read "QuickLesson 19: Layered Citations Work Like Layered Clothing," which you can access from the home page. If you need more help, log in to the forums and post a question on the one for citation issues. Linda Johnson __________________________ Jon wrote: <I need advise on recording correspondence from a cousin that spans 3 years <who rambles from one subject to another before getting back to the first. I< can't think of anything except using excerpts from the emails. <Alternate methods welcomed.