RM8 Source Procedure

I recently wrote about my process to handle Ancestry Hints in RM 7. Since I am previewing RootsMagic 8, I thought it would help me to write out the process for adding sources from the RootsMagic side.

Since I recently found an obituary on Newspapers.com for a cousin, I thought that I’d try adding that obituary to my RM8 trial database. Since this database was recently created from my RM7 file, it should contain the my source for the Journal and Courier (Lafayette, IN) newspaper.

The obituary is for Mark A. Crudge.

Locate Mark Crudge in file by clicking on the person icon.

• I’m used to clicking on the list and starting to type the name to move to that section of the list. This method does not currently work.
• I could scroll thru my list, but it faster to enter the surname in the search box. As I type, the list narrows down to surnames beginning with the letters I’ve typed.

Since I don’t find Mark Crudge in my list, he will need added. Thus, I click on his father, Marion Jene Crudge and switch to the family view.

I then click on the “+ Add Child” link to open a window to add Mark Crudge as a child of Marion Jene Crudge.

I use the information in the obituary to fill in the birth and death dates for Mark Crudge and then click OK to add him to the family.

I now have Mark Crudge listed as a child of Marion Jene Crudge and a window open to add information about Mark. This is where I need to add the obituary as a source.

Since I can use the obituary as a source for Mark’s death, I click on the death fact. On the right side of the window, there is a section for sources. Since I already have a lot of sources in my file, I would first check to see if the source exists. Thus, I would click on ‘Cite Existing Source’.

That opens up a window for me to select the source. In RM7, I would have clicked on the list and started typing ‘News-IN J’ since that is the pattern I used to name my newspaper sources. Since RM8 works differently, I need to use the search box. So, I start typing the same in the search box and my source is listed.

If unsure, I could use RM8’s super ability to search and type in the name of the paper. (Journal and Courier, in this example) When I do this, I discover that I have two sources — likely the same that I will need to see if I can merge.

Since the first one uses my desired naming pattern, I click on it and then click the NEXT button. That opens the ‘Add Citation’ window.

I enter the information from my source using the tab key to move to the next field — until the remaining fields are not visible on the screen. At that point, I must the the scroll function to get to the end of the screen.

Scrolling down on the citation, I can locate the green > link to add the detail.

This is where I add notes for the citation. This could be as simple as copying the ‘record’ information from Ancestry to transcribing a record or obituary. In this case, I transcribed the obituary.

I can click the < arrow at the top of the window to return to the citation.

In RootsMagic 7, my next step would be to add the image to the citation. Unfortunately, I don’t see a way to add an image to the actual citation from this screen. So, I click on OK to save the citation.

When I click the OK button to close the citation to get back to the edit person screen. This screen has the ability to add an image to the death fact.

However, I would rather have the image attached to the citation. And, I discovered how by chance. Once the citation is created, I can go back to the citation and now the ability to add the image is available.

Clicking on the ‘Add Media’ link I can browse to my file and enter a caption.

Now that I have the obituary citation attached to the death fact, I want to also attach it to his birth fact. Thus, I click on the birth. I now have 3 choices: Add new source, cite existing source and paste citation. Ideally, I would like to ‘paste the citation.’ This means that I need to go back and figure out how to ‘memorize’ the citation. Going back to the death fact and the citation, there is no obvious ‘memorize’ link. However, scrolling over the various icons reveals the icon that looks like two pieces of paper are for memorizing the citation.

After clicking on the ‘memorize citation’ icon, I migrated back to the birth fact to paste the citation. Clicking to paste the citation opens a ‘Paste Memorized Citation’ window.

Unsure of what the difference is between ‘re-use’ and ‘paste’, I posted a question to the Facebook group and thanks to the answer there, I think I have this figured out.

• Select ‘Re-use the memorized citation’ when you want an exact copy. This is what I would use for the obituary when adding the citation to the various events (think birth, death, burial, marriage, residence of survivors)
• Select ‘Paste a copy of the memorized citation’ when I want to to make a small change in the citation. I can see this being helpful when citing various sections of a county history where I would change the page number with each individual citation.

Thus, I selected to ‘re-use’ the citation. When I go to sources and locate the citation, I find that it has been used 3 times.

Clicking on the > to the right of ‘Used 3’, the right column changes to show the times the citation was used.

I have successfully added Mark Crudge to my file and added source citations for his birth and death dates based on his obituary. By writing out the process, I have a better understanding of how this works and also will have notes for future reference.