In the earlier post on RootsMagic (RM), I described the process to enter the transcription and image of a census record to its source citation.  I also l looked at how to share the census fact and source citation with the other family members included in the census record.  Today’s post will look at those same features in Family Tree Maker (FTM).

I added a census fact to Nicholas Huber in my tree by going to the Person tab in the People workspace and then clicking on the blue plus sign to add the fact.

I added the source citation following the process described in the earlier post Citing a Census Source – FTM.  The resulting Source Details are shown below.

I clicked on the “Resource Notes” tab and entered the information transcribed from the census record.  Next I went to the “Media” tab to link the census image.

I clicked on the “Attach New Media” button.  (If I had previously attached this census image to a source or individual in my FTM database, I would have clicked on the “Link to Existing Media” button.)  The “Select a Media Item” window allowed me to select the correct file from my hard drive.

Then, the “Copy to Media Folder” window appeared.

To save space in my FTM database (and thus on my hard drive), I chose the option to “Link to this file where it is (without copying it).”  I selected the “Census” category and then “OK.”  The Media Detail window allowed me to add a Caption, Date and Description to the image as well as to change the Category and mark the image Private.

After entering the desired data and clicking “OK” I now had my source citation with transcription and image of the source record.  Now, I wanted to attach all of this to the other three members of the family who appeared in this census record.

I searched all around on Nicholas’ Person tab (in the People workspace) trying to find the button or icon that would allow me to copy his 1910 census fact and source.  I couldn’t find any.  I looked unsuccessfully in the Companion Guide, the electronic book that comes with the software.  Next, I went to the Online Help Center and accessed the Knowledge Base.  I typed “copy fact” into the search box and saw several articles related to facts and to making backup copies of the database.  I started reading through all the articles and finally found what I was looking for in the article “Add, edit or delete a fact in Family Tree Maker.”  I followed the instructions very carefully and successfully copied the fact and source citation from one family member to the other three.  Here are the steps.

I went to the Person tab on the People workspace and right clicked on the fact for the 1910 census that I wanted to copy and selected “Copy.”

Then, I right clicked again on the same fact and selected “Paste.”   The “Paste Fact” window appeared and displayed Nicholas and his family members.

I selected the people to whom I wanted to copy the fact and source citation, namely Theresa, Ida and Clarence and I deselected Nicholas.

I read in the knowledge base that it is important to deselect the original person from whom the fact is copied.  Failure to do so will result in a duplicate fact being created for this person.  After I clicked “OK” to complete the copy/paste, I checked the facts for Theresa, Ida, and Clarence and saw they now had the 1910 census fact and the source citation.

In FTM, the process to add the image and transcription to a source citation was easy enough to do.  The screen flow was intuitive.  Copying the fact and source citation from one individual to others was somewhat more difficult.  It was not clear at first how to accomplish the operation.  Having to deselect the person whose fact was being copied in order to prevent undesired duplicates seems to indicate a poorly designed feature.  In the end, I managed to do what I wanted to do, but the procedure seemed too complicated.

The URL for this post is: http://www.bnk94.com/groupwgenealogy/2012/11/01/genealogy-software-comparison-part-4b-more-on-census-records-ftm/

Copyright (c) 2012, Beth Weiland Benko

In preparation for delivering some help sessions at my local genealogical society, I am working to become proficient in three genealogy applications:  Family Tree Maker (FTM), RootsMagic  (RM) and Legacy Family Tree (LFT).  I will be using various features of each package and blogging about my experiences.  The “Part 3” posts will look at adding a source citation for a census record.  I will use RM in Part 3a; FTM in Part 3b; and LFT in Part 3c.  If you’d like to start at the beginning, the first post in the series is:  Genealogy Software Comparison.

In the Person tab of the People Workspace, I clicked the plus sign to add the census fact to my grandma Ida.

I entered the date and place of the census in the spaces provided.  Then, I added the source information, a “new” source.  On the “Add Source Citation For Census For <person>” screen, I clicked on the “New…” button to display the “Add Source” screen.

I was a bit confused about what to do next until I clicked on the “More” button to display the “Select Source Template” screen.

On that screen, I selected “Census Records” Source group, “Digital Images” Category and “Population Schedule – Untied States, 1790-1840 (by Census Year and Location)” template.  After clicking on “OK” I saw the following “Add Source” screen with appropriately labeled fields to fill in for my census citation.

I completed this form and clicked OK again.  The “Add Source” window closed revealing the “Add Source Citation for Census for <person>” screen again.

The Source title field was filled in with the information I had entered on the previous screen, i.e. “1920 U.S. Census, Ohio, Hamilton Co., …”   The citation detail box contained a daunting set of instructions for data to be entered there.  Luckily, the information was available in a tool tip as I typed in that text box.

The text box for entry of the citation details was not as user friendly as having the individual fields displayed.  This would also have given the program the opportunity to provide help for each field.  I would have expected the template to walk the user through the data entry field by field.  To see the source citation that the software builds, a user must go to the Reference Notes tab. The resulting source citation contained of the necessary elements, but was not exactly in the form prescribed in Evidence Explained [1].

FTM:  1920 U.S. census, population schedule, Ohio, Hamilton County, Cincinnati, Ward 9, enumeration district (ED) 163, p. 232 (stamped),  sheet 4A, dwelling 51, family 83, Ida T. Ulrich; NARA microfilm publication T625, roll 1390; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com).

EE: 1920 U.S. census, Hamilton County, Ohio, population schedule, Cincinnati, Ward 9, Enumeration District (ED) 163, p. 232 (stamped), sheet 4A, dwelling 51, family 83, Ida T. Ulrich; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 17 September 2012); citing National Archives microfilm publication T625, roll 1390.

[1] Elizabeth Shown Mills, Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace (Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2007), 240.