Saturday Night Genealogy Fun

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:

It’s Saturday Night again –

time for some more Genealogy Fun!!

Here is your assignment, should you decide to accept it (you ARE reading this, so I assume that you really want to play along – cue the Mission Impossible music!):

1)  Then and Now – Which genealogy software have you used over your genealogy career to document your genealogy and family history research?  What did you start with (Then) and what do you presently use (Now).  Please share your experiences.

When I first started researching my family history, my ‘software’ was a pencil and my output was on a piece of paper. At the time, some people were putting brief mentions of sources on their family group sheets. However, most family group sheets and pedigree charts, including my own, did not indicate where the information was from.

While on a vacation to the Tetons with my parents we took a ‘detour’ thru Salt Lake City where we spent about three days in the library. It was during that stay at the Family History Library that I learned about the software sold by the church called PAF. My husband agreed that I could purchase a copy of PAF.

While our first computer was a Commodore 64, I believe we had migrated to an Apple IIE computer at the time of my software purchase. Thus, I was able to enter all of the information from my family group sheets and pedigree charts into PAF. During those early years of using PAF, I still wasn’t entering source documentation. At some point in my usage of PAF, I obtained a book on how to document my research using ‘Notes’ in the PAF program. While most of those ‘Notes’ have been replaced by citations, there is still ‘evidence’ of that work in my database.

Wanting a better way to document the events I was collecting for the people in my tree, I started looking at other software packages. Since we had transitioned from an Apple computer to a DOS based computer, I had several options to choose from. At the time, ROOTS was the software promoted by members of the Topeka Genealogical Society. Since that software was out of my price range, I started looking around and evaluated Family Tree Maker and The Master Genealogist. I selected The Master Genealogist (TMG) because of its ability to attach sources to each event. It also allowed me to have events beyond birth, marriage, death and census records.

During my ‘transition’ from PAF to TMG, most of my efforts revolved around changing the NOTES to actual events with source citations. I also participated in the TMG message board and learned to improve my research and my documentation from other users of TMG.

While using TMG, I also used an add on program by John Cardinal called Second Site. This software took my TMG database and turned it into a web site. Thus, I was able to share my research with others on a web page.

Even though TMG was a wonderful program, it was written with older code. Thus, it became difficult to upgrade the software as the operating systems matured. It was at this point that Wholly Genes, the company behind TMG, discontinued supporting the software. While it is still a usable program and still has people actively using it, I elected to migrate away from TMG.

During this ‘migration’ process, I evaluated several software packages including Family Tree Maker, Legacy and RootsMagic. The ability to work with a variety of events and sources was an important feature that I was looking for in a new software package. However, it was a comparison of the underlying computer languages for each package that influenced my decision the most. Like TMG, many of the genealogy software programs in 2016 were built on older computer code. The one exception was RootsMagic which was written on newer SQL code. Thus, I migrated from TMG to RootsMagic.

Like PAF, there are bits of my old TMG sourcing evident in my genealogy file.

My RootsMagic journey started with version 6 and I am currently using version 9. This journey from version 6 to version 9 included the addition of TreeShare and the complete re-writing of the underlying code for the program. While I still miss some of the features found in TMG, like the ability to create complex sentences using a memo field, I am very happy with my decision to transition to RootsMagic.

I wrote about some of my RootsMagic journey on this blog. My RootsMagic page captures most of those posts.

Naming Conventions

Do you have a method or process you use when you save a file or even a genealogy source? If so, CONGRATULATIONS! Your method or process is obviously working for you — or you wouldn’t be using it.

When I first started genealogy, I used my document number to name my files. My document numbers were created using the Dollarhide method starting with the surname followed by the abbreviation for the state and then a number. While that worked in my early paper research, it has not transitioned well into my current process.

• Document number does not identify what is in the document
• Document number does not identify the person or family in the document
• Documents were not attached as images to events in my old software

Thus, as I started working thru Thomas MacEntee’s Genealogy Do-Over (go-over for me), I was also doing more online research and saving images from those online sources. I found that I needed a better way to name and organize my files. At first, I used the following method:

surname-given-YearOfEvent-DocumentInfo

I included the year so that the files would sort by date. I soon found that while my method would sort an individual’s record by date, it would not sort a family’s documents by date — and I tend to put records for a family in one folder. Thus, I changed my method:

YearOfDocument-Document Description-Surname-GivenName

When I use online newspaper sources, I tend to use the suggested file name and put the year, type of document and name in front of the newspaper information. Thus, the file will still sort by year and the file name includes the persons name along with the sourcing information for the newspaper.

When it comes to naming sources in RootsMagic, I also try to follow a pattern for naming those sources. For my work, the date of the source is not the most important. Instead of viewing sources by date, I want to view my list of sources by type and then by the state. When it comes to census records, I insert the year between the the type of record and the location.

While RootsMagic has a fantastic filter to help me locate a particular source from my long list of sources, I still want the like sources to be together in my list. Unfortunately, I sometimes ‘misname’ a source.

Thus, I have a bit of work to do to ‘rename’ some of my sources. And, I need to spend a lot of time going thru all of the files that were named with the document number to figure out what they contain and rename them.

It took me a while to come to my methodology, but I have found that I like the way the files/sources can be sorted. Thus, this method works for my workflow while it may not work for everyone else.

RootsMagic to WikiTree Part 2

Do you use WikiTree? Do you have an ‘easy button’ to help you quickly add information to a profile for an ancestor? As I’m learning more about WikiTree, I want such a button.

I’ve figured out that I can use RootsMagic’s narrative report as my ‘easy button’. However, the Microsoft Word document needs some TLC to make it easier to copy/paste the biography and sources into a WikiTree profile.

First the superscripts for the endnotes need converted to brackets. Fortunately, I found directions on how to do this using the REPLACE feature on MS Word on StackExchange.

While the directions are relatively easy to follow, they use features that I’ve never used before. Clicking MORE on the FIND and REPLACE window reveals some additional features. Using the FORMAT button on the replace window, it is possible to ‘find’ based on the formatting.

Pulling down the FORMAT button reveals a list of choices, including FONT.

Clicking on FONT opens a window that allows one to select the type of formatting to ‘FIND’. For this purpose, I want to ‘find’ the superscripts. Thus, I put a check mark by SUPERSCRIPT.

When OK is clicked, the FIND and REPLACE window now shows ‘Superscript’ as the format the computer will find.

Telling the computer what to replace the superscript with is a multi-step process. The first step is to input the text to use for the replacement. For my purposes, I want to replace the superscripted numbers with those same numbers in brackets. This is accomplished by using [^&]. Since I want a space after the period and prior to the bracketed numbers, I’m including that space. Thus, I type the [^&] in the ‘replace with’ blank on the Find and Replace window.

The next step is to make sure the numbers are not superscripted or subscripted. Thus, the FORMAT FONT window is used to make sure the squares in front of ‘superscript’ and ‘subscript’ are blank. This is accomplished by double clicking on the box by Superscript.

Thus, the REPLACE window now indicates that the replacement text is NOT Superscript/Subscript.

The next step is to set the STYLE to normal. To do this, the FORMAT window is used, but instead of picking FONT, STYLE is selected from the menu.

This opens a small window to select the STYLE for the text.

Scrolling down the ‘REPLACE WITH STYLE’ list, I select NORMAL.

Clicking OK adds the Style: Normal under the Replace with box.

Now, I’m ready to watch the Find and Replace magic at work. Below is an image of a report with the ‘Find and Replace’ window ready to do its work.

Below is the report after clicking on REPLACE ALL.

Before copying and pasting the report into WikiTree, there is one other change that I want to make to the file. While the report appears to have some blank space between each endnote, that spacing disappears when copied/pasted into WikiTree. Since I like that ‘white space’, I want to modify the file so that there is ‘white space’ when copied/pasted. The easiest way I know of doing this is to highlight the endnotes and then replace the paragraph mark with two paragraph marks.

Thus, I use the SPECIAL button on the Find and Replace window.

Clicking on SPECIAL reveals a menu that includes the Paragraph Mark along with other special characters.

After adding one paragraph mark to the ‘FIND WHAT’ box and two paragraph marks to the ‘REPLACE WITH’ box, the Find and Replace window looks as follows:

Clicking on REPLACE ALL changes the spacing for the highlighted text. When the FIND AND REPLACE function is finished with the highlighted text, it will ask whether to do the rest of the file. Since the biography portion of the file copies into WikiTree without needing extra space, I answer that question NO.

These simple find/replace functions create a file that can be copied and pasted into the Biography portion of a WikiTree profile.

Cause of Death

Do you remember #MyColorfulAncestry? By going viral this post by J. Paul Hawthorne prompted many genealogists to create similar spreadsheet charts. My chart was first posted to Facebook in March 2016.

I later included my birth and death charts as part of my DNA Heritage and Challenge blog post.

When I was recently asked abut my medical history, I remembered these charts and decided to use the concept to create such a chart. Since most of my ancestors died in Kansas after 1911, I have a lot of death certificates. Thus, I have the information on hand to fill in such a chart.

In addition to the cause of death, I included the year each ancestor died and their age. Below is my dad’s side of the tree.

And my mom’s side:

In the process of completing this chart, I discovered that I haven’t updated many of my citations for those death certificates!

To figure out how many such ‘blank’ citations are in my file, I turned to the list of sources in my RootsMagic file. That’s when I discovered that I have multiple sources for the Kansas death certificates.

Thus, to clean up my ‘mess’ I first have to merge the sources. This involves highlighting the source I wish to keep and then using the three vertical dots at the top of the sources page to open the menu.

Clicking on ‘Merge Sources’ in the menu opens a window showing the sources. In this window, I select the source I want to merge with the source I wish to keep.

This opens a window showing the original source, PRIMARY, and the second source, DUPLICATE.

Clicking on the MERGE DUPLICATES button merges the two sources. When finished merging my sources, I now need to look at the citations to see which ones need corrected.

Clicking on the > to the right of the number opens the list of citations. Clicking on a specific citation opens the citation on the right side of the screen.

A quick scan of the citations reveals a clue to which citations are blank — the word NOTEBOOK.

In addition, scanning this list reveals several duplicates.

These duplicate citations can be merged in a similar way to the sources: using the three vertical dots. The fist step is to click on the citation to be kept an then open the three dot menu.

Clicking on MERGE CITATIONS opens a window to select the duplicate citation

Clicking OK opens a window showing the two citations side by side.

Clicking the MERGE DUPLICATES button completes the merge.

Fortunately, I had some instances where the citation had been updated along with a citation that is missing the information.

Thus, I can merge these two citations which replaces the bad citation with the completed ‘good’ one.

So, my little task to create a ’cause of death’ spreadsheet turned into a task to also update my citations for Kansas death certificates. If I hadn’t made this discovery, these incomplete citations likely would have existed in my file forever.

RM8 Tasks

As a genealogist, have you thought about your ‘philosophy’? For example, do you just search ancestors or do you also search descendants?

I was aware that different genealogists have differing research philosophies or goals. However, I hadn’t paid attention to differing philosophies about what is recorded in a research log. I had made an assumption that a research log was where one tracked all of the sources used. I hadn’t considered the fact that some genealogists might also include sources they want to use in their research log.

However, my eyes were opened to these differing philosophies about how a research log is used when I made a post to the RM 8 preview group asking about the transition of research logs and tasks lists from RootsMagic 7 to RootsMagic 8. Knowing about these different ways to use a research log not only made me question my own use but also helps me understand the complexity of the programming decisions going into RootsMagic 8.

RootsMagic 7 has three different ways to track research activities

• Correspondence List
• Task List — where completed tasks can be transferred to a research log
• Research Log

I have to admit that I would get an ‘F’ when it comes to consistent use of these tools. However, I did try them out and tried to force myself to use them when I first transitioned to RootsMagic. Thus, I have information in these lists and logs and am curious about how it transitions into RootsMagic 8.

In following my FB post and a couple of others regarding research logs, I learned that all three of the methods to track research activities in RM7 are merged into the list of tasks in RM8.

To understand the tasks page in RM8, I need to refer back to the three lists in RM7. For example, when I pull down the LISTS menu in RM7 and select RESEARCH MANAGER, a window opens showing the various Research Logs I created in RM7.

When I compare the list of my Research Logs in RM7 to the Tasks page in RM8, the names of the logs have become the FOLDERS in RM8. When I click on a log in RM7, it opens a window showing items in the log. For example, my Eli Bland log in RM7 has 3 items listed.

In RM7, when I highlight an item and click on Edit Research Item, another window opens showing the information I entered for the item.

In RM8, I can see the same list of items by clicking on the folder. There are three sections to this screen. The far left is the list of folders. The center TASKS area shows the list of ‘tasks’ while the far right side is the edit screen for the highlighted task.

While trying to learn how to work with these screens, I found that the way I used tasks in RM7 did not transition well into RM8. In RM7, a task has an option to ‘Transfer to a Research Log’.

I used that ‘transfer’ option when I completed a task. Thus, most of my entries on a research log are ‘Completed’. Others may have used the To-Do List in RM7 to create the task and then transferred it to a log so they could track all tasks – completed and open. These different ‘philosophies’ or ways to use the ‘to-do list’ and the research logs in RM7 are complicating how the items are imported into RM8.

Now that I understand the importing issues, I can see clues in my list of tasks that will help me understand and work with the tasks in RM8. As I look at my entire list of tasks, there are some visual clues.

• Tasks created from RM7 research logs have a priority of 6 and the priority is shaded a lighter blue.
• Tasks created from RM7 TO-DO lists have a priority of 5 and are shaded a darker blue
• Some of my tasks from RM7 TO-DO lists have a check mark in the STATUS column indicating that they are completed

Thanks to the way I created my research logs, all of those tasks with a priority of ‘6’ are likely completed. To verify whether a task is completed, I can look at the RESULTS information under the EDIT TASK on the right side of the screen.

By running the mouse across the results, a pop-up window appears showing what has been entered in this field.

Clicking on the > symbol to the far right of the Results line will open the Edit Note Slide-out. This is where changes to the RESULTS note can be made. The < symbol at the top of the EDIT NOTE Slide out will close this slide-out and save the changes to the RESULTS.

Since the results for the task indicate that this task was completed, I can change the status from ‘In progress’ to ‘Completed.’

I can also change the priority. If I change the priority to 9 (lowest), the highlighting changes to green.

As I learn about this TASKS page, there are visual clues to other ways to display this information. Besides the list or grid view, the words, ‘Filter Off,’ is a clue that I can FILTER the list. With three vertical dots in the upper right corner of the tasks lists, I’m fairly certain that symbol is a clue to additional menus.

Clicking on the three vertical dots does open a menu with options for filtering the list or printing reports.

Clicking on the FILTER TASKS menu option opens a window allowing me to manipulate my list of tasks in a variety of ways.

One of the ways that I could filter my list is by Task Type. The choices for this filter are the three lists from RM7 (Research Items, To-Do Items, Correspondence).

Thus, I could use this ‘task type’ filter to just show my correspondence tasks or to show the items from my RM7 to-do list.

Now that I understand how my use of the to-do list in RM7 transfers into RM8, I know that I have another option for filtering out the tasks that need done. I can change ‘Only show tasks with a priority this high’ to 5 and uncheck completed.

Using this filter, I now have a list of tasks that corresponds to my To-Do list in RM7.

As I’ve worked with my RM8 task list and its various screens, I’ve made another discovery. I have data that I transcribed from various sources saved in these Research logs!

Thus, I have two different types of completed tasks in my list:

• Tasks that have resulted in citations for an individual’s fact or facts
• Tasks that contain transcriptions and/or images related to my FAN club research

Even though many of my tasks are in folders for a PERSON in my data base, there currently isn’t any way to open the person’s edit screen from the TASK page. However, it is possible to open the person’s edit window and then migrate back to the TASKS and work with both at the same time.

Since I can have both the TASK and the EDIT PERSON window open at the same time, I can easily verify whether the transcriptions in the RESULTS NOTE for the task have been incorporated into the Research Notes for the SOURCE.

Thanks to the ability to have all of this information visible, verifying that the information recorded in the research log entries has been entered as a source for the individual will be easier in RootsMagic 8 than RM 7.

As I learn more about these features of RM8, I will need to decide how I want to proceed in the future.

RootsMagic 8

It’s Official! RootsMagic 8 has been released.

This post has been turned into a PAGE with a link at the top of this site. The page will be updated as more RM8 blogs are published.

I have been fortunate to have participated in the preview of RootsMagic 8. In the process, I wrote several blog posts about those experiences. Some of those posts may be helpful to others as they begin using RootsMagic 8.

Below is a list of those posts:

• RootsMagic 8 Duplicate Sources (January 18, 2021)
• RM8 Fact List Report (August 11, 2021)
• RM8 Slide-In (August 16, 2021)
• Merging (August 17, 2021)
• RM8 Citations (August 18, 2021)
• RM 8 Light Bulb Settings (August 23, 2021)
• RM 8 Sentences (August 24, 2021)
• Lesson Learned (August 25, 2021)
• RM8 Ancestry Source (August 27, 2021)
• RM 8 Media (Sept. 1, 2021)
• Software Challenge (Sept. 25, 2021)
• RM 8 Descendancy Report (Sept. 29, 2021)
• RM7 to RM8 Migration (Oct. 1, 2021)
• RM8 Tasks (Oct. 2, 2021)
• RM8 Troubleshooting (Oct. 3, 2021)

RM 8 Descendancy Report

I recently posted information about how I create descendancy reports in RootsMagic. That post was based on RootsMagic version 7. Since I have the ability to work with a preview version of RootsMagic version 8, I thought I would create a similar post for the newer software.

As in RootsMagic 7, the easiest way to start creating this report is to select or highlight the individual who is the focus of the report. That means I’m starting on the PEOPLE screen. My current default view is the pedigree view. On this view, I simply clicked to go to the next generation on my father’s side of the tree to locate and click on the Hiram M. Currey I want to use for the report. When I selected him, his information appeared in the pane to the upper left of the pedigree. In the pane to the lower left of the pedigree is a search box, which I could have used to locate him instead of the pedigree.

The next step is to switch from the PEOPLE screen tot he PUBLISH screen. This screen is where I can access a variety of ways to publish or share data from my tree. The top line of options are the reports. The icons showing on this screen will change as I work with reports. The four icons shown are for the four report types I’ve recently used.

If the report that I want to use isn’t displayed on the PUBLISH screen, I can click on ALL REPORTS AND CHARTS which will open the list of available reports.

To begin creating a Descendancy Report, I can either click on the DESCENDANT LIST icon that is currently visible on my PUBLISH screen or click on the report name in the list of all reports. This opens the Report window. This window is divided vertically into two sections. The left side of the window are the various options for the report. The right side of the window is a preview of the report.

Most of the settings for this report are relatively obvious. This would include configuring the number of generations and whether leading dots and color coding are used. What currently isn’t obvious is the ability to change the LIST FORMAT. Clicking on the LIST FORMAT shown opens a drop down menu revealing various options for the format.

Once the desired settings are selected, click on the GENERATE REPORT button at the bottom of the left panel. This opens a preview of the report on the right. The report shown below is using the Name (birth date-death date) format.

The icons above the report allow for navigating thru the report, zooming in and out, adjusting the fit of the report, printing and saving the report. The options available on the ‘SAVE’ window have recently expanded to include saving as a Word document or as a text file.

Format Options

Name (birth date-death date)

Name/Birth/Death in columns

Name/BMD Date/Place

Name (birth year – death year)

Name/BMD Date/Place wordwrap

The ability to preview the report along side of the settings is one of the new features in RootsMagic 8. This makes it very easy to see how changes to settings impact the report.

Software Challenge

Do you remember when Microsoft Word replaced ‘menus’ with the ‘ribbon’. If so, you likely also remember frustration tyring to figure out how to get this ‘new’ version of Word to do tasks that were simple before. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to play around in the new version of Word and Excel before having to use them in my work. I’m sure this overnight transition to the ‘ribbon’ added to my frustration.

That’s why I am thankful to be able to participate in the ‘review’ of RootsMagic 8. This transition from RM 7 to RM 8 will be similar to a transition from MS Word with menus to MS Word with the ribbon. With RootsMagic 8, the pull down menus are gone. Instead, the ‘menu headings’ are down the side of the screen. Clicking on any one of those headings opens up the respective window.

For the most part, everything is intuitive. That is until I’m trying to locate something and can’t remember how to get to it.

I had previously worked with creating a group in RootsMagic 8, and had even blogged about it in my RM8 Fact List Report post. So today, I created a group and then couldn’t figure out how to view who was included in that group.

Thankfully, the RootsMagic 8 Preview group on Facebook came thru with the answer. I had forgotten to look for that downward carrot symbol signaling a pull down menu. Thanks to the Facebook help, I easily found that pull down carrot. When clicked on, it revealed my list of groups.

Re-finding that pull down allowed me to select my newly created, Garrard County KY event group and browse the list of people in the group.

Even though I hadn’t found that pull-down carrot, I had checked a lot of the other places one can find menu options.

Three Vertical Dots

One of those places is a set of three vertical dots. When working with a list of people, clicking on those three dots opens an ‘options’ menu.

Besides the three dots associated with the Index, there are three dots associated with the pedigree window.

From that menu,

• open a window showing the list of fact types

• open a Search and Replace window

• switch to the TASKS window and show the tasks for the highlighted person

At the very top of the program on the right side of the screen is another set of three vertical dots. Clicking on these dots opens a menu to access help, updates, support, etc.

People Menu Icons

In the upper right of the people screen are several icons. Clicking on those icons opens other menus.

WRENCH MENU – People screen

PENCIL MENU – People Screen

The Plus Sign icon and the Trash Can Icon are obvious. They open menus for adding or deleting people.

Command Palette

In the upper right corner of the screen is an icon that looks like a paint palette. This icon opens the command palette.

Learning to use RootsMagic 8 will require the willingness to look for and click on these various icons, including the upside down carrot.

Places Menu – Three Dots

Sources Menu – Three Dots

Media Menu – Three Dots

Tasks Menu – Three Dots

Addresses Menu – Three Dots

Search Menu – Three Dots

Publish Menu – Does NOT have a Three Dots menu

I’m enjoying this opportunity to explore RootsMagic 8. This ability to explore and learn without impacting my actual family tree is greatly appreciated. Even though the menus are different, there are features in RootsMagic 8 that I’m looking forward to being able to use. I will make the transition when the program is released.

Descendancy Report

I recently got asked how I created the blog post, Descendants of Hiram Curry.

I have to admit that creating the report is relatively easy because I use genealogy software. My program of choice is RootsMagic but most other programs will also create descendancy reports.

The hardest part about creating this report is identifying the descendants and documenting their lives. Once I’m to the point that I want to post the report, I just let the software do the work.

These directions are for RootsMagic 7. I have played around with RootsMagic 8 which is a bit different in the way reports are created.

Before I create a descendancy report, I figure out how many generations I am willing to publish in my blog. Since my parents have living first cousins, I try to avoid including that generation in my report. Thus, I try to only publish from my starting ancestor down to my grandparents.

With my starting ancestor highlighted in Ancestry, I pull down the REPORT menu and select LISTS.

That causes the CREATE A REPORT window to open with the various types of list reports showing. For this report, I am using the DESCENDANT LIST report.

Clicking on the DESCENDANT LIST report and then on the CREATE REPORT button opens the REPORT SETTINGS window.

The settings in the above window are the settings I used to create the report. Below are screen shots of the other options available.

Once I have selected the settings, I click on GENERATE REPORT. That opens the report on my screen within RootsMagic.

I then click on the SAVE button at the top of the screen. This opens the SAVE REPORT options window. Here, I select the RICH-TEXT FILE (RTF) option.

This opens a window allowing me to save the file in my reports folder.

Once the file is saved, I locate it in my Reports folder and double-click the file name. That opens the file in Microsoft Word.

In Word, I select all of the text, copy it and then paste it into a new post on WordPress.

Again, RootsMagic 7 did all of the ‘work’ to create this report. Being able to create these reports is one of the many reasons I use genealogy software to maintain my records on my computer.

RM8 Media

Do you use your genealogy software to attach media files? I have to admit that I’m not always consistent in the way I handle media files in RootsMagic.

The RM8 Community Preview group on Facebook had the following question posted that caused me to investigate how I’m attaching media.

Is there a way to see all of the media attached to a person like there is in RM7?

https://www.facebook.com/groups/rootsmagic8preview/posts/2007101412790266/

In the process of investigating this, I discovered my own inconsistent use of media. I first checked my grandfather, Leon Crawford, to see how media was showing up in my RM8 file. There is a media icon to the right of his name and to the right of most of the facts in his timeline.

When I clicked on the image icon to the right of his name, it displayed the images in a scrolling list to the right.

When an image is highlighted in the list, the file name, caption and other details are shown in the bottom half of the right side of the edit person window.

Scrolling down the list of media, I find a lot of images have been attached to my grandfather. However, the images from census pages are not shown in this list.

If I click on the media icon next to a residence fact, the census image appears in the Media window.

When I switched to one of my grandfather’s sisters, my lack of consistency was very apparent. There aren’t any media icons next to her facts! And there is only 1 media file attached to her name.

I’ve obviously only attached one media file to Bernice Crawford’s name. But what is going on with the facts? I’m fairly good at remembering to attach the file to the source. To investigate this, I clicked on the ‘Residence’ fact for 1910. That revealed that ZERO media files were attached to the fact.

Knowing that I typically attach media to a source, I clicked on the one source – and cannot tell whether media is attached.

Clicking ion the > to the right of the citation opens the screen to edit the citation.. I had to enlarge the Edit Person window in order to see the media details. Otherwise, I had to scroll down to locate the media information for the citation.

Clicking on the > to the right of Media opens the Media information

Clicking on the > to the right of the Media image opens the Edit Media window.

On the EDIT MEDIA screen, I can see that this media was tagged 10 times. Clicking on the > to the right of the TAGS opens the list of those tags.

This list of tags tells me that the image of the 1910 census was used in 9 citations for the 1910 census of Ford County, Kansas. In addition, it is attached to an event for Leon Russel Crawford. Since there is no EVENT tag for Bernice Crawford in this list, it isn’t appearing in the Media column for her 1910 Residence Event.

To add this media to Bernice’s event, I can click on the large + sign at the top of the list of tags.

That opens the ‘Add or Edit Media Tag’ Window. This window defaults to adding the media to a person. However, pulling down the Person tag type allows the selection of other ways to tag the media, including EVENT.

When EVENT is selected, the ‘Add or Edit Media Tag’ window changes to allow for the selection of a person and an event.

Clicking on the Select Person window opens RootsMagic Explorer. Here I can either scroll down to locate Bernice Crawford or Enter her name in the FILTER window at the top of the list of people. When using the filter, be sure to type the name in reverse order: last name, first name.

Highlight the correct person in the list.

And then click the SELECT button in the bottom right corner of the Explorer window. That places the person’s name in the Person window of the ‘Add or Edit Media Tag’ window.

Click on the Event box to open the list of events.

Select the desired event and click the OK button. Then decide whether this image is the primary photo for the event and whether to include it in the individual’s scrapbook. Since this is the only image attached to Bernice’s 1910 residence fact, I do want it as the primary photo. I don’t usually include images from sources in the scrapbook for the individual. But, this says “Include in scrapbook for this event.” Thus, I will have to investigate what an event scrapbook is. I will put a check mark here for now.

I had to close Bernice’s Edit Person window and reopen it to get the Media icon to appear for the 1910 residence fact.

Another way to add media for an event is directly from the Edit Person window. Clicking on the empty media square will open the Add Media window on the right side of the screen.

Clicking on Add Media opens the ‘Add Media’ window. If this is new media that has not been previously added, I can add it using the file name (or by browsing for the file).

Clicking on the icon to the right of the filename opens Windows File Eplorer allowing me to browse to the actual file.

However, I don’t want to add another copy of this media file. Instead, I need to select it from media that already exists in RootsMagic. Thus, I click on the Select Existing Media option.

My practice in RM7 was to click on the LIST icon. This placed the images in order by the file name. Since I developed the practice of naming my files with the following convention, date-source-type-surname-firstname, it was easy to scroll to the desired file.

In RM8, I don’t seem to be able to sort (or to quickly sort) the media when the list icon is selected.

Instead, I need to use the SEARCH window in the upper right corner of the ‘Add Media’ window.

This process requires me to KNOW the filename of the image I want to attach!

Working with the thumbnails will be next to impossible for me. First, I wasn’t always adding captions to my source images. Second, my captions are based on the source and not the individual in the image. Thus, I have quite a few images from the 1895 Kansas census for several counties. Looking at the thumbnails, I have NO IDEA which image shows the individual I am working with.

Thus, I will need to work with the list of files and not the thumbnails.

Even though the screens look different, RootsMagic 8 and RootsMagic 7 attach media in a similar fashion:

• To the PERSON
• To the EVENT
• To the SOURCE

In RootsMagic 7, there is a Multimedia List Report. This report has LOTS of options

A similar report exists in RM8.

The report in RM8 not only lists the filenames but how those files are attached to the person. That information is not included in the RM7 report.

I obviously have data issues with my media files. When I try to create a multimedia list for Bernice with ‘Source Media Items’ selected I get media files that should not be attached to Bernice.

If I pick Citation Media Items instead of Source Media Items, the resulting report is even worse. I get pages and pages of files, most of which are citations NOT attached to Bernice. (These reports are similar in RM7.)

Another media report that can be printed is the SCRAPBOOK report. This report will ONLY include images that have been marked for inclusion in the scrapbook.

Besides working with Media on an individual basis, I can use the MEDIA menu item on the left side of the screen to work with ALL of my media files.

The three vertical dots in the upper right corner of the Media window opens the Media toolbar.

Although I could work my way thru fixing my media issues from this screen, I believe it will be easier to work with individuals.

Figuring out how RootsMagic 8 handles media has shown me that I have work to do. This includes:

• Fixing broken links
• Adding captions to media files
• Adding media to events
• Marking media for use in the scrapbook

I can do most of these tasks in RootsMagic 7. Thus, I have more work to do as I go back thru my tree.