Question on sorting sources.
Is there a way to sort sources. Now they are entered in the order of my adding them. Most especially, I would like to be able to move the census in date order. Then, when looking to see what I have missed, I can just glance without searching the list. All of my census are first in "unspecified."
I don't know the answer to your question directly, but if you created a census event from each census you could sort them in order in the event section. I use the SourceWriter for my sources and I attach my sources to each information item that gives evidence of that item. For example- a death certificate can give evidence of multiple items, (name, birth, death, parents, burial, etc.), so I paste the source to each one of those bits of information. Then the death certificate will show up multiple times in my source list for the person. I then can tell how I "know" something.
ReplyDeleteI too am a bit unsure of the question - could you share an image (or screen capture) with us and we could take a look to see what you mean? It will need to be in a new post (or perhaps you can edit this one) not in response. Thanks Leslie Wright Bagwell
ReplyDeleteAlso are you talking about the master source list or the individual's sources? I noticed that in an individual's source list unspecified is there and if you have not assigned your source to a fact or event (birth, marriage, death, census, residence, occupation, etc.) it will be in unspecified. I don't think I have any of these because I put my information in the event/fact section (like having stuff in date order so chronology is easy reading). As far as master sources, I believe they are in alpha order whatever you name your sources (source title) for ease of reference. Hope that helps.
ReplyDeleteI wrote to Legacy Support with that question and what I heard back is 'How?' Everyone sorts their sources differently and for different reasons.
ReplyDeleteFor instance, in order of credibility.
Myself, I'd like to sort them alphabetically. For some reason non-alphabetical makes my eyes tired. I can do it manually but I'd like to have a single click that would run through the whole database.
I don't put anything under Unspecified because the whole reason for citing sources is to say which piece of information came from where. Unspecified means what?
I tend to name my master sources so they list alphabetically in my master source list. For example, all my New York resources are named "New York, County, city, sourcetype" that way when I'm looking to see if I have already added a source in that area, I can tell right away by searching. If my source is an artifact, I will usually start with "Artifact" and then go on to label what it is.
ReplyDeleteEveryone has a different way and no one way is correct. I've found this works for me. Incidentally, I had not done it this way at first. I went and renamed my master list. I had originally labeled my census with the year first: "1860 Census, state, county" then I decided I wanted all my censuses together so I renamed them "Census, year, state, county." It works for me! Whatever you choose, be consistent. I started a personal style manual for my lists, locations, research notes, etc. so I could be consistent.