Saturday Night Genealogy Fun
Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible music here) is to:
1) What is a “new to you” resource that is helping your genealogy research? [Thank you to Linda Stufflebean for suggesting topics!]
Looking back over my recent research, the only source that could be considered ‘new to me’ would be the Online Digital Library on FamilySearch. Since I had written a scheduled post about this resource, I decided to use that post for my response to Randy Seaver’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge.
Have you used the BOOKS (or Online Digital Library) on FamilySearch? While I had read/heard about this valuable resource, I had forgotten to about it. I actually stumbled upon it when trying to update a very poor citation.
Hoping to find a digital version of the September 1935 issue of the DAR Magazine, I searched Google and Archive.org and several other sites with digital resources. Not finding anything, I returned to Google and tried a different search. That search led me to a digital copy in the Online Digital Library on FamilySearch!
By locating a digital copy, I was able to create a better citation and transcribe portions of the article into the ‘notes’ area for the citation.
Since creating the new citation, I need to replace the old ones with this new one. Thanks to the changes in RootsMagic 8, I can tell how many times the bad source was used.
To merge the sources, I highlight the source I wish to keep and click on the 3 vertical dots in the upper right corner of the SOURCES screen. This opens a menu where I can select MERGE SOURCES.
That opens the SELECT SOURCE window where I’m prompted to select the source I wish to merge into the other source
Clicking the OK button opens a window comparing the two sources.
Clicking on the MERGE DUPLICATES button merges my ‘bad’ source into my new one. Now, I have 3 citations.
Clicking on the > to the right of the number of citations will open the CITATION window.
Now, using the 3 dot menu, I can highlight the citation I wish to keep and then select MERGE CITATIONS from the menu.
Like the MERGE SOURCES process, this opens a window where I’m prompted to select a citation I wish to merge into the previously highlighted ‘good’ one.
This opens a window comparing the two citations.
Clicking on the MERGE DUPLICATES button merges the ‘bad’ citation into the newer ‘good’ one. While this process works one citation at a time, it allows me to get rid of my ‘bad’ citations.
Now, I need to learn more about the BOOKS – or Online Digital Library at FamilySearch.
One thing to remember about FamilySearch is that, even though the first search tab says BOKKS, as you can see, it changes to Digital Library when the page opens. If a book isn’t digitally available, it won’t even be listed in this section. Readers will have to do a general catalog search if they are trying to locate a copy of the book.
Good to know!