Cemetery visit, how do you handle sourcing?

RootsMagic
,
1

I have a question that I have run across. Last summer I visited a cemetery where several of my ancestors are buried. I took pictures and gathered information that is not available online (i.e. plot number, row and column, etc). I want to add the fact that I actually visited the cemetery that contains the grave site of my great grandfather in RM8. What does everyone use as a template source (or did you design a new source) for a personal visit such as this, or should it even be tracked in RM8? I am assuming that I would add this new source to the fact of burial as source, please feel free to correct me if I am in error.

2

There is several places you could record that information. It’s a personal preference.

  • Place Details Note

  • Media Description

  • Tasks

  • Research note for the Citation

3

I have three facts for a burial if I visit the site myself.

  1. The standard Burial fact
  2. A Burial Inscription fact with the burial inscription in the Description field
  3. A Burial GPS fact with the burial GPS coordinates in the Description field.

For item #2, I take my own photograph. I also post the photograph to Find-a-Grave if somebody else hasn’t already done it. I used to enter the burial inscription as a note for the standard Burial fact, but I like the ability to include or exclude the burial inscription in reports.

For item #3, I get the GPS coordinates with a hand-held GPS device that I also use for hiking. A smart phone would also work, but it’s not quite as accurate as a GPS device used for hiking. I suspect that most users would argue that the GPS information shouldn’t be a fact, but rather should be a geocode on the Place Detail for the main Burial fact. But for me, that creates two problems. One is that RM’s geocodes don’t print in reports. The other is that even if RM’s geocodes printed in reports, I don’t know how I would enter them. For large cemeteries with formal location designations like row numbers and plot numbers, I could enter those things into RM’s Place Details and manually geocode the Place Details. But most of my cemeteries are small family plots or church graveyards that don’t have row numbers or plot numbers or anything like that. And in any case, what I really want to record and print in reports is the actual GPS coordinates that somebody else could plug into an Internet map service or into a handheld GPS device or smart phone in order to locate a specific grave.

For citations, I have my own source templates. A death certificate and/or obituary can be a media file for items #1 and #2. My photograph can be a media file for item #2. And a GPX file from my mobile device can be my media file for item #3.

If I don’t visit the site myself, I have to user Find-a-Grave or even a cemetery book for item #2. It’s hard to get item #3 without visiting the site myself.

1 Like
4

Thanks for the information. Sounds like you have a very good handle on this, I will attempt to do the same.