They are just reference books. Problem is I really don’t need them. I research original documents and I don’t have a problem. The question I asked has in reality not been answered. Why quality in fact window when not needed. Show me on the internet a genealogy web site using the quality tab. Even tng doesn’t have one.
Bocito,
As I said before, the citation quality is for personal use, so when you need to reevaluate your prior research based on newly discovered documents you have an idea of the validity of the source you initially found.
Just because some information doesn’t appear on the internet doesn’t mean that it has no value.
There is a good seminar handout available that discusses Document Analysis and using citation quality in the process. It is freely available https://www.scgsgenealogy.com/webinar/media/Past%20Handouts%20-%202018%20thru%202020/181006handout.pdf
But since you don’t need reference books, I would imagine that you don’t need this either.
There are all sorts of genealogists using RM from professionally-certified to degreed to super-serious amateur to hobbyist to the I-don’t-care-about-sources-I-just -want-to-stick-a-bunch-of-names-into-my-tree type. So I would say use as much or as little of the software that you want to, realizing that some of the things you feel are useless are very useful to others, and things that others feel are useless may be very important to you.
Exactly Rwcrooks, RootsMagic is primarily a research tool, not a pretty chart or pretty documents generator although it does generate enough charts and reports to keep most people busy.
1 Like
Really doesn’t matter if you use original documents or not. Just because they are original documents, it doesn’t mean they are the best quality. This ‘grading’ of documents is not meant for web sites so if you don’t need it don’t use it. It is there and it isn’t going away!
I think one important use of grading is when you use one source for multiple facts. Each fact it is used on could be different based on things such as who gave the information.
1 Like
When you have only one document you have only one grade. Sorry your reasoning doesn’t hold water. If you use the 1940 census for facts there is no need for grading. There is only one grade.
Bocito,
What would the citation quality for the following facts from a census be?
- Age of the Head of the household
- Ages of the children of the head of the household
- Birthplaces of the head of the household’s parents
- Birthplaces of the head of the household’ children
- Birthplace of the head of the household
- Year the head of the household first dame to the US
- Year the spouse of the head of the household first came to the US
Just curious to know what your evaluation of these facts would be.
Don’t be stupid! A document can and does have more than one quality depending on what it sources. Example, death certificate for someone that died in a hospital! Using it to prove the death date, it would likely be a primary, direct source since a medical professional signed off on it and was in the room when death happen. However if you used it as the source of a birthdate, it would likely be a secondary, indirect source since the medical professional in this case was not there when the person was born. That birthdate would have come from a secondary source, such as a spouse or a kid, or even the deceased person himself. In those cases the spouse or kid was clearly not there when the birth happened and the deceased individual, while present, would not have been able to know or comprehend the date.
One source → two facts → two grades!
As for your 1940 census, were you at the National Archive view an original copy. If you weren’t then you most likely were using a derivative if you were viewing images online, or an index or something like that.
1 Like
There is no quality. I only deal with the original document. There is no quality in that. If the death is from a hospital document why give it a quality. The fact that it is a hospital document is enough of it self. How does one document have more than one source. Like I said you never see the quality show up. To me it was something that somebody dreamed up just to complicate things.
Bocito,
Documents do not have sources, documents are sources.
Facts have sources.
The date of death is a fact.
The date of birth is a fact.
Both of these facts can be found on a death certificate, which is the source.
One of these facts from this document is much more reliable than the other.
If you really don’t know the difference between a fact and a source, I would recommend that you purchase any of the reference books that @kfunk and I suggested earlier. It may may you a more effective user of RM and a more effective researcher.
Everything you list I would enter with about before each date.even using the calculator on Rm. I put about before each date. The census only gives estimated age or date. It is not to me the original document. Would you agree with that?
If you are a competent researcher, no, it isn’t enough. In my example of a death certificate, it would be a secondary, indirect quality for the birthdate. A competent researcher is going to want the best source they can and they know that they need to search further to find better documentation.
Bocito,
In fact, the census, if you were looking at an image of the census form itself, and not a transcription or database entry, is an original document that contains many facts.
If the information was supplied by the head of the household and not someone else, like a neighbor, I would evaluate the facts as:
-
Age of the Head of the household: Original, Primary, Direct - maybe not strictly primary, but people usually know how old they are
-
Ages of the children of the head of the household: Original, Primary, Direct - The head if the household should know the ages of his children, and was probably present at their births.
-
Birthplaces of the head of the household’s parents: Original, Secondary, Indirect - This information came to the head of the household second-hand and is not sufficient to resolve the question.
-
Birthplaces of the head of the household’s children: Original, Primary, Direct - The head of household definitely knows where his children were born, probably being present at their births.
-
Birthplace of the head of the household: Original, Secondary, Indirect - He did not witness his birth, he was only told where he was born. Additional documents are needed to resolve the question.
-
Year the head of the household first came to the US: Original, Primary, Direct - Providing he came as a young man or adult it would be primary. If he came as a young child, I would classify it as Secondary, Indirect.
-
Year the spouse of the head of the household first came to the US: Original, Secondary, Indirect - This assumes that the spouse immigrated independently from the head.
So, pretty much each one of these facts needs another source to verify it, such as birth certificates, Letters of Intent, etc. In most cases more than one source is needed to prove a fact.
For instance, on my mother’s birth certificate her mother gave her birthplace as Pennsylvania - but she was born in Scotland and she didn’t want people to know she was an immigrant.
For a second instance, on the Passenger Manifest from the ship that brought my grandmother, her siblings and parents from Scotland. The birthplaces of the children are given as New Mexico, even though they were born in Scotland.
People have all sorts of reasons for not being truthful when giving officials information which is why multiple sources are needed - even when looking at original documents.
1 Like