I save that same census page to the other family’s surname folder on my computer as well. What if there’s another related family on the same page of that census? This is where personal preference comes in. This mirrors my hard drive organization methodology, which I teach in my Genealogy Gems Premium videos. I know that if I need a source for where Pauline was in 1940, I would find her under her husband Jay Bee. The source may also mention his wife Pauline, and his son Ronald, but I don’t need to take up space including all of those name in the file name. If the source is about Jay Bee himself, it works. it is Jay Bee Moore my grandfather rather than his grandfather), Surname, then head of households first name. The date gives me a time frame of reference (i.e.

This way, all census records are grouped together in the source list. Here’s an example of my simple approach to naming sources: Record type > Year > Surname > First name (head of household) RootsMagic 7 allows us to attach our images, so that is no longer an issue. Actually that software did it automatically which I really liked, mainly because I put that number in the name of the digital file for the corresponding record image. I used to number my sources long ago in my old database software. If you have a naming convention that you follow that works, having a very long list won’t be as intimidating. Thanks to Helen for the question! Naming your sources in RootsMagic is really a personal preference, so the first rule of thumb is not so much about what you call them, but rather that you do so consistently. But if the name is too specific, your source list gets very long very quickly. If the names are too general, then you have a lot of data entry for each incident. I’d love to hear your strategy for naming your sources… say census records. I have watched their webinars for sourcing and understand the basic how-to.

“I stripped out all sources from my old file before exporting the GEDCOM because I wanted to start fresh with a consistent system in RootsMagic 7. She sent me this question about how to name sources in RootsMagic: Helen recently transitioned from Mac Family Tree 7 to RootsMagic 7. How to name sources in RootsMagic 7 is a matter of personal preference.

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