Exhibits, Citations, Sources and Repositories
I know there are many different ways of citing one's sources and attaching exhibits, so this is my interpretation of how things go together. I am also very aware of the differing views on information about people who are still living. Below are the rules that I have laid down for my own research, and how things appear on this site.
- Repository -
- This is obviously the building (or address) at which the original document (a 'source') can be found. This is included in the details provided under the 'List of Sources' accessed by hyperlinking from a 'Citation' (see below).
- Source -
- A 'source' is the original document, book, certificate, etc that contains the proof. In order to keep my number of sources to a minimum, I have used 'generic sources' where possible. This covers Birth, Marriage and Death Certificates, Census pages, and Monumental Inscriptions. Where certificates of one kind have been 'sourced' from different repositories, however, separate generic sources have been provided for each. The 'List of Sources' accessed by hyperlinking from a 'Citation', therefore, shows the generic source type and its repository. Books etc obviously remain as single sources.
- Citation -
- A 'citation', in my book, is the reference someone else can use to find the relevant information within a 'source'. The citations (at the foot of a 'person page') therefore show the reference numbers etc of the documents quoted. By clicking on the [S] link before a citation, the 'List of Sources' can be accessed to find where the document resides. For information on what the numbers mean, please see my conventions page.
- Exhibit -
- My interpretation of 'exhibit' is something which can be displayed to prove something actually existed or took place. These will usually take the form of documents or photographs. I have generally attached photographs to either the 'Event' tags in TMG to which they refer, or directly to the person. These are shown by
(for photos) or 
(for textual exhibits). Where I have taken information from a Birth, Marriage or Death Certificate, or from a Census page, I have made a transcript of that information. I have, however, suppressed the inclusion of transcripts and digitised copies of BMD certificates on the web-space (mostly due to filesize). Anyone interested in seeing originals or transcripts can contact me through the email link on the appropriate page.
- CD functionality -
- On CDs (and other removable media), I have not suppressed any people or any information as these CDs are for internal family use only. Where I have transcribed certificates, I have attached the transcripts to the appropriate citation and it is shown with
. Clicking on this will show the transcript. Where I have an original or digitised copy of a certificate, I have marked the transcript with a 
. Clicking on this will access that photocopy. Where I have not done a transcript, the original document (or someone else's transcript) is attached to the citation. This is marked by .
- Extra Folders on CDs -
- I have added extra folders to CDs (and other removable media) over what is normally available. These hold the original (best available quality) copies of documents and photos. "Documents" holds photocopies of original documents, "Photos" holds photographs at original resolution, "Transcripts" holds downloaded transcripts in their native format, and the "Form-*" folders hold all my personal transcripts in html format. These may be accessed and browsed as you would any other file system, but I would advise not browsing any subfolders of "site" as results may be unpredictable and changes will affect the main data-viewer. Files in my folders are generally numbered using the unique PersonID generated by my database program, but occasionally descriptively. (Files in the "site" folder and its sub-folders are named automatically by the website generation program, and may not conform to any apparent system.) Where, for instance, a Census enumerates over two pages, I have saved each page as a separate graphic (in the "Documents" folder) as I downloaded/scanned them. To enable the single () hyperlink above, I then merged them into a single image, which may be of lower quality. The merged image follows the numbering system eg c1871-17, the original single pages are then c1871-17a and c1871-17b.