Registers records

The Registers records tool is designed to develop your genealogy from genealogy records entered by yourself or others.

This tool is very powerful and allows you to perform mass entry of genealogy registers records (civil, parish, etc.), to then retrieve them in your genealogy by difference, or to export them for the benefit of others.

It is designed to also facilitate the entry of isolated act records.

Up to version 12 of Ancestris, this tool is not installed by default when you install Ancestris. To install it, go to the Options Menu and select Manage extensions

en-registers.png

A register inventory is a mass entries operation by an individual or a genealogical association of all the acts of a parish or civil status register with a more or less complete and exhaustive transcription of the information. Source: Wikipedia

In our case, we will speak of both a complete register and only a few records from it, the principle remaining the same.

Principle

The analyses are carried out by city, the record acts are thus recorded by city in a file.

In order to be exploited by others, each file must therefore only include acts from a single city. This comes from the fact that it is a file in simple text format where each line represents an act preceded by the address of the city, which is the same on all lines.

The acts of the city are entered one by one thanks to an editor on the right side of the window.

The acts entered are arranged in tables on the left side of the window, according to the types of events they transcribe.

From the act tables, it is then possible to drag and drop rows one by one to the Dynamic Tree view to enrich one's genealogy. See the Drag and Drop section for more details.



Demo

To discover the Registers Record tool, it is easier to use the example of records provided, which includes about twenty Bourbon records.

Click on the File button then choose Demo file to open it.

en-registers-menu.png

The file will be loaded, corresponding to the city of Versailles, with the corresponding acts.

It is a copy of the Demo file. Feel free to modify it if you want to practice.

Also open the Bourbon genealogy. You will then be able to experiment the instructions illustrated in the following sections.


Description

On the left hand side of the window are five tables where the records of the registers will be stored.

These are the Acts tables, or Records tables.

On the right-hand side is the Act Editor. It manages the registers files and edits the records for a given city.

You will notice that the Act Table and the Act Editor work together.

Adjust the widths of the table columns for a better view. The separation bar between the Tables and the Editor is also adjustable.

The File button shows a File menu giving access to the register's file management and to other tools.


Acts tables

The acts are classified into five tables: Births, Marriages, Deaths, Miscellaneous and All (the summary table of acts).

Each table is displayed in a tab. To see the contents of a table, click on the corresponding tab.

Each line represents one act. Each column represents a record of an act, or to simplify, an act.

The columns displayed differ according to the type of act. Here, it is the summary table of all the acts that is selected, and the Type column displays the type of the act of each row: N for birth (naissance in French), D for Death, M for marriages.

en-registers-table.png

See the detail of an act

Click on a line in the table so that the details of the act are displayed in the editor on the right hand side.

In this example, a birth is selected so the editor has adapted to enter the data that is usually found on birth certificates.

Dropdown menu

Right-clicking anywhere in the left part of the window displays a drop-down menu that allows you to manipulate and renumber the acts.

en-registers-table-dropdown-menu.png

The use of the "Highlight the existing records in the Gedcom" checkbox is described below.

For highlighted acts only, there are two possibilities of synchronization with the other Ancestris windows.

Column Sorting

Click on the column title to sort the table alphabetically or by date according to the type of data in the column.

Columns order

To move a column, click on the column title and move the mouse sideways while holding down the button.


Act editor

The Act Editor allows you to manage the register files and to record the acts for a given city.

en-registers-editor.png

The act editor is composed of a title indicating the name of the city, the form to record the acts, a toolbar, whose File Menu gives access to the register file management and to tools.

The name of the city

en-registers-city-name.png

This title indicates the name of the city of the register being recorded or read. This is an address.

The button on the right lets you change the address.

en-registers-editor-register.png

All the acts entered will be saved in the same file. The name of the file will the name of the city.

Each line of the file will start with this address.

The form to record the acts

The data entry form depends on the type of act to be recorded and corresponds to the type of act selected in the acts table.

Each form is divided into sections and each section has a title with a button on the left.

en-registers-editor-child.png

en-registers-editor-child-menu.png

In the form, the field being edited appears with a blue background.

en-registers-editor-editing.png

The form benefits from input help and keyboard shortcuts described below.

Toolbar

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The toolbar includes the following actions.

File Button

This button opens the File Menu which allows you to manage the registers files (only 1 city per file), to access a tool for cropping act pictures, and to check the data of the acts entered.

Options Button

This button opens the Ancestris preferences, the Extensions pane and the Registers tab. This allows you to set your preferences for the Act editor, the browser of certificate photos, and the way to copy records to a Gedcom file.

Create Act Button

This button generates a new record (or act, certificate) line in the act table, ready to be entered.

First select the tab of the act table corresponding to the type of act you are going to enter before creating it.

Delete Act button

This button deletes the act selected in the acts table.

Floating Editor Button

This button opens a floating window containing a second Act Editor that can be combined with an Act Viewer.

en-registers-browser.png

The size of its window is small enough to be placed next to the photos of the acts to make the mass editing.

It is attached to the Act Editor's floating window on the right hand side. The viewer displays the list of act pictures in the left column, and the act being viewed in the middle.

This floating editor contains a slightly different toolbar from the main Act Editor.

en-registers-browser-menu.png

The left and right arrows allow you to move through the acts, and the Photo button allows you to show or hide the photo viewer of the acts.


File Menu

This menu allows you to open or save register files. These files cannot be opened with the File menu from the Ancestris Menu bar. This menu is as follows:

en-registers-menu-only.png

New

Creates a new register file of acts for another city.

If data was being entered, a message warns you to save what you were doing.

en-registers-confirmation.png

If you confirm, the act table will be cleared and Ancestris will offer you to start creating a new record.

Open

Opens a register file of acts previously saved by Ancestris or coming from other sources.

Save

Saves the data in a file in Ancestris format. If the reading has already been recorded once, the data are saved in the same file. If this is the first time the file is saved, a file name is first requested.

Save As

Requests a new file name and saves the data in this new file in Ancestris format.

Demo file

Opens a Bourbon demo file and displays its records.

Import

Adds data from another file to the data already present. This merges the imported file with the already opened file.

All the data in memory must relate to the same city. If some readings in the imported file relates to a different city, it is suggested to either ignore the readings or to replace their city by the city of the data in memory.

Export

Exports the data to a file in EGMT format or NIMEGUE format.

en-registers-export.png

It is necessary to specify,

Crop photos

Allows you to crop photos of acts. Clicking on the button displays the Image cropping tool, in which it is possible to crop the act photos.

Statistics

Displays the number of readings records in the file.

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Check table

Displays a table with all the data contained in the file for global verification.

There is a possibility to search for a particular act and a button to open the floating editor.

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Usage

Methodology

The Registers Records tool covers several needs.

Develop your genealogy

Helping others to develop their genealogy

In any case, if you have photos of the acts, you can choose whether or not to automatically link the photos to the acts.

Suggested methodology

The rest of the page is a description of how to use the different features of the Register records tool and record acts according to a generic method that you are free to adapt.

  1. Start from the stock of raw digital photos of the original acts, and crop them to extract one photo per act, which you will place in folders by city, of official photos referenced by its register and its number in the register.
    • These photos can indeed contain several acts, often with writings that are difficult to read. To facilitate reading in the long run, it is preferable to separate the acts.
    • This step can be done with the Image cropping tool.
    • Each photo can be saved with the file name, the reference of its dimension in the register and a number.
  2. Start with the photos cropped to capture the acts by city, with the right odds and the right photo numbers.
    • This step is done with the Act viewer. When you are more familiar with the editing, you can set the input options that best suit you in the Preferences.
    • To ensure the link between the act and its photo, it will be necessary to specify it beforehand to Ancestris in the Preferences and to indicate where the official photos are located.
    • Each city entered will be the subject of a separate file, which you will place in a registers folder.
    • For the input part, the Act editor allows a great efficiency of use thanks to keyboard shortcuts, input controls, and a function of auto-completion of the information being entered.
  3. Move the acts by commune and chronologically, from a register to your genealogy
  4. Export statements by municipality and send them to interested parties, if applicable.
    • There are several official file formats for the counts: the NIMEGUE format and the EGMT format.
    • These formats and the Ancestris format are described in the Appendix on File Formats

Image cropping tool

This window is different from the Act viewer, even though it is very similar. It is accessed through the File menu of the Act Editor, item Image cropping.

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Hovering over the buttons or fields gives a tooltip to know what they do.

The principle of this tool is as follows.


The act viewer

The act viewer capture the acts from their photo, and then maintain the link afterwards.

It is then possible to display the photo of an act from its act selected in the Editor.

The act viewer is accessed from the button releve_bouton_visionneuse.png on the toolbar of the Act Editor.

Entering acts

To enter the acts, indicate the act directory with the button on the top left, select the act, and create the act to be entered on the right, fill in the address of the city. After the first entry, you should have something like this

en-registers-image-viewer.png

The arrows are used to view the previous or next photo.

The photo can be moved and zoomed with the mouse.

The Optimize button is used to force the contrast of an area of the photo. After clicking on the button, select a rectangular area of the photo. To exit the optimization, click on the button again.

releve_visionneuse_optimise.png

Then refer to the description of the act editor and the editing features to enter the act.


View a photo from the act

To view a photo of an act .

The automatic correspondence between the act and the photo only works under 3 conditions.

en-registers-image-viewer-settings.png

Suggestions for storage of files containing photos of the acts

Several file organizations are possible. The viewer simply needs that there is a folder with the name of each city somewhere in the tree structure.

Example with subfolders by county,
by city, and by reference

Example with subfolders by city

/mydocuments/genealogy/acts
       /Yvelines  
          /Versailles  
             /5MI_123
                /DSC00117.jpg
                /DSC00118.jpg  
             /5MI_222
                /DSC00200.jpg
                /DSC00201.jpg  
             /photos_a_trier
                /DSC00251.jpg
                /DSC00252.jpg  
          /Saint-Germain-en-Laye  
             /5MI_333  
                /DSC00300.jpg
                /DSC00301.jpg
       /Essonne  
          /Palaiseau  
             /5MI_108  
                /SAM00400.jpg
                /SAM00401.jpg
/mydocuments/genealogy/atcs
       /Versailles  
          /DSC00117.jpg
          /DSC00118.jpg  
          /DSC00200.jpg
          /DSC00201.jpg  
          /photo_a _trier
             /DSC00251.jpg
             /DSC00252.jpg  
       /Saint-Germain-en-Laye  
          /DSC00300.jpg
          /DSC00301.jpg
       /Palaiseau  
          /SAM00400.jpg
          /SAM00401.jpg

 

Different ways to indicate the city, the reference and the photo

Example 1: the Photo section may contain only the number of the photo, i.e. the last digits of the name of the photo.


City=Versailles
Reference=5MI_123
Photo=117


Note: in this example the viewer is looking for a photo whose name ends with "117" in the folder "Versailles" in the folder "5MI_123" which is a sub-folder of "Versailles" and sub-folder of /mydocuments/genealogy/acts

Example 2 :

  • City=Versailles
  • Reference=5MI_123
  • Photo=DSC00117

Note: In this example the viewer looks for the photo whose name contains "DSC00117" in the folder "5MI_123" which is a sub-folder of "Versailles" and sub-folder of /mydocuments/genealogy/acts.

Example 3: The Reference is optional.

  • City=Versailles
  • Reference=
  • Photo=DSC00200

Note: In this example the viewer searches for a photo whose name contains "DSC00200" in the whole folder of the commune "Versailles".

Example 4: the photo can be in any sub-folder of the city, for example the sub-folder "photos_to_sort".

  • City=Versailles
  • Reference=2E_456
  • Photo=DSC00251

Note: In this example, the viewer first searches for the photo in the subfolder of the city of Versailles containing the name of the reference 2E_456 . If the folder corresponding to this reference does not exist, or if it does not contain the photo, it then looks for the photo in the other sub-folders of the city.



Example 5: the municipality is mandatory

  • City=
  • Reference=
  • Photo=DSC00117

Note: In this example the viewer cannot find the photo because the name of the city is mandatory and here it is missing.

Example 6

  • PLAC=Versailles,78,
    Yvelines,,,
  • SOUR:PAGE=5MI_123, DSC00117

Note : In this example, the viewer looks for the photo of the act in the folder "5MI_123" which is a sub-folder of "Versailles" and sub-folder of /mydocuments/genealogy/acts.

Example 7: the reference is optional in the SOUR:PAGE tag.

  • PLAC=Versailles,78,
    Yvelines,,,
  • SOUR:PAGE=DSC00200

Note: In this example the viewer searches for a photo whose name contains "DSC00200" in the whole folder of the city "Versailles".

Example 8 : the SOUR:PAGE tag can only contain the number of the photo, i.e. the last digits of the name of the photo.

  • PLAC=Versailles,78,
    Yvelines,,,
  • SOUR:PAGE=117

Note : In this example the viewer is looking for a photo whose name ends with "117" in the "Versailles" folder.


Editing features

Keyboard shortcuts for the Editor

All the editor commands are accessible with the mouse or with "shortcut" keys on the keyboard. The use of shortcut keys is optional. However it allows faster mass input, avoiding the need to use the mouse and keyboard alternately.

The arrow keys
Shortcut keys to create or delete an act
The Quick Move Keys
  • ALT-1 Date of the event
  • ALT-2 Individual or Representant No. 1
  • ALT-3 Father
  • ALT-4 Mother
  • ALT-5 Wife or Representant #2
  • ALT-6 Father
  • ALT-7 Mother
  • ALT-8 Witnesses
  • ALT-9 General Comment
Input help keys and the cancel key
  • ALT-X: copies the name of the individual in the field of the individual's father's name
  • ALT-Y: copies the wife's name in the field of the wife's father's name
  • ALT-B: copies the date of the event from the record in the date of birth field of the individual
  • ALT-=: copies the value of the same field from the previously entered record. This shortcut is particularly useful when the witnesses are the same from one act to another, for example
  • ESC: cancels the entry of a field as long as the field is being entered and returns to the original value as long as the field is being entered.
  • ALT-Z: cancels the changes made previously after leaving the field. Warning: the CTRL-Z key usually used for this does not work here.
  • Space: enters a space at the end of the field to reject the other terms proposed by the completion function. This space is then automatically deleted. For example, if there are compound first names beginning with the first name you are currently entering, you must type an additional space at the end of the first name to refuse the secondary first names proposed by the completion function.


Automatic checks and formatting on entry

Alert on Missing date of event and name (or first name)
If the date and name are not filled in, an error message is displayed before moving on to another record. It is advisable to fill in the missing data to avoid recording this important information.
Alert on Duplicate

If there is already a record with the same date, first and last name, an alert message is displayed to indicate a possible duplicate.

This function can be disabled in the control panel.

Alert on New Name
If a new name is entered, an alert message is displayed asking for confirmation of the new name. This alert helps in particular to avoid entering different and involuntary spellings of commonly used names. This function can be disabled in the control panel.
Name Case
The name is converted to uppercase as you type.
Case of the first name
The first letter of each first name is capitalized as you type.
Case of the occupation
The first letter of the occupation is capitalized when entering.
Removal of extra spaces
Spaces at the beginning and end of a field are systematically removed when a field is completed.
Automatic copy of the photo number

When a new act is created, the photo number is filled in automatically by copying the photo number from the previously created act.

This feature can be disabled in the control panel.

Tip: The photo number can be easily incremented by clicking on the buttons that appear to the right of the field, or by using the UP and DOWN arrow keys.



Completion of surnames, first names, occupations and places

As you type a name, names are suggested among those already existing in the register file. When the desired name appears, press the Tab key to interrupt the current input and move on to the next field.

This avoids having to enter all the letters of a name already known.

Exclude names
It is possible to exclude names from completion proposals with the Exclude names option in the Preferences window.
Completion with the current Gedcom

It is possible to add the names present in a Gedcom file to the list of names proposed by the completion function by activating the option Completion with the current Gedcom in the Preferences window.

When this option is activated, the assistance uses the names, first names and accupations from the current Gedcom file to complete the words as you type. This option is particularly useful when starting a register and there are still few terms available for completion among the registers themselves.

When this option is disabled, completion uses only the words present in registers already entered.

Note: It is preferable to select a Gedcom that contains data from a place and date close to the register to be entered so that completion can provide data similar to that to be entered.


Highlight existing acts in Gedcom

Once acts have been entered in register files, we will copy them into the Gedcom file. But before that, we will have to know which ones have to be copied.

It is possible to see which acts have similar data in your genealogy, i.e. in the Gedcom file currently open in the other Ancestris views.

To do so, you must highlight them using the drop-down menu in the table of acts.

You have to uncheck / recheck the box to show the new acts recently copied or used in the Gedcom file.

The acts existing in your genealogy are those in red in the table.

If the box is checked, the highlighting will automatically update if you open or close a Gedcom file in Ancestris.

In the example below, 16 acts (Id in red) are already present in the currently open Gedcom file.

en-registers-highlighting-acts.png


Drag and Drop in the Dynamic Tree

Once the acts are highlighted, it is easier to know which ones are left to be used, and how to integrate them into your genealogy.

Register information can be copied to the dynamic tree using Drag and Drop . Thus it is not necessary to re-enter all the information of the register with an Ancestris editor to put it in your genealogy.

To copy, you must have both your Gedcom file open and your registers records, side by side.

Take the example provided of the Bourbons and place the Bourbons dynamic tree on the left, and the Demo file of the Recording tool on the right open on the 'All' tab.

We see that the acts in red are already filled in the Bourbons genealogy.

en-registers-copy.png

Copy a birth certificate

We will copy Louis Joseph Xavier CAPET's birth certificate of September 13, 1751, from the record of births to the marriage of his parents in the dynamic tree.

It is not already present in the Gedcom because it is not highlighted in red.

The photo of the birth certificate has been filled in in the photo above. It is highlighted in yellow. When we copy, the source will then be documented in the Gedcom file.

Proceed this way to copy the act in the Gedcom:

en-registers-drag-n-drop.png


After releasing the mouse button, a validation window appears. It will intelligently merge the data in the tree. It is up to you to make some choices, but they are suggested by Ancestris.

en-registers-drag-n-drop-merge.png

Choosing the merge option

  • Ancestris offers you a merge option and allows you to check a box to see all of them.
  • Several "radio buttons" allow you to select your merge option
  • An overview of the option gives you a summary of the matches and the entities that will be modified.

Choice of data to merge

  • The data of the act are on the left
  • Gedcom data is on the right
  • The differences are in the blue boxes
  • Only the data checked in the central column will be copied to the Gedcom.
  • It is possible to uncheck the data that you do not want to copy.

Choice of identifiers

  • The column titled Identifier specifies the entities impacted by the changes.
  • Clicking on an identifier selects the entity.
  • A click on "Select a source" allows you to choose the source previously defined in the Gedcom.

In the example, a new individual will be created as a child of the F9 family.

After choosing S3 as the source, and clicking on the OK button, the new individual with ID I178 is created in the tree :

en-registers-drag-n-drop-merged.png

Below is the result of the data created for the new individual in the Gedcom editor.

The birth event is visible and you can see how Ancestris documented it.

The source has been added with the reference of the photo in the PAGE property. If I had documented the reference, it would also appear in the PAGE property, just before the photo number.

en-registers-copied.png

Depending on whether the act is deposited on an individual, a family or in the empty space of the dynamic tree, the merging rule changes.


Copy a marriage certificate

Now let's try to copy a marriage certificate.

Drag and drop the May 16, 1770 marriage record from the table onto the relevant marriage in the tree.

en-registers-drag-n-drop-mariage.png

When you release the mouse button, the window already seen above appears with other choices to be made for the merge.

If you noticed above, the act was highlighted indicating that the data were already partly filled in in the Gedcom.

en-registers-drag-n-drop-mariage-choices.png

Choosing the merge option

  • Ancestris suggests to you the F10 marriage which already exists but you could check the box to see the 3 other proposals

Choice of data to merge

  • Data in red already exists in Gedcom
  • Data in blue does not exist or is different
  • Missing data are pre-ticked.
  • It is possible to uncheck the data that you do not want to copy.
  • We note that the data for the wife's parents are all missing. They will therefore be created

Choice of identifiers

  • The identifiers are already almost all filled in
  • Concerning the parents of the wife François DE HASBOURG-LORRAINE and Marie-Thérèse DE BRUNSWICK-WOLFENBÜTTEL, they will be added in the tree with the creation of a new family and two new individuals

Deduction of dates

  • The dates of birth and death of the wife's parents are deducted from the data entered in the certificate.
  • An overview of the data in the Act column displays a tooltip that allows you to understand how these dates are inferred.
  • The rule for calculating the dates is shown below.



After clicking the OK button, the wife's parents are added to the tree and the F10 familly is updated.

en-registers-drag-n-drop-mariage-merged.png

en-registers-drag-n-drop-mariage-copied.png

Tips for use and limitations

Add in chronological order

It is best to copy the records in chronological order. To do this it is better to use the tab "ALL" sorted by date and add the records from the oldest to the most recent, rather than adding the birth records first, then the marriages, then the deaths. This improves the search results for individuals matching the records.

Drag and drop outside of a tree entity

It is possible to drop an act anywhere in the dynamic tree window, outside of a tree entity.

In this case, the tool searches for the individual or family that best matches the act and displays a list of proposals ranked in descending order of relevance.

Undo a drag and drop

To undo the changes made in the tree after drag and drop, click anywhere in the tree to select the Gedcom and press the CONTROL and Z keys or press the Undo button annuler.png on the Ancestris main Toolbar. A single undo will delete all individuals created and all data that has been added by drag and drop.

Rules for calculating dates

Date deductions are made according to the following rules which are not configurable:




View an act from an Ancestris view

To view an act from an Ancestris view, you must already have copied the act to your Gedcom file, which we did in the paragraph on copying acts. See the corresponding section to do so.

Next, let's take the individual created above by copying the Birth act, from the Gedcom Editor, and let's call the Context Menu by right-clicking anywhere on the properties of the individual. Here is the menu that appears.

en-registers-context-menu-photo.png

You notice the last action in the menu: "Certificate photo: Birth".

Clicking on this action displays the Act viewer, on the birth certificate of the individual we had entered and copied above.

en-registers-context-menu-photo-show.png

The automatic correspondence between the Ancestris view and the photo of the act only works under 3 conditions.

en-registers-context-menu-photo-settings.png



Customization

Customization of the tool is done using the Preferences button on the toolbar of the Act Editor (which is the same as going through the Ancestris toolbar, Preferences, Extensions panel, Registers records tab).

The options are organized in 3 sections and their roles and use have been seen above.

en-registers-settings.png


Tutorial

There is an educational B-A-BA on registers records in PDF format and in French.

It corresponds to version 9 of Ancestris, but the main part is still current.

It gives you detailed instructions on how to create and use the registers records tool.

You can download it here.






Revision #36
Created 24 May 2020 17:53:37 by frederic
Updated 4 December 2024 10:48:33 by frederic