Use of Vital Records as sources - checking understanding

[Myles O]

When referencing a BDM index I have the index as a source - say UK GRO Births (to give a lazy version) then each time I reference it I create a citation and in the details of the citation the date, district, volume and page number - one index/source and many citations with distinct details for each person.

However if I have a birth certificate and scan it - then I create a source of type 'Vital Record' enter all the details and attach the image of the document to the source - then the document is directly referenced in the source without adding details. In the case of births there is one person, one citation and one source. (although you may use it as evidence for a parent's name, for instance, in which case another citation to the one source)

In the case of a marriage certificate this is cited in the family record, but in the case of births and deaths in the person record.

Does that cover things?

[James Milne]

My way is to cite every bit of information that is on, in this case, the marriage certificate. e.g. names, dob, occupations, parents etc. My family tree is predominately Scottish, and I average 20 citations for each marriage registration, 8 for births and 13 for deaths.

[Myles O]

James Milne - that makes sense, and you've prompted me to me more disciplined in doing so, thank you -

Do you store the certificate from ScotlandsPeople as an image stored as media on a source of type 'Vital Records'?

[James Milne]

Yes, I attach the ScotlandsPeople image to the birth, marriage or death source. I have constructed my own source types based on “Practical Citation” found on Ben Sayer’s web site genealogytools.com, so I do not use the source type “Vital Records”. This works for me, but you need to choose a way that works for you, and that you are happy with.

[Myles O]

Talking of Ben Sayer, all the links to his books on Amazon are dead and many of the links on his websites are too - is he still active?

[Myles O]

Agh, I can find it on Apple Books - old in that it is talking about Reunion 10 & 11, but presumably still applicable....