Adding more information to the index
Some records in Belgium contain much more information than the index. A marriage record can for example also contain: 1) the birth information of the groom and the bride 2) the death information of the parents if they died before the marriage.
Is it advised to add this information to the index before adding it to a person via the source linker?
Many thanks in advance
Answers
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@Loïc Baert asked "Is it advised to add this information to the index before adding it to a person via the source linker"
Personally I'd add the information directly to the profiles concerned and tag those bits of data with the correct source index record. If you feel that this obscures where the data comes from, then I'd add some comments explaining matters.
Trying to add the extra information to the index (which is supposed to be a finding aid, not a transcript, remember) can be fraught with danger as you try to add new items for potentially new people. (I suspect that many people simply can't deal with updating indexes). I spend enough time trying to make the index titles meaningful without also trying to navigate the personas in a source index record. My view is that the index is just a means to an end - the profiles are where we need to be.
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Thank you @Adrian Bruce1 for your answer but I do not understand why it can be fraught with danger. I do only wish to add vital information to the persons who are already mentioned in the index. I won't add new people to the index. It saves me a step to not needing to tag the source afterwards, it can be confusing if the list of sources is quite long.
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These recent threads may help you understand the "fraught with danger" comment. Sometimes editing, even with our best efforts, can create more problems.
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@Loïc Baert said "… but I do not understand why it can be fraught with danger. I do only wish to add vital information to the persons who are already mentioned in the index. I won't add new people to the index. ..."
Those of you who are Jedi Masters in updating indexes won't need my cautious advice. However, I have to bear in mind that all sorts of people will be reading this Community and for many of them, caution in doing such updates is well advised. Hence my words.
Not adding new people to the index will certainly reduce the potential for trouble, I agree.
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@Áine.ní.Donnghaile Thank you for sharing those posts. If all technical problems of the first post are solved, can I then add additional vital information to the index or should it be avoided at all cost?
When I review a hint I look at the original record and the index side by side. I find it much easier and less prone to errors to add during this stage the vital information. Otherwise I must first attach the record to the person and then go to the corresponding vital information on the person page while keeping the image open in another tab. The tagging of the source to the vital information is also automated if the index contains the information.
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Sadly, the issues mentioned in that first post have not been fully resolved.
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