Sources in Reports: Citations and Endnotes

How to Include Sources in Reports
Settings for Sources in Reports
Citation Numbers
Citation Detail
Endnotes
Endnote Options
Ibids
The Numbering of Source Citations and Endnotes in Reports


Citations in the Family View

Sources: An Overview

Sources in Web Reports

How to Include Sources in Reports

When configuring reports, the option to include source documentation appears as a button called Sources, right next to the label Include. For example, when selecting Reports > Person Sheet, a Sources button to the right of the word Include will appear amongst the various options for the report. See the illustration below...

Settings for Sources in Reports

Source documentation in reports appears in two places: source citation numbers and endnotes.

To set settings for source documentation in reports...

The following options appear, and are explained below.

Citation Numbers

In reports, source citation numbers can appear in one of three forms...

To select the desired form...

  1. Choose Reunion > Settings.
  2. Click the Reports button.
  3. Click Sources in the list of options.
  4. Use the Citation Numbers menu button.
Citation Detail

Citation detail can appear with endnotes (at the end of reports) or with citations (in the body of reports). If you prefer, you can also omit citation detail...

  1. Choose Reunion > Settings.
  2. Click the Reports button.
  3. Click Sources in the list of options.
  4. Use the Citation Detail menu button to place your details.

If you choose to put citation detail with the endnotes, then citations and endnotes must be renumbered.

Endnotes

In reports, source records will appear as endnotes, meaning they all appear gathered together at the end of a document — out of sight to avoid cluttering the pages of your reports (like footnotes do), but accessible when needed. Endnotes contain four basic elements...

  1. Source fields, delimited by a comma or semicolon. The punctuation is specified in the source template. Learn more.
  2. Citation detail.
  3. Free-Form Text field (this begins on a new line).
  4. Optional list of multimedia items.

The fields of a source record will be combined serially, in the order listed in the source record, using a comma or semicolon for a delimiter. Reunion uses this style because it employs the simplest punctuation and the most straightforward presentation of the necessary data without compromising clarity or completeness.

When a source record contains only free-form text and no other source fields, the free-form text will precede the detail, if any.

Endnote Options

In reports, you can choose whether or not to include endnotes and ibids.

If you create a batch of reports (for marked people), you have the option to include endnotes at the end of each individual report or at the end of all reports.

To select your choices for endnotes and ibids...

Ibids

Ibids only appear if the Renumber citations and endnotes button is checked in the Sources section of the Report Settings window.

If you choose to include citation detail with endnotes, endnotes are automatically renumbered.

If citations and endnotes are being renumbered, reports that contain multiple citations to the same source will utilize ibids and add the unique detail information, if it exists, in the endnote. In the example below, all four source citations point to the same source record, but the citation detail is different in each citation.

A boy sat on a burning deck,1 his feet were full of blisters.2 He cut his pants on a rusty nail,3 and had to wear his sister's.4

Sources:

  1. The Witmer Family Bible, Hans Witmer, 1792, p. 12.
  2. Ibid., p. 15.
  3. Ibid., p. 16.
  4. Ibid., p. 17.

Including Names of Multimedia Items in Endnotes

If a source record contains multimedia items, you may include the names of the multimedia files in the endnote. They will appear at the end of the endnote, listed serially, with the label "Files."

To include names of multimedia files in endnotes, check the Include multimedia file list button in the Sources section of the Report Settings window.

Note: output for the web can contain a list of multimedia items linked to a source and the actual image/document files.

Note: Names of multimedia items in endnotes will be excluded if designated as "sensitive" and the Exclude sensitive data button is enabled in the Sensitivity settings. Learn more.

The Numbering of Source Citations and Endnotes in Reports

In reports, source citations can be numbered according to their source number, or they can be renumbered so that they begin with 1. Traditionally, source citations are renumbered in reports (so that they being with 1); however, many people prefer to preserve the original source numbering so that numbers in their Sources sidebar match the numbers of citations and endnotes appearing in reports.

Renumbering Source Citations

To renumber the source citations in reports (so that they begin with 1)...

  1. Choose Reunion > Settings.
  2. Click the Reports button.
  3. Click Sources in the list of options.
  4. Check the Renumber citations and endnotes button.

To use the actual source numbers in citations in reports (i.e., to avoid renumbering source citations in reports)...

If you do not renumber citations and endnotes in reports, then the actual source numbers are used in citations and endnotes and the citation detail (such as page number) must either appear with citations (in the body of the report) or be omitted.

Renumbering source citations in reports is the only way to include citation detail with endnotes.

The reason Reunion can't use the original source numbers and simultaneously put the detail in the endnote is because of situations where there are multiple citations to the same source number and each have different detail. So you might see citation number "23" five different times in the body of the report, but in the endnotes there is no way to distinguish that all five citations had different detail.

Confused? See the table below.

Renumbering Pros and Cons

The report examples below illustrate a few variations of endnotes. Data in each example was derived from two source records:

Report Example
Comments
Harry Smith was born 17 Oct 1800 in York, PA.1
Died 30 May 1866 in Boston, MA.2
Employed as a farmer.3
Sources:
1. Family Bible, p. 4.
2. Ibid., p. 5.
3. Miscellaneous Archives, book 2.

In this example, citations and endnotes are renumbered. You can see that the birth place and the death place were derived from the same source, but different pages. (Note the different citation details appear with the endnote.)
Harry Smith was born 17 Oct 1800 in York, PA.45 p. 4
Died 30 May 1866 in Boston, MA.45 p. 5
Employed as a farmer.22 book 2
Sources:
22. Miscellaneous Archives.
45. Family Bible.
In this example, citations and endnotes are not renumbered. The citation detail is included with the citation. The endnotes show the actual number of the source record in Reunion, making it easier to cross reference this report with other reports.
Harry Smith was born 17 Oct 1800 in York, PA.45
Died 30 May 1866 in Boston, MA.45
Employed as a farmer.22
Sources:
22. Miscellaneous Archives.
45. Family Bible.
In this example, citations and endnotes are not renumbered. The citation detail is omitted.

Where citations are not renumbered and the detail is appended to the citation (the second report example, above) you may run out of space in person sheets and family group sheets with a destination of printer. In this case, the sheet is like a "form," and, by default, there is only one line of space for each event (date and place). Thus, if an event has several citations and detail (especially longer detail entries) there may not be enough room to show all the citations with detail in the single block allotted for each event. However, in the person sheet layout, you can put places on a separate line in the sheet. This particular limit of one line does not apply to person sheets and family group sheets destined for your word processor (as there is no graphic form restricting the space).