Sources and Citations: An Overview

An Introduction to Sources

Sources and Citations

Citations in Edit Person

Citations in the Family View

Citations in Reports

More Detail About Detail
Customizing Citations in the Family View

Sources in Reports
The Source Window
General Sources
Automatic Sources
Defining Source Fields
The Sources Sidebar
Citing a Source of a Name, Event, or Fact
Citing a Source in a Note Field

The Citations List
Source Templates
Searching for Records Linked to a Source
Searching for Text in Sources
Searching for Citations in Fields
Matching & Merging Sources

An Introduction to Sources

Reunion is designed to help you document the sources of your information. A source identifies the origin of information.

Source records come in many different templates and are comprised of one or more source fields.

Some people prefer the freedom of recording source information in a single free-form text field. Others prefer a more structured approach, using several different fields for different bits of information. The choice is yours.

Your sources may be reused or shared. For example, if you wish to cite a source — let's say a particular book — you only need to record particulars about the source one time. Information about the library, the book, the date, the quality of the data, etc., can be typed into a single source record, and you can cite this source in any person or family record, in any event, fact, or note field, as many times as you want.

An unlimited number of sources can be entered in each family file. Sources can be added, deleted, or edited at any time. And, of course, you have the option to include source documentation in most reports.

As you will discover, Reunion gives you unparalleled flexibility in source documentation.

Sources and Citations

Reunion has a very clear distinction between a "source" and a "citation." They serve two different purposes.

One (the citation) points to the other (the source).

In Reunion, a citation is a simple record with a simple purpose: a citation points to a source record. For example, when a birth event cites a source, the citation is typically just the number of the source record to which it points. The citation may also contain "detail" which is concise information about where exactly, within a source record, specific information can be found (such as page number or roll number, etc.). Each citation has one detail field.

By contrast, the source record contains all the information about the source — whatever pieces of information and/or media items you wish to record. A source record can be a sophisticated record with multiple fields, or it can be just a single text field. That's up to you.

Let's put this another way: A citation is not where you enter lots of text; a citation is not a record made up of lots of fields.

In Reunion, the "source" record is where you can have lots of fields and lots of text if you need it: up to 30,000 characters of formatted text per source, up to 50 single-line structured fields per source, and up to 400 images/media items per source. ALL this room is available, if necessary, for each source record. So it's important to avoid the mistake of thinking that Reunion's Citation Detail field is where you need to cram information about the source; instead, put that information into a source record.

Again, a citation is just a number — the number of the source record being cited. And each citation has an optional "detail" field. The purpose of the Citation Detail field is to record, if necessary, concise information about where exactly, within the source record, specific information can be found. Examples include: "Page 25" or "Stafford Township pg. 5 of 7, line 32" Some people use the Citation Detail field for this clarifying data; some do not. Some people prefer to put this information into source records, where there is more room, and simply use more source records. Others prefer to use fewer source records and more instances of the same citation number but all with different citation detail.

For example, a book might be a source. A particular page number in the book would be the citation detail. However, if every piece of information you obtained from a book came from page 5, then it would be easier to record "page 5" in the source record, and not as a separate citation detail each time the book is cited.

Let's review: in Reunion, a citation is a simple record that links information to a source record. Often the citation is just the number of a source record; sometimes the citation includes short, one-line detail. The citation record doesn't include the full scope, text, and media of the source record; instead, that information goes into the source record, which is a different entity, a different kind of record. Keep this distinction in mind, especially if you've previously used a different genealogy app where a "citation" is actually a source record (and "citation detail" is actually "source detail"). In Reunion, the Citation Detail field is limited to 255 characters because its purpose is for recording a small piece of information about an exact location within the source record.

Citations in Edit Person

As you're entering information, citations are linked to the field to which they apply. For example, in the Edit Person panel, a list of "Source Citations" for the birth event appear when the cursor is in the Birth event field. See the illustration below.

For more information about citing sources, follow these links...

Citations in the Family View

In the family view, citations appear as superscript numbers, much like in reports. For more information about citations in the family view, click here.

Citations in Reports

Citations in Reunion look and behave like "in-text references" or "in-text citations" (borrowing from concepts in other disciplines). In reports, citations are imbedded in text as sequential superscript numbers. These appear "inline," next to the material they support. The citation can optionally include the citation detail. But, remember, the citation detail is only a small string of clarifying information. Don't confuse "citation detail" with "source detail."

Source records appear at the end of the report (as endnotes) or in a different section of the report, as is the case with web-based reports. Within the Reunion app, source records appear in a list (either in the sidebar or the List window) or individually (in the Source window). Each source has a unique number, assigned by Reunion.

For more information about sources and citations in reports, click here.

To Wrap Up...

Remember the point of citing a source is to help your reader (or yourself) find and verify what you've entered. There is no one correct way, but we recommend choosing one way and sticking with it. It's important to be consistent when citing sources, no matter what particular system, nomenclature, fields, or method you use. Some people simply document their sources in person note fields. Some people rely heavily on source records and have thousands in their database. Some people have fewer sources, and rely more on citations and the Citation Detail field to distinguish. Some people like to scan documents, such as census images. However, some users assume that those images can be retrieved online in the future, and thus cite the census without an accompanying image. Reunion is very flexible; it lets you define and customize person records, family records, and source records (or templates) facilitating the documentation of sources of information in the manner that suits your preference.

More Detail about Detail

The Citation Detail field was explained thoroughly in an earlier section Sources and Citations. For more applications and examples of citation detail, visit these links to other chapters in the manual...

Customizing Citations in the Family View

You have the option to show or hide source citations in the family view. If shown, they will appear in two places...

  1. In fields under the source couple buttons (as shown below).
  2. Appended to the names of people inside the source couple buttons — if the citation relates to the name of a person, or if it is a general source citation.

You can choose the text attributes (font, style, size, and color) of citations in the family view and note fields. In addition, you can choose a different color for general source citations.

To change these settings...

  1. Choose Reunion > Settings.
  2. Click Family View.
  3. Click Miscellaneous.

Then look for the buttons illustrated below...

Note: The color of ancestor, descendant, and relative numbering prefixes ("A:" / "D:" / "R:") is the same color selected for source citations. See the Numbering chapter.