Custom Source Templates
Last Updated: 2025-02-18
Sample Source Templates
I have created custom templates for the sources to which I have large numbers of citations. Here are some examples.
US Federal Census
Ancestry.com (source record collections)
Family Trees
Find a Grave
The above links display pages with details on the particular source template.
The .rmst file, available as a link in each of the above links, that can be imported into RM using the Import button in the Source Template list window. Test the file first by importing to an new, empty RM database.
RM comes with a large selection of pre-made source templates, but for the above sources I preferred to create my own.
Split vs. Lumped Sources
The template described here creates a "lumped" source, meaning that in RM one Source record is created for say a particular Ancestry collection and many RM Citation records are created referencing it, one for each person cited in the collection. For Ancestry, all record in a collection are lumped. For Find a Grave, all memorials in FG are lumped, for the Census, all records for a particular census year and for a particular state are lumped, for Family Trees, all citations to the same tree are lumped.
A "split" source would put all of the information in the source record. A reference to each person in the collection would necessitate creation of a separate source record for each person. Each source would probably have only one citation. A book, for instance, would be referenced by one source and perhaps multiple citations, each referring to a different page of the book.
On each of the above listed pages, I describe the template by referring to the corresponding ".rmst" file that is created when exporting a template. The .rmst file generated by RM is an XML file that contains all of the source template information. To describe each source template.
You may want to read this, a cross reference guide describing how the source template fields in the RM GUI correspond to the .rmst file XML elements.
An important reference regarding source templates, used by professional genealogists, is the work of Elizabeth Shown Mills. She has a web site at https://www.evidenceexplained.com/
Open questions
Usually, my citation templates will have fields listing a person's name and birth date.
A question to consider is whether the name entered here is as it is written in the source or is as it is found in the RM database. The name in the source may be a miss-spelling, or a shortened version, or a nickname. This is currently done inconsistently. Probably no great harm.
A name transcribed incorrectly by Ancestry should probably be substituted with the actual name in the record. However, the incorrect name may be required to locate the record in the Ancestry database. I decided to use the name as it is in the RM database because the name as it is in the source record can be found in other fields of the citation. Use just the part of the name that is in the source. Similarly, the name might be incorrect in the original record. The same argument applies.
Again, the same question involves the birth date entered in the citation. The downside is that now conclusion information is contained in the source material.