Search Source Citation Index

While carrying out research on my family history, I've realised that my citation of sources was not easily searchable. Key information that you may want to search on was just in a large text field. I wanted to be able to search by individual elements of a citation like a name and/or source type, etc. So I started looking for an application that met my needs. At first I didn’t have much success but then I found an application called Clooz 2.0, which on the surface looked to fit the bill. It enabled me to log the individual elements in separate fields and the user interface was quite appealing to the eye. But once in the application there was very little you could do with the data. There were reports but you couldn’t query the different data elements that you had entered to produce a report that you wanted.

Finally I found Custodian 3, which I initially thought wasn’t up to much because the user interface looked basic. But I was wrong, the aesthetics may not look great, but the functionality is top form. The input forms are configurable, you can create your own forms, queries and views of the data you have entered. There’s even a Name Index, which you can choose which fields are included. The Name Index can be published with it’s own viewer.

So I’ve taken an extract of the Name Index in my Custodian 3 database and added this source citation index to my site, which you can search by surname (including maiden name), given name event year and source/event. The details in the index are transcribed from the sources. Gradually the search functionality will increase with additional fields to search by as will the content of the index itself (small dataset as present approx. 150 records). The results have links to individuals, families, sources and repositories. To see the full citation for a source, click on the Person ID link and scroll to the Sources section on the individual’s page.