I'll write maybe one long paragraph describing the events, then a page or two breaking the events into chapters, and then reams of pages delving into my characters. After that, I'm ready to begin.

Anne Tyler

Reference Document

The Reference Document is the at the centre of the evidence database. And the centre of Reference Document is the statement.

Reference records are currently organized as a tree structure using the higher_id field. This may change in the future.

Each record is attributed to a researcher with the res_id field. By default, this is the current user at the time the record is created.

Reference Statement

The reference statement is a text field which describes some aspect of the family history. In may be a statement from the researcher, a transcription of a historical document, a description of a family photograph, or a summary of other documents.

The format of the text either normal text or marked up html format. In either case the text can be linked to other records that have been created to support the document, using the <a> tag. In the future, a mark-down dialect will be developed.

A reference document for standard types of documents (Census, Birth, deaths and Marriages etc.) can be created from template documents, which will do most of the work of entering the various records.