---
title: Recording Records by Hand
description: "The **Records** screen is the occurrence index of your study: every appearance of a name in a source. It is built for transcription at the keyboard. ## Entering a record - **Name as recorded** is the only required field. Enter…"
url: "https://www.ancestorpress.com/docs/ops-recording-records/"
updated: "2026-09-11"
category: "AncestorPress One-Place Studies"
---

# Recording Records by Hand

The **Records** screen is the occurrence index of your study: every appearance of a name in a source. It is built for transcription at the keyboard.

## Entering a record

- **Name as recorded** is the only required field. Enter the spelling exactly as the source has it; the surname and forenames fields hold the filing form used for sorting and the surname index.
- **Record type**: baptism, birth, marriage, death, burial, census, parish register, monumental inscription, probate, will, directory, electoral roll, school, poor law, manorial, tithe, land tax, military, newspaper, court, apprenticeship or other.
- **Event date** and **record date** are stored exactly as typed. The plugin reads them into a standardised date with a precision indicator (a bare year, a quarter, a month, a full date, a range) for sorting and filtering; the original string is never altered.
- **Place as recorded** is stored verbatim; linking it to the place hierarchy happens on the Places screen (see "Places, Households and Surnames").
- **Role** records the person's part in the record - householder, spouse, child, parent, witness, informant or other - so a baptism can carry the child and both parents, and a marriage the couple and every witness, each findable in their own right.
- **Household reference** groups the members of one census household within a record set; give every member of a household the same reference.
- The structured census fields - age, occupation, relation to head, condition and birthplace - are stored as recorded, alongside the source citation text and a note. Tick **Private** to keep a record off every public page.

## Sticky context

After a save, the record type, dates, place and household reference stay filled in for the next record, so a run of entries from one page of a register needs only the name and the fields that change. Press Enter to save.

## Manual entries are a record set

Hand-entered records file under the study's **Manual entries** record set, so they appear in the inventory like any import. Unlike an import, the manual set cannot be undone as a unit; delete individual records from the list instead.