Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Adding a Life Sketch and Notes to a FamilySearch Family Tree Profile

In his post yesterday on the Genealogy's Star blog, James Tanner highlighted two new features in the FamilySearch Family Tree - Life Sketches and Notes.

I decided to check this out and enter information for my grandfather, Lyle Lawrence Carringer (1891-1976).

Here is the top of his Profile page:


1)  The "Life Sketch" is the first item on the list of categories in the "Details" tab:


I did note that the "Life Sketch" and "Notes" items are not included in the line just below the "Details" tab menu line, but I think that they will eventually add them.

I copied text from my "Notes" area in my RootsMagic database and edited them:


I had to click on the blue "Save" button to save the Life Sketch for my grandfather.  There appears to be no formatting functions (font size, bold, italic, underscore, etc.) available.  A "Life Sketch" of up to 10,000 characters can be added.

After saving the Life Sketch, it appears like this:


I can "Edit" or "Delete" the Life Sketch by clicking the appropriate link.

2)  The "Notes" feature is near the bottom of the person Profile, after the "Sources" and "Discussions:"


There are fields for a "Title" and the "Note" text.  I entered a Title for the 1920 U.S. Census into the "title" field, and copied information about the Lyle Carringer household in the 1920 U.S. Census into the "Note" text field:


Again, there is space for 10,000 characters in the "note" text.  After clicking on the blue "Save" button, the full Note appeared in the "Notes" category:


Again, I can "Edit" or "Delete" the Note by clicking on the appropriate button.

A researcher can Add any number of separate Notes by clicking on the "Add a New Note" link.

3)  These are very necessary features for the FamilySearch Family Tree.  I'm intrigued that they separated the information into "Life Sketch" and "Notes."  I have both sets of information in my "Notes" in my RootsMagic database, so I have to pick and choose what to put into each field.  Some of what I put into the "Life Sketch" could be put into the "Stories" category also.  There may be guidelines for what should go into each Category in the FamilySearch Family Tree Help documents.

I don't see any capability to print out the "Life Sketch" or "Notes"on the Profile page.  Perhaps those will be added to the Family Group Sheet feature in the future.

FamilySearch Family Tree has quickly become a full-featured online universal family tree program which offers more variety than other online family trees like Ancestry Member Trees (separate trees), Geni.com (universal tree) and MyHeritage World Trees (separate trees).

Researchers should note that these Life Sketches and Notes are visible for anyone to read and copy so private and sensitive information, and material under copyright protection, should be edited out.

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copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver

1 comment:

Cormac said...

I took a look myself at what you did. Tremendous job!