One of my major issues with the FamilySearch Family Tree has been source citations - I wrote My First Look at FamilySearch Family Tree - Post 2: Source Citations in March 2012, Checking Out "My Source Box" on FamilySearch.org in May 2012 and Attaching Sources to Persons in FamilySearch Family Tree in July 2012 about the Source Box feature and attaching the sources to persons.
Once you have the source citation from the Source Box attached to a person, you have a record similar to this (for my grandparents marriage in 1900):
"Massachusetts, Marriages, 1841-1915," index and images, <i>FamilySearch</i> (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/N4ZF-8QJ : accessed 19 Oct 2012), Fred Walton Seaver and Alma Bessie Richmond, 1900.
That is not a real perfect source citation, since it doesn't list the original source record that FamilySearch, and doesn't provide any source citation details other than a name and year for the record. That may be adequate for some researchers.
For some researchers, finding the original source is important for quality assessment purposes. FamilySearch Family Tree offers the capability to add Notes to a source citation, and this can serve to add more detail to the source citation.
Here is how I added Notes to the marriage of my grandparents:
1) In FamilySearch Family Tree, I navigated to the Person page for Frederick Walton Seaver (1876-1942):
2) Down near the bottom of the Person page is the list of sources:
3) The details for each Source provided can be seen by clicking on the Source title. I clicked on the bottom source on the list above, for the Marriage of my grandparents, and saw:
4) In order to add a Note, I clicked on the "Edit" link in the source citation entry. That added an editable field below the current source citation. I couldn't edit the source citation itself.
4) The editable field includes a link to "Add" a Note. When I clicked that, I could type in two fields - one for the Note, and the other for "Reason for the change:"
I typed in the "Note" field:
"citing original data at Massachusetts State Archives; Marriages: Volume 502, Page 297, Leominster, 1900: entry for Frederick W. Seaver and Alma Bessie Richmond, 21 June 1900."
and in the "Reason" field:
"added original data source and details of the original source."
6) I clicked on the "Save" button, and saw the modified Source citation screen:
The "Latest Changes" box in the upper right shows when and by whom the changes were made. The box below that shows who this particular source citation is attached to.
I couldn't figure out how to add someone to the "Attach To" list - obviously, this marriage concerns two people. I actually have it attached to my grandmother also, but as a completely separate source citation (since I searched for records for her).
In retrospect, I could have added more detail to the "Note" - their ages, residence place, occupations, birthplaces, parents names, parents birthplaces, number of marriage, and the minister's name. All of those are available in the image of this record.
For census records, a researcher could add the address, ED, page number, dwelling number, family number, and all of the information for each family member - name, relationship, age, gender, birthplace, occupation, etc.
I have not done this task for many of my persons because my hope is, still, that the certified software that interfaces with the FamilySearch Family Tree will enable source citations to be added to FSFT from within the software. At present, software like RootsMagic 5 and Legacy Family Tree 7.5 will add the Event but not the source citation to a Person page in FamilySearch Family Tree.
I have many source citations in my database for Events that are not in FamilySearch historical record collections - vital record certificates, probate records, land records, etc., and really don't want to spend the time adding them to the FamilySearch Family Tree by hand if the capability will be automated in the future.
The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/10/adding-source-notes-in-familysearch.html
Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver
For some researchers, finding the original source is important for quality assessment purposes. FamilySearch Family Tree offers the capability to add Notes to a source citation, and this can serve to add more detail to the source citation.
Here is how I added Notes to the marriage of my grandparents:
1) In FamilySearch Family Tree, I navigated to the Person page for Frederick Walton Seaver (1876-1942):
2) Down near the bottom of the Person page is the list of sources:
3) The details for each Source provided can be seen by clicking on the Source title. I clicked on the bottom source on the list above, for the Marriage of my grandparents, and saw:
4) In order to add a Note, I clicked on the "Edit" link in the source citation entry. That added an editable field below the current source citation. I couldn't edit the source citation itself.
4) The editable field includes a link to "Add" a Note. When I clicked that, I could type in two fields - one for the Note, and the other for "Reason for the change:"
I typed in the "Note" field:
"citing original data at Massachusetts State Archives; Marriages: Volume 502, Page 297, Leominster, 1900: entry for Frederick W. Seaver and Alma Bessie Richmond, 21 June 1900."
and in the "Reason" field:
"added original data source and details of the original source."
6) I clicked on the "Save" button, and saw the modified Source citation screen:
The "Latest Changes" box in the upper right shows when and by whom the changes were made. The box below that shows who this particular source citation is attached to.
I couldn't figure out how to add someone to the "Attach To" list - obviously, this marriage concerns two people. I actually have it attached to my grandmother also, but as a completely separate source citation (since I searched for records for her).
In retrospect, I could have added more detail to the "Note" - their ages, residence place, occupations, birthplaces, parents names, parents birthplaces, number of marriage, and the minister's name. All of those are available in the image of this record.
For census records, a researcher could add the address, ED, page number, dwelling number, family number, and all of the information for each family member - name, relationship, age, gender, birthplace, occupation, etc.
I have not done this task for many of my persons because my hope is, still, that the certified software that interfaces with the FamilySearch Family Tree will enable source citations to be added to FSFT from within the software. At present, software like RootsMagic 5 and Legacy Family Tree 7.5 will add the Event but not the source citation to a Person page in FamilySearch Family Tree.
I have many source citations in my database for Events that are not in FamilySearch historical record collections - vital record certificates, probate records, land records, etc., and really don't want to spend the time adding them to the FamilySearch Family Tree by hand if the capability will be automated in the future.
The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/10/adding-source-notes-in-familysearch.html
Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver
1 comment:
Randy, interesting post, and some of what you say goes to the heart of a programming problem in FS-FamilyTree.
You said "I couldn't figure out how to add someone to the "Attach To" list - obviously, this marriage concerns two people. I actually have it attached to my grandmother also, but as a completely separate source citation (since I searched for records for her)."
And then, "For census records, a researcher could add the address, ED, page number, dwelling number, family number, and all of the information for each family member - name, relationship, age, gender, birthplace, occupation, etc.
"I have not done this task for many of my persons because my hope is, still, that the certified software that interfaces with the FamilySearch Family Tree will enable source citations to be added to FSFT from within the software. At present, software like RootsMagic 5 and Legacy Family Tree 7.5 will add the Event but not the source citation to a Person page in FamilySearch Family Tree."
On ancestry.com many multi-person records on ancestry.com are coded to attach to relatives where the specific relationships are given in the record.
This is not so at FS-FT, where (say) a US Census extract may give such items as names of spouse and children plus one person's parents. The FS-FT citation format does not allow automated attachment to given relatives; the extracts of post-1870 US Census items do not list all of the others in the household and are not coded to attach even to the others who may be named in a given extract.
The designers of FS-FT want you to search individually for each person listed in such a household and use the individual citation for each one.
See the discussion here, particularly Robert Kehrer's second post:
https://getsatisfaction.com/familysearch/topics/enable_editing_of_citations_from_historical_records_that_are_put_in_ft_source_box
In my view, the crux is that the genealogist wants the coding to be for relationships as well as for individuals, and wants to work with a document as a whole rather than with extracts for each individual.
Post a Comment