Looking for model profiles that make a good use of Sources

I also think Margaret Young is a good example of one way to add info in the profile's "About" section. It happens to preserve 2 different contributors "Biographical Summaris". The first one clearly cites where this info came from findagrave.com and the second biographical summary has for its source "Unknown". I'm a big fan of not only documenting where info came from but also documenting the fact (as shown in the 2nd summary) that it is unclear where the 2nd source came from. If I find a useful info in an about section but it is not attributed I'll often do a "SOURCE: Unknown" to alert the user that that part of info might be of less quality.

Wonderful points, Randy, thank you. I am scrupulous about adding the link to an Internet resource in the description field of a document or image these days. And your example moves toward a "ranking" (quality assessment) of source data.

Any source is better than no source as long as you only list it in the About Me section. For me the source section on a profile is reserved for primary or near to primary sources.

It is even more important if you add profiles based on a tree you have found on Internet, - first of all in respect of this person's work, secondly because it is easier later on to go back to continue on the line or digging into the quality of the source or look for changes.

Randy, - in the example profile you linked to above you made the classical error when adding a source: You forgot to use the citation field to summarize what the source tell you.

In the source section you now have a row: Date of Death 1/16/1907 with a link to your source document. If the date is changed by a user that row will show the new date, still referring to your source.

If you had listed the date in the citation field any user would see that the source tells something else without having to open the source page and check closer.

Unfortunately Geni does not have a tool to edit the citation of a source, so you have to start over if you want to change this.

I have started to add sources like in Maria Adamsdotter Djerf

Private User@lARS, I can see some links in the about me (can't understand what they are about) but no sources.

I add the parish record pages as links (in chronological order) as they show how the family has lived and moved through time. The list serve as a base for discussions and also, if the red thread is dropped somewhere, it's fairly easy for somebody else to pick up the investigation. Depending on the priest it's sometimes really hard to find from where a person has come to the farm, or where they moved on.

I have updated my great grandmothers profile, Sara Brinck Brox with source citations.

Please note the way I have used Citation text to cite from the source. This means that I did not add all citations in one chunk, but split it up in sections.

Nice use of hyperlinks to the source documents in both Lars and Bjorn's examples, as well as aliased URLs so it is not necessary to go to the link to understand the information.

Sometimes I back up an overview onto an attached text document for merges.

Erica, - it is my use of the Sources section I wanted to put focus on, not the About Me.

Currently the About Me is just a work section for me as a summary of the source section, and in the long run the About Me should be a About Me - a story about the person behind the facts.

I appreciate that's a lovely way to present the information and I enjoy a polished overview. But many profiles are works in progress, being compiled, and with information from other sites. So the hyperlinks in the overview are useful for me this point. Of course it also depends on the tree and the profiles position in it as an ancestor.

Love the examples.

Randy, Erica -- No, I did not mean the Event Description. I meant a field that shows when you are Adding a Source. You get a lot of choices to click on (eg First Name, Last Name, Date of Birth, etc. -- several columns worth). And you also get a Field/Space labelled "Notes:" Have just looked again. This info appears if click on Document under column labelled "Note" - in Randy's example (bottom of page 1), there is nothing here/it is empty. If Click on Sources, appears under label "Citation". No idea why this inconsistency. But the entry in the Field is done when doing "Add Source".

Not sure if there is a way to edit this "Note" after Adding the Source. But can use "Add a Source" using the Same Document, eg once for First Name, again for Date of Birth, etc.

I know which field you mean and it is a citation, not a note: it shows under every field checked off. So the idea is, the birth date field is not only sourced, there's an academic citation to every sourced field. That way if the birth date is LDS and the death date is Savage, the sources are appropriately separated without footnoting needed.

A "quick" demo on how I used the source tool in Geni for the church-book record on my great grandmother Sara Brinck Brox's burial.

Sorry, - most of the source information is in Norwegian, but you get the clue.

This is the original document:
http://www.arkivverket.no/URN:kb_read?idx_kildeid=97&idx_id=97&...

The first thing I did was to use the pull-down menu to display the image information, and used the displayed "Permanent pagelink" as URL for uploading a document tagged to her.

The reason is that the search result is only valid an half hour, and I also use "Permanent pagelink" instead of the JPG image to allow people to select their own zoom level and in the hope that the image might be replaced by a better scan later on.

This is the document I added: http://www.geni.com/documents/view/profile-292448205570004739?doc_i...

The document title is important, - it should tell what it is and for who, - in this case Sara Brink's burial, because if this is a document that is tagged to more than one person it should tell who the focus person is and why. In the document Description I tell both what kind of document it is (source) and summary most information about it.
Unlike citations you can however edit both the title and description later on.

Then I use Add source, - please remember to select which document to use as a source (highlighted in blue) - Geni allows you to add source without referring a document and it does not make any sense, and such source citations are difficult to delete (an error?)

First I added a source for first, middle, last and birth surname and entered what the source show of values in the Note: field. Don't quote too much because it will just be difficult to read. It is better to add multiple source references to the same document as I show here.
http://i632.photobucket.com/albums/uu41/bpbrox/SBB-Source-1.png

Some would probably protest on the birth surname on her and say it should be Hansdatter because the legislation for inheriting the fathers patronymic name as a surname came first in 1923 in Norway, but I have not yet found a source showing Hansdatter (daughter of Hans) and already in the 1865 census she is named Olsen. Remember my rule: Never use "rules" to fabricate facts.

Then another source citation from the same document, and here I quote the dates in the death, burial and jordfæste columns in the source. Remember to select which document before touching any of the check-marks.
http://i632.photobucket.com/albums/uu41/bpbrox/SBB-Source-2.png

As you can see I cannot select items that already are cited from this document like the names, but I have an option to delete the citations here if I want to re-enter them.

The third citation is to cite the birth and last residence:
http://i632.photobucket.com/albums/uu41/bpbrox/SBB-Source-3.png

It is important to not cite more than the document tells, like here just the year of birth even if we know the date, and cite exactly what the source tell, because you later on in the Sources tab on her profile can see if there are differences in the sources and what the current value of the profile tell. This is also why it is so important to use the Note field, because if someone later on change the profile values you will not see that the source tells something else.

In the fourth citation I cite the source document itself to tell the place of burial. I forgot to check mark Gender here, but if you see the source document is is divided in a male and female section and that can be used as a source for gender.
http://i632.photobucket.com/albums/uu41/bpbrox/SBB-Source-4.png

Hope this can help you on how to add sources today on Geni.
Have a nice day!

All of Bjorn's examples above starting: "http://i632.photobucket" show the "Note:" field I was talking about (some places labelled 'Note", other places labelled 'Citation' ).

Bjorn - Thanks much. Haven't yet learned how to create/save screen-pictures, and fear I also sort of garbled my explanation. Plus - I like your way of using it even better than how I had been doing it. (e.g. - I was doing it so date of birth, place of birth, and last residence were each separate; above you combined but still made it clear what values were given in that Source for each of those.)

It is the Note: field which is the important part in Geni source citation because it is there you enter what the source tell since you and in the Source tab-page you by using Note can see differences in sources and compare with the current values of the profile.

What you cite and when is not so important, - my examples was just made to show how you can use the Note field and that you should split the source citations up in groups where the Note field, which should be short and concise tells what the source value is.

The design of the Source tab page is however some misleading since it apparently links the current values of the profile to the attached source instead of the source value, and the only chance you can tell the differences is to add something in the Note: field. I do however wish we could enter real values and not just free text and get a notification if the profile values are different from the source.

You have the same problem in the roll-over text in profile view, - it should probably show the source notations instead of the document names.

Mike Stangel - you seem to get an error when you have multiple sources on a name, - try to move your cursor over the source symbol after the name on Sara Brinck Brox's profile. It starts popping up a citation and then just dies.

Private User, - if you have a program which can edit photos on your PC, - take a closer look on the top right part of your keyboard: - You should have a PrtScn/Printscreen key there. When you press that key a snapshot of your display are stored in the clipboard. If holding the Alt key down a snapshot of the active window is made. When done you just select New image in your photo editor and paste the image from the clipboard into the program. You can also use the Paste option in other programs as well, like Microsoft Word.

Surely the ideal scenario would be that a source can be used to lock a date. If you have a source that is very reliable like a birth certificate then you should be able to lock the date of birth to that source.

I am a bit both yes and no to real source values versus just a text field.

Yes, if Geni can use it to highlight and report differences, but a no because a value can only reflect modern ways of presenting a value, so the value will be your interpretation of the original and viewers might not pinpoint that your interpretation is correct or not.

A simple example are dates, - if the source us a different calendar, like Hebrew or Julian your citation should be both what the source exactly tells plus your interpretation of it into a modern date.

Very often a date is not even a calendar date but written like "second Sunday after Trinitatis1695" - which is June 2nd if you combine your knowledge about the church calendar at the time and in the area the event happened, - but you might be wrong, so cite both.

Bjørn I see the error on Sara Brox (Olsen)'s profile and have created a ticket to get that fixed (it's not exactly "more than one source" causing the problem, it appears there's a source citation that has no associated field).

The kind of source citation error I mentioned above that you get if you forget to select which document to cite from?