Sources needed ...

Re: Who does the source work, particularly on abandoned profiles ?

Anyone, if you find a source add it. Similar to what we already do. You might have found a burial record. Someone else might find a record to confirm the parents.

The profile gets improved over time. Hopefully, to the point that it can achieve GPS.

For sources needed, perhaps a template tag and project? We need to hear from others who are interested in this.

The main thing is that we stick to an agreed method & layout. The problem a the moment is we are all adding sources differently and improving profiles differently.

Putting in my 2c as an amateur. I have been trying to do this as I run across info, even if it is on people who are only tangential to my line. However, two issues arise. Often I find a source that includes info on two or more generations. Entering on every single person's profile is really time consuming. So far, I've usually entered it on the profile page of the person who seems to be at the center of the relationship (obviously a judgment call).
1. Does geni have a protocol on this?

Second big problem is adding source material. I don't understand why the "Sources" tab on profiles that have sources are often blank. Even when you go to the Sources page, no sources show. I've discovered that I usually have to click"add source" to see a source that is already there.
2. How do you get the sources tab to show sources that are there? I've been pasting info and/or links on the overview page just to make sure anyone who looks at a profile will see it.

In reaction on the questions and remarks of R Parsons.

Protocol from Geni. Protocol a set of ways to do it and it is still under discussion.

I second that it is not easy to work with the sources table if things like this happen. I hope in the future this will be solved. It is a feature that we have to work with.

I say use the sources tab, but also use in the overview page, because people like to read and easy to find information and the overview page is easy to find. And could be a readable summery of the data entered in the database fields.

An other big problem is that everyone makes their own judgment calls and a lot of time is lost with making those calls and moving around data because some disagrees with the judgement calls. From disagreement comes discussions and discussion is good. Otherwise I would not react in this discussion.

Private User A source added in the tab could be connected to more then one person, but the overview page needs to be copied to the other family members. But writing the first comment is the most work the copying to the other profile overview pages is less work, but still double work.

A good balance is to add short message on the overview page with a reference that their is a (large) source. Then people take the time to look a the sources and give the system the time to load those sources. From the view of a technician is understandable that the system only let see the quick view first and the sources only on request, because loading and finding them cost time. And time is money.

Geni handles sources somewhat different.
If you have a primary online source please add it as a document (links may change in time). This is even possible for things like an online scan (the page it is on will be copied by Geni to a pdf document and that will be added to the profile).

You can link multiple profiles to this document.
This you can do be adding other profiles to the document when you add the document, but it is sometimes easier to go to the other profile and add the document there (choose from Select from your documents). The last document you added will at the top of the list.

Then to get it also to show on the sources tab go there and choose the document and specify which facts (like birth data/place) are supported by the document.

If you have information that is relevant to multiple profiles you can add it to a document and add this document to multiple profiles. A document has a link, so you can add the link to the About of the profiles. When you want to upload a new version you may also have to change any links to the old version.

Private User what you're seeing - when a source added doesn't show - is that there's a step needed after upload, and that's to "cite facts.". Once that is done, even in a minimal fashion, the document will show as a number on the source tab.

I'll try and find a help screen with screenshots that shows the citing process.

I often find lovely documents attached I had no idea were there!

BUT there are also "garbage" text docs on old profiles from GEDcom uploads. Those I don't bother with because they dont tell me much of anything. For example, the upload in 2010 might have been based on an export from an ancestry tree, and there's a little doc that claims that. So it is, I guess, a source "history" but more like part of a change log than supporting genealogical facts.

I agree with Job & Jeroen's points. Even if a profile bristles with docs, people tend to stay on the overview tab only and not read the discussion tab or the sources tab or the media tab. So linking In the URL of the document, either external site or internal "snapshot," is very useful; one can also format the hyperlink into proper APA or MLA (etc) form.

However, because the same document can be used on as many profiles as are relevant, it really is helpful to upload. I also use the blank citation field in the sourcing module to describe the relationships in the doc: "Frank, son of John and Sarah, married Joan, 7 children". Has helped fix mixed-up profiles many times !

https://help.geni.com/hc/en-us/articles/229705327-How-To-Make-Docum...

Erica Howton Can the "cite facts" step be taken after the document has been uploaded, i.e. if I discover a document when I click "add source," can I make it appear thereafter as a source?

Yes! But you need to “tick off” a citation once the document is added to the source tab.

Since I’m sprucing up Grandma Viny, take a look at the differences on the media tab and the sources tab

Private

Hint: there’s a document tagged to the profile that is not (yet) cited (press URL to get to the google book page)

https://www.geni.com/documents/view?doc_id=6000000076676382100&

This is what I do with documents, as an example.

From Rootstech:

https://www.rootstech.org/video/source-citations-the-good-the-bad-a...

Shows everything you need to do to correctly cite sources.

Here's a blog post with some perspective:

Footnotes, Endnotes, Sources, Citations, and Attachments: What Works, What Doesn't

"In our modern, online world of genealogy, there is a major ongoing emphasis on providing information about where contributors obtain the information they incorporate into their online family trees. In this regard, all users of the major online genealogy programs are being encouraged to 'cite their sources.' The absence of a source requires subsequent users of the family tree to redo all the research to verify the validity of the information provided."

More: http://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2018/03/footnotes-endnotes-sourc...

I must say I do a lot of redo work just because I have paper family trees that are written down with out the find place of the facts. The research is done by an archivaris with the access to the paper archives. It was before the large digitalisation wave. And the redo work is just to add the prove and it will not get me any new information.

Very luckly I'm also related to the family Alkemade and the researchers of that family the brothers Alkemade did work with fact that you need to write down the prove and add the photo's with sources. They only did it with the Alkemade's because adding sources to every profile in their digital familytree is too much work.

So in short I fully agree with the quote that Justin posted yesterday.

And on wikitree (one of the large marger online genealogy websites) you may not use |(online) info if it is without the cite of the sources.