Please be careful to not delete sources

Started by Hatte Blejer on hiatus on Monday, May 30, 2011
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5/30/2011 at 6:39 PM

I found a profile in my merge center that I had done research on and it was "cleaned up". I had looked for a reliable source and had included the source reference so that it could be found online (NEGHS). In cleaning up the profile, the About Me was stripped of the source and it was marked Source: Unknown. I just had to go out and re-find the source. We don't have that much time. Perhaps we should focus on the worst cases because this is counterproductive to have me -- who knows a lot about the Baldwin family -- go BACK online 2 months later and find the source. Now I admit that I had not (yet) gone to Google eBooks to get the page number and that link (versus an online genealogical site link) but really folks...

Sylvester Baldwin

5/30/2011 at 7:03 PM

To be more explicit - I am curating a lot of Baldwins, including this profile. It was a Work in Progress. When there is a curator, unless you forget (which is forgivable), the etiquette is to write the curator about the profile. I have a reliable source for the Baldwins and when that fails for some reason, I have to go out and scout around. Now, I may not be the BEST researcher in town, but if I find an NEGHS article, for me, this is a reference that I want attached to the information. Not deleted. So ask the curator please, if you are cleaning up a curated profile. Most of the time, I will be thrilled but understand that my curated profiles are in STAGE 1 - I have found sources in most cases and tried to get the basic facts correct and cleaned up the tree.

5/30/2011 at 8:20 PM

Dear Hatte Blejer on hiatus
First - You can use the "revisions" option to see the changes that occur on the profile (I'm sure you know it(
Second - If it happened to curated profile - what can we say about "regular" profiles that beed "destroyed" by non-professional users?
I believe that there is a stage that a profile should be locked for editing and only the main manager will be able to unlock it
Geni's 3 levels of privacy (private,public,locked master profile) isn't good enough for profiles that are masterpiece (MP...)

5/30/2011 at 8:41 PM

Thanks Yaacov, I know about revisions and in fact that's the first thing I did. I scratched my head and said "The About Me looks very nice, but didn't I search high and low for a source, now why isn't there a source there?"

I'm not mad by the way, I understand why the About Me was edited but I think something important was overlooked in the process.

The whole issue of "main manager" is a problem because the person who is the main manager might not even have worked on the profile or be inactive.

Collaborative knowledge building is hard and with a diverse and huge population it's really hard. I'm not sure what the answer is.

I try to put enough in the About Me and the Curator Notes so that others can take over the profile and add to it, clean it up eventually. I agree that there's an issue which has to do with all the mess that merges can make in an MP. I see this especially in the profiles from Norman France and from the Arabian Peninsula and Islamic Spain, where merges introduce a lot of garble in the pristine names I worked so hard on.

5/30/2011 at 9:06 PM

Thanks Hatte for the reminder.

I'll also take a look at my non-geni, off-line, family history for the Baldwin family to see if I have additional information that I can share. Sylvester is my 10ggrand father. I may not have much more on him but I may have some additional info on his descendants.

Was it your reference to this source that got deleted or another one?

SOURCE: The New England historical & genealogical register and antiquarian journal, Volume 26 (1872), page 295 "Notes on the Ancestry of Sylvester Baldwin," Charles C. Baldwin, A.M., of Cleveland, Ohio.

Apologies in advance if it was me that made the deletion. If so, it was a bad edit on my part. I'll have to take a look at the history on the profile.

Regards,

Randy

5/30/2011 at 9:31 PM

Thanks Randy. It was you but I understand why you did it. I just wanted to make sure that we were careful about sources in the clean up. Really if the profile is curated, just ask first please.

Yes that was the source but there was a second, more important source that was still "in my head". As I said, I was not finished with the profile. I don't finish About Mes in Stage 1.

I use Susan Emma Woodruff Abbott as my primary source for the Baldwins. When I am in STAGE 1, I may be in too much a hurry to cite this book. It would be nice to have a way to attach a citation to a group of profiles. That is why I knew the children were correct, because on page 57 if you look, it lists the children. I had researched the entire family. Since then extra spouses and children sprouted. I am cleaning them up right now.

Anyway, if it is a Milford family and I curate, chances are I have not yet gotten around to putting in the citation for Early Families of Milford.

I am a direct Baldwin descendant, Sylvester is my X great uncle. That is why I took them on originally because Mary Bruen and John Baldwin are my 9th (?) great grandparents.

5/30/2011 at 9:32 PM

Early Families of Milford, Connecticut by Susan Emma Woodruff Abbott...

5/30/2011 at 9:34 PM

I am detaching some extraneous children right now Randy. I'll announce them in Driftwood and look for their real parents afterward. Since he's your ancestor, you might check your records to see if you have different children but Sylvester only had 6 living children and multiple sources say that.

5/30/2011 at 9:34 PM

I purchased Early Families from Google Books by the way.

5/30/2011 at 10:05 PM

Hatte,

It looks like Ensign, Sgt Richard Baldwin. is now no longer linked as a child of Sylvester Baldwin as a result of an earlier bad merge perhaps back in February. Is this Richard a son of Sylvester?
--Randy

5/30/2011 at 10:44 PM

I linked Richard back up earlier tonight. Yes, definitely a son of Sylvester. I caught that too. I bet there are other issues but I'm going to sleep shortly.

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