References and sources are critically important for serious genealogy.
We recommend including "Footnotes" and/or "Sources" sections in biographies (i.e., inside the bio/notes area on an edit page).
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Wiki software has a pair of special "reference" tags to make it easy to include footnotes.
<references/> mentioned below is present on the page.
<ref> tags.
We recommend including <references /> under a section titled === Footnotes ===. The === marks put the word "Footnotes" in a subheadline.
For general sources we recommend a section titled === Sources ===.
Individual books, websites, and other items can be listed as you would any other reference. Including a pound sign (#) at the start of each line creates a numbered list.
Jill Schmill was born in a log cabin <ref>This was told to Joe Schmoe by his grandmother Schmother in the 1980s</ref> just like Abraham Lincoln. <ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln Wikipedia biography of Abraham Lincoln]</ref>
=== Footnotes ===
<references />
=== Sources ===
# The basic family tree appears in '''The Schmill Family''', Second Edition, Neat-O Publishers, 1901.
# The 1890 U.S. Census includes the names of the Schmill children.
Jill Schmill was born in a log cabin [1] just like Abraham Lincoln. [2]
Here are recommendations on how to cite various types of sources.
Footnotes for books generally include the title, edition, publisher, and publication date. If it's a rare book you might also want to include where the book can be found, such as in the collection of a certain person or library.
For newspaper and magazine articles be sure to include the title of the article as well as the title of the publication. Page numbers are also a good idea.
If the source is a unique family heirloom or clipping consider creating a new WikiTree profile page for the source. See the section below for more information on this.
If you create a separate page you can link to it in the citation. For example: Space:Whitten_Family_Bible.
For online sources the most important piece of information is the URL, the unique web address.
You can usually find the URL in the address bar at the very top of your web browser. For example, the address for this page is http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Sources
When citing a website on a WikiTree page you can create a link by using brackets around the URL. If you include a space after the URL and a title, this will add text to the link, for example:
Be sure to include the location of the cemetery, who visited it, and when.
If you have a photo of a headstone you may want to upload it to the individual's profile page.
Much genealogical information is related from other family members.
It's a good idea to include who said certain information, and if you remember, when they said it. You may also want to include a link to the person's WikiTree page, for example:
You may want to create a new WikiTree page about a source.
This would be useful if:
If you don't have much information about a source (#1 above), then you could just put this information on the person's page. For example, if you were told a family story you could post this as a memory. A census page could be posted as a photo and tagged with all the people's names listed on the page.
If it doesn't apply to more than one person (#2 above), then you could just put the information on the person's page. It may fit in the person's bio or in the Sources section (described above).
If #1 and #2 do apply, it makes sense to create a separate page for the source. You can then link to this page from the "Sources" sections on people's pages.
If you have a simple reference, there is no need to create a page for it on WikiTree. Simply list it as a footnote or source.