Easier way to add sources

Question

Why isn't there an eaiser way to add sources to to profiles?

I also belong to Ancestry and Family Tree.  Both are  easy to add sources.

Comments

Yeah, I was just going to say there's "drag and drop" although from my experience you need to maintain firm control of the mouse or unwanted results occur ... then there's "copy&paste", tried and true method. 

But then my second thought was maybe he's talking about generation of Sources -- And trying to automate Sources might be a nightmare rather like Autocorrect became on those devices that feature it -- 

For a WT profile to actually reach out and grab automatically a Source from some other website  ... I cannot even imagine the software for that but I CAN imagine what will go wrong with it in operation 

Answer 1

Great question Tom.  Sources can be very complicated but they can also be very simple.  The easiest way to add sources is to just hit the source button at the end of the sentence that you want to source.

When you're in a profile in edit mode, look at the bar just above the text area.  The last button on the right is a "C"

Click this button and the reference tags are added.  Then just type your source into the highlighted area.

To keep it simple, just put what the source is and the link where you found it:

1920 US Census, Dallas, TX, http://www.ancestry.com.restoftheurl/

Or,

Will of John Brown found at Ohio State Documents www.ohio.us.gov/secretary/will/john_brown

Just stick with basic sources for now and you'll learn the rest later.

For sites like Find a Grave and Family Search they have a pre-formatted source; just copy and paste this after hitting the C button.

Hope this helps and good luck!

Comments

FYI - Copy and paste is  CTRL-C to copy and CTRL-V to paste

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Good point Robynne.  Also  CTRL+ mouse works.

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Thanks for the star Dieter!

Answer 2

If I can ask... What is wrong with copy and paste? I think that is simple enough. I do that with most of my sources.

If you mean the automatic attachment like Ancestry and my Heritage do - well, Wikitree is not quite that sophisticated yet.

Please keep in mind that this is a Volunteer outfit and does not have a lot of cash to throw at updating the software.

Answer 3

Tom,

Have you tried the Research option under the name-#### menu? From RootsSearch you can search either FamilySearch or Ancestry. FamilySearch has a blurb you can just copy under Citing this Record.

One thing that is great about WikiTree is that it is straightforward to use sources from a variety of repositories. I have found both FamilySearch and Ancestry much more difficult to add a source that is not held in their own repository.

Answer 4

Yes, hardly any automation here on Wikitree. I guess the main issue is the very non-standard way deeds/sources are presented on the web. That makes it very hard to cite them easily.

I prefer to copy-paste the references that are provided by the archives (not the intermediates like FamilySearch) as those are real reference to the original work.

For the ones working with Dutch sources: I have been working on a tool for WieWasWie that might go live soon. PM me if you are interested.