Family Search - Person List - Source Citation

Question

NOT criticizing, just looking for style and policy guidance because I don't religiously read G2G and sometimes miss new initiatives (and I was on a break for about a year): 

Welcome collaboration added the following source link to a profile I manage (adopted as part of sorting out Waylands in Missouri):

https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/sources/K8LT-494

Is linking to a person source list on Family Search encouraged? Or a personal choice? My preferred style is to attach individual records to support specific life facts after the match from the search results is vetted.

If this is something that is being encouraged site wide I could certainly start adding. If it's a personal choice, I probably will not.

TIA!!!

~ Ellen

Comments

I believe it is a personal choice.  I believe individual records would be preferred.

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Concur with Melanie.  

I think the only possible value of this approach would be as a temporary measure: don't have time to grab each of these right now; in the meantime, here's a list of sources to explore...

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I'll add the PID & sources links as an entry when I've found a bunch of sources because someone collected them. I'm not very good at finding things in FS & when I've finally found a source (as in "one" source - usually after about an hour or two or three of looking) and I find that the source is attached to a PID with additional valid/reliable sources, I'm really grateful! While I'll enter those sources separately, footnoting info in the bio, I feel that listing the PID/sources links is a way of "giving credit" for someone's research skills that saved me a lot of hours!

Answer 1

Since FamilySearch profiles can and do drastically change in short periods of time, I never connect them to profiles here on WikiTree. I do add the sources when I know those are correct. I do not want to connect to a profile that is correct one day and gone away the next.

Comments

Thanks Joelle for the answer star! I appreciate it and hope my answer helps - I do have strong feelings about this subject since I have had this very scenario  happen to FS profiles of my family.

Answer 2

Amen. Plus the quality of the profiles over there can vary widely.

Answer 3

It’s not a great idea to link to a person. Those profiles get merged a lot and that profile can get deleted.

Answer 4

This probably won't win me any friends, but I use FamilySearch sources all the time, though I don't link directly to the sources list as in your example.

I start by correcting or merging duplicates, adding sources, updating and improving the FamilySearch.org profile.  Then I use WikiTree X to create a new profile on WikiTree from the FamilySearch data. For example: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Hutson-1450  

If a profile already exists for the individual on WikiTree, I usually update the FamilySearch.org profile and sources and then link to that profile through this tool.  https://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Special:EditFamilySearch 

Comments

You have an answer star from me, Kitty. Although I agree with Virginia that FS is not static because people merge a lot there without even looking at sources. The sources are vital at FS for evidence of family relationships.

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Thanks, Maggie.  I seem to be in a minority on this.  

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A star from me, too, Kitty!  After cleaning up/updating the FS profile, I leave that window open on half the screen (Windows key-left or right arrow) and copy and paste the link into a second browser window on the other side.  Then I use WikiTree X to create/update the profile, and copy and paste sources from FS to the Sources box in WikiTree X.  If I have time, I go back and edit the WikiTree profile to write the bio and make the sources inline.

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I agree. Copy the source into WT so we can easily see what you have found. Some Census records should be abbreviated for space. There is no guarantee that a link to other sites will be valid tomorrow.