Do you add sources to multiple profiles?

Question

When you find a source, do you add it to all the relevant profiles?  I am interested in how other people address this and also whether my methods are OK.

As a bit of background I am probably not a typical wikitreer, I am more of a historian than a genealogist  but I have found wikitree useful in my research and I update profiles where I can with the findings of my other research,  Most of my work is with pre-1700 english profiles some of which I have created but many of which already exist.

If I find a source like a marriage record, I try to ensure I can add it to both the husband and wife profiles.  I also like to have lists of children in profiles, especially where there is insufficient data to create profiles for the individual children, and if I find a baptism or birth source I will add it as an inline reference to the child in the list in both profiles (and their own profile if there is one).

My process is generally to have multiple wikitree tabs open and when I add to one profile I cut and paste with minimal modifications, to the other profile, and it is easy to ensure the profiles at least agree on any common facts.

I also see profiles where the husband (Usually) has an extensive biography and details of family and children, but the wife has nothing.  For example Fiennes-6 and Temple-24.

In the example above I would want to copy the list of children to Elizabeth Temple's profile, but before doing so would try to see if I could improve on the source and add any more specific details of the children - in this case perhaps from their own profiles - or at least go back to the sources used by The Peerage for this list.  If I could make those improvements I would also replicate them back to William's profile.

If I am just adding sources I usually assume my contribution is acceptable under the desire for collaboration and improvement of the global tree.  If I am adding larger edits I will contact a profile manager if there appears to be a conflict, but not if I am just adding extra information.  I believe this conforms with the community rules.

Comments

I believe your process is a good one, especially in the case of new sources. Too often, as you have noticed, the biography of one family member (most often the father) will include extensive information but no one has taken the trouble to add this information to the spouse or other members.

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It's a great practice, but I think it is not a widely followed one.

One tip I find useful in finding sources for a profile is to check the profiles & sources of the person's extended family. In one case, I found a brother-in-law's obituary posted on the BIL's Find a Grave memorial that gave details of family relationships that included his sister's husband and their children.

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Hi Peter, Im still new at this stuff but I am now adding to both husband and wife so there is consistency. I had not thought of for kids.... When census is involved (not in your case maybe) but I try to (now) add to all, as it ensures info for the next leg of a line. I think its great you do so for pre-1700s as the data can be iffy and any helping hand in following or excluding is welcome. For that extra effort, thank you.

Added- I see others think differently. However a recent family I was working on had the habit of swapping their surname as they used a mothers new and previous surname.  It was essential to have all sources in each to explain the family tangle, and no, in this case it was not a Winn/Wind. However, in their case there can be similar confusion so extra sourcing is required (in my view). I think it rather depends on the situation rather than a broad guidline.

Answer 1

Ideally, each profile would have its own source, without having to go to another profile to find the information.

If you're linking records from the genealogy sites, most have a slightly different link for each person on the record. So for example, on the census with the head of house, it will show their spouse and children and anyone living in the household with them. If you paste the same link used for the head of house, it comes up on his name and list of the other household members. If you paste the link for each one, it comes up on their name and the other household members, so the head of the house is just another member in the household.

This will eliminate confusion and ensure you don't have cut and paste errors for one of the children that might have left home.

Comments

Good point.  I had not considered census data since all of the profiles I have been working on were from before the first census.  A similar point could be made ensuring the right link to a marriage (eg on Familysearch) is used for the correct spouse, although it is less of a problem.

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What Jimmy is saying may be true for say, the indexed "record" on, for example, familysearch.org-- i.e., the indexed page is associated with the person searched for.

But if one cites the citation from the actual image of the record (and again, I'm talking here about familysearch.org images), then the citation is "neutral" and can be pasted to multiple profiles.

Answer 2

I use Sourcerer and the other extensions, which have pieces specifically designed to make sharing a source across multiple profiles easy to do.   It's not always the perfect, ideal link to the source, but it will always make it easy for the next person to find the source and confirm for themselves.  I rewrite the narrative at least so the text is highlighting the correct people even if the link is a different angle on the record.  

I also like to include, in the case of censuses, the household lists so others can see all family members at a glance.

Answer 3

When I designed my own genealogy database back in 2005, I had seven years of experience with The Master Genealogist and its fairly advanced data model. I went one up and implemented my own tree-structured source register, where every entry from eg. a parish register is stored in its own node. Each of them can be attached to any number of events and relations as a citation.

I create a Wikitree biography as an automatic extract from the database, complete with inline citations. And eg. a baptism record will be attached as citation to a child list at both parents and the birth of the child, as well as a citation for their mutual relations. A marriage record will be cited as the source for the wedding for each of the spouses. A census record will be cited for each member of the household, both in a description of the census record itself, and as source for eg. an approximate birth year and family relations if no primary source is known. Et cetera.

I love this software, but have never been able to persuade anybody else to test it out seriously. It obviously doesn't help that it's very half-baked in terms of usability, unless you know the backend in and out. But yes, I cite one particular source on as many profiles as it's relevant. In my own database it's stored only once, but in a simplistic database model like Wikitree's it will have to be spelled out every time it is used.

Answer 4

Yes, I have set up personal maintenance categories to help me do this. As I'm working through my family, I have a check for all the sources on other relatives. So, if dad or mom or brother has a source that includes the profile in question, I'll copy it over. That way I will have a fuller picture