Is it good to create a profile with limited sources?

Question

Is it good to add a profile with facts  from family search or ancestry without sources, hoping they will show up later? I have been tracing relatives through Roots tech relationship finder. I find early records with birth and death listed but no sources or a wife's name with no marriage record. Should I add them anyway?

For instance, John Van Note has a spouse on Family Search but the only source is the wife's first name at the time of his death.

Comments

Personally, I would not add a female spouse with the last name Unknown.  I would put everything I know about her under Research Notes, so anyone else researching knows what was done, and when. 
Any children of the union will be connected via the father, so once the mother's information is found, it'd be an easy "fix" to attach her to them as well.
 

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Whereas I have added a female spouse with both first and last name unknown, because probate records over the husband's estate said that two of his children were from his first marriage. If I left those two children unlinked to a mother while their siblings were all linked to the second wife, it'd be too easy for someone to carelessly link the second wife as their mother; the profile for the first wife of unknown name makes it clear that their mother is someone different.

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It's a great question Nancy whether this is "good".

For the benefit of anyone reading who doesn't know this already, another aspect is the WikiTree rules. What you describe is permissible for profiles of people born in 1700 or later (provided you give the "source" on FamilySearch or Ancestry). It is not permitted for pre-1700 profiles. See

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Sources_FAQ#Are_sources_required_on_WikiTree.3F

Answer 1

I'd say "it depends". I usually have a feel for whether or not this seems "likely" that sources will emerge, and if so, generally I'll add what I'd call a "placeholder profile" if there's a good reason to do so. But I do like to have the LNAB first, as I'd much prefer to get it set up correctly the first time, and not have to keep changing the LNAB possibly even multiple times until I get it right. But I will source where I got the information from, so that if I'm asked later, I can at least say "at this poorly sourced spot", so that others can offer suggestions.

But if there's almost no sources, and the sources are unclear, or there's controversy about the LNAB or family, or the information is garbled, I won't create one of those at all. I like to have at least a warm/fuzzy with the data prior to profile creation or else it just means I need to research some more.

Answer 2

I run into a lot of profiles that have limited information that make it impossible for me to decide if the information I have is for that person... so I just move on.  WikiTree seems fine with it, however, so I guess it is a personal decision for you to decide if there is enough information that is sourced to add the profile.

My personal scale for adding a new profile is that I have at least four sources that prove, or at least give a good estimate of birth, marriage, death and always try to be able to prove who the parents were.  I am working with people from the 1800s, 1900s so this is usually possible.

If anyone wants to add easy profiles, check the profiles I have done in the past couple of years.  I often add a child list that shows the sources that show them as children of that parent.  They usually have one to three sources readily available and you already know a parent or sometimes both parents.  I also may have a source that shows the person with their parents, but don't add those parents' profiles.  I often do not take time to create all the profiles because I don't have time to find enough sources to meet my own standards... but they exceed WikiTree standards.

Good luck and happy searching.  Cherry

Comments

I have encountered profile w/ name only. I added data and sources and now that person is my person. no merge necessary.