G2G: Using family search tree as a source

Question

Looking at my feed this morning I noticed that there have been a bunch of profiles that have been made. A lot of them have a link to a Family Search profile and Find a Grave as the sources. I thought we weren’t supposed to do this? Or is it ok because it’s not behind a pay wall?

Comments

Hi Alice. Although this can be a subject of controversy, WikiTree does permit such sources for profiles of people born in 1700 or later. See this Help page section.

Answer 1

The links aren't ideal, but if the FamilySearch profile has good sources it saves searching, they can then be copied to WT.

 Findagrave is generally a good source for the location of a memorial marker.

Comments

However, FindaGrave is not an acceptable source for pre-1700 profiles.

Answer 2

It is always preferable to have a more detailed biography with each fact individually sourced. This creates a fuller family history story and often provides clues to help with researching other family members.

This can be made easier using the Wikitree Sourcer browser extension. Which creates inline citations with the option to provide narrative text for the biography. Info on this can be found on the app page under the Find drop down menu.

Comments

Yes, that's exactly how I do it, there are also tools in Bee to copy sources to WT.

 I had a graphic illustration as to why a link by itself is inadequate, last week I went to update and improve a profile I created in earlier times on WT, before learning the importance of posting each source individually, and having only the FamilySearch link on the WT profile. I found someone had removed all siblings, and overwritten the FS person and ancestors to a different family from a different county.