Is a source such as "Ancestry: 1900 United States Federal Census" acceptable?

Question

I have been building my family trees on Ancestry for years and have added limited information to Wikitree.  Wikitree's advantage is that there are no duplicates so it is nice and clean. However, I do not want to do the double work of one by one adding my Ancestry people to Wikitree. (Yes, I tried a gedcom import once and it was a big mess.)   But I am trying to add them to Wikitree one at a time and it is time consuming. To save time and double-work, I had been adding only the name of the source in the following format: "Ancestry: 1900 United States Federal Census".  Is this acceptable?

If not, I will have to stop adding profiles, as I do not have enough of a lifetime left to re-source all 4,000 people.

Debbie Goddard

Answer 1

I recommend you use the WikiTree Sourcer App - it has made my contributions SO much easier and quicker!

Comments

Thank you so much, especially for including the link to the Sourcer page!  This has made my work here so much easier and more fun!

Debbie

Answer 2

One thing that really helps with moving information from Ancestry and also Family Search is the Wikitree Sourcer. Sourcer saves a lot of time and typing with two options that I use. The first is narrative with sources. The other one is Source, it builds nice source entries.

If you are getting data from Family Search there is the build all sources option that gives all the sources for a profile. It can be a bit dangerous as it will include things that aren't normally used in Wikitree as sources. With the build all option you want to make sure you check all of the references firs, and it is a good idea to park them in a text file and cut and paste the good entries individually.

As always with advice, remember:

1. Your mileage may vary.
2. Free advice is worth what you paid.

Comments

I second the use of the Sourcer extension. It will copy all your data to paste into the form for creating a profile for the person plus you can use it to "build all citations" and it will copy all the citations you have attached in your Ancestry tree in a more complete form than what you've been doing and all you have to do is paste those in the sources area. It's all done for you, except for perhaps some formatting to make it look a little prettier and most of that can be achieved by using the "Biography - Auto Bio" function of the WikiTree Browser Extension which I believe you should also install and use. Really, you can create a profile in minutes using these two extensions.

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Thank you so much!  I have never heard of the Sourcer App! This has made my work here so much easier and more fun!

Debbie

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Thank you so much!  I have never heard of the Sourcer App! It is an absolutely amazing app and exactly what I needed.

Debbie

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I didn't realize how much I was using Sourcer until I tried to complete a couple of thons while traveling for work. I was using my work computer during my off-hours and because I couldn't load the Sourcer everything took so much more work to get done.

Answer 3

Hi Debbie;

Thanks for asking, just listing '1900 United States Federal Census" as a source doesn't provide enough information because it doesn't include the person's name or where they lived.

There are options: On Ancestry, Go to the image of the record and click on the 4th little icon on the right of the image.

That is a sharing link, that you could use to send a copy of the record to someone by email.

You can also copy that link and past it as a source on a profile here on WT.

Try it and if you have more questions come back here and ask more questions.

As an example this link is for a relative of my husband. It isn't pretty but works.

https://www.ancestry.ca/sharing/29435662?mark=7b22746f6b656e223a2252677452475741746e49373568596e58774a712f65396861434c325673556c45393742336b65467139744d3d222c22746f6b656e5f76657273696f6e223a225632227d

You can add information before the link, such as William Brown, Census year, in this place.

Comments

Is that link sharing the 1881 census? If the link stops working it becomes meaningless, as it doesn’t give any hints to the record set in the URL.

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Yes, if a link stops working whether to Ancestry or any other source it doesn't provide any information.

In this case Debbie asked about using the sources she has on her Ancestry tree. And having a simple way of providing that information.  

Yes the additional details of the information such as:

1900 United States Federal Census for Michael Smith, birth date, birth place, current residence, marriage year, occupation etc, etc could be added as more information about the person either instead of a link, or in addition to a link.

Answer 4

Also heavily endorse the Sourcer extension. 

Information in relation to a complete source citation can be found here. .

However Wikitree's headline requirement is "a source is the identification of where you obtained information".  

When you are adding a source you are trying to make it straightforward for someone else to find the information you entered. 

On Ancestry, as well as the sharing link, you can copy the source information and citation information which should make it straightforward for someone in the future to follow your logic.