Source citations clarifications

Question

I'm trying to learn something about using WikiTree, so I put in data about my father. It has a box at the end for sources, but it appears to be completely free form, so that someone can put in something ridiculous (my favorite being a seance).  I saw instructions for essentially setting up one's own templates and giving them names for future use, but aren't there general templates for different types of records for everyone to use? The Help has some examples, which help of course, but none for something as basic as birth, death and marriage certificates.

Also, it appears that the sources are all for the person, not for specific pieces of information. Is that true?

The Help also says there is a button for citations on the edit toolbar, but I don't see any such toolbar. How can I make it appear?

Comments

The Citation button doesn't appear on the Add a Person screen (wish it did). It will be there when you're in the Edit screen. I may have answered your specific bits part over on the other G2G question you posted.

There aren't any built in templates. Having some has been discussed several times in the forums but, with 99% of us being volunteers, it's never made it to the top of the priority list.

My mental template for citations is as follows. If I remember to identify all these, it should provide enough detail for others to find it.

1. where did it happen (US example: city, county, state, country, no abbreviations)
2. what happened (what document tells about it)
3. who did it happen to (names as used in the source)
4. when did it happen
5. where did I find the source

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Debi, Could you give me an example using your mental template using this information from my tree on Ancestry.

Lansing, Ingham, Michigan

Marriage Record on Ancestry

Albert and Cora

1938

Ancestry

Can I just go to the record on ancestry and use the link as my source?

Thanks,

Kathy

PS. How do I get my comment to only be single spaced, not double?

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Good morning, Kathy. To get single space, I usually highlight everything, the click the Tx button to remove all the formatting. The other thing that works is to hold down the shift key when you hit the enter key.

Would you give me the URL so that I can look at the record. I'll write the citation I would use from your record so that you can see it.

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Thanks, I'll give it a try
It worked.  Here's the URL.  Thank you for your help.
https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/61374/004674268_00164/327699?backurl=https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/119826706/person/400186560130/facts/citation/1100414001052/edit/record

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Here's what I would use. A copy paste of the folowing will make the database name and the specific record clickable links.

''Ancestry'' (https://ancestry.com : 30 Sept 20018), database with images, "[https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=61374 Michigan, County Marriage Records, 1822-1940]" > Montcalm > 1883-1908 > image 602 of 613 > [https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/61374/004674268_00164/327699 page 7, line 97 for Albert J Vance] and Cora Holland, 11 Feb 1888, Montcalm, Michigan, United States.

Answer 1

You might find this video by Julie Ricketts about inline referencing useful.

Answer 2

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Sourcing_Primer_-_Instructional

That link is an easy sourcing reference guide with last year's SAT video with tracker use in it as well.