Can I add inline source references directly to a birth date/place?

Question

I am engaged in a summer project to improve the source information for a GEDCOM file I uploaded a while ago. From my own genealogy system I have been used to attach source references directly to the (for example) birth date and place. I was expecting to find a similar function for a WikiTree profile but so far I have only discovered how to use inline references in the Biography/Sources section. This works well but it involves repeating at least some of the information from the structured section above. And repeating information seems somehow inelegant.

Am I missing something obvious here or is this the intended behaviour?

Answer 1

No, inline references may only be added in the biography section. It would be kind of nice to reference from the data fields though. :)

Comments

Yes, that would be nice...

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I agree. That would be a great enhancement.

Answer 2

Some people have attempted it by adding a source in the location field. It just doesn't look right.

See https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Lamkey-3 for my example.

Also look at some gedcom imported profiles to see multiple sources attached to every statement which also makes for hard reading. Adding references to the Data fields would most likely make it hard to see the data and hard to sort the data too for the back end of Wikitree.

Correctly used the references tag and even the Span tags do make for good profiles. Adding stuff to areas that are not designed for it just makes it more clunk for the database to sort.

Comments

This looks awful and would generate an error report, which someone would then correct, which wastes volunteer time. The purpose of the boxes is to present basic information, which it does beautifully when used correctly.

Answer 3

No, you are not missing anything obvious.

Connecting sources directly to life events having their own fields in the WikiTree database would mean creating source fields corresponding to the life event fields (wouldn't it?) And the addition of new fields in the database isn't going to happen anytime soon, if ever.

I use the inline references all the time - repeating the life events in the bio text but in a more narrative form. I like the prominence of the narrative part on WikiTree profile pages.

Some people use the inline refs as a timeline - usually including more than birth/marriage/death. This  is a model I rarely use, but it is clearly an accepted model.