How do I create a list of sources on my profile page that I can reference from subsidiary pages by number only?

Question

I have some documentation that list a great many different family members. I would like to have a single list of sources on my top page (me) with a single list of all of all my sources that I can cite by reference number only from several individual profiles. I'm trying to keep from re-typing the same source in multiple profiles (to avoid typos that make the same source appear as two different sources). Has anyone found a way to do this or is it just a bad idea? I need a comprehensive explanation of how the mark-up language (/ref  /reference )actually works for sources.

Answer 1

You would probably want to learn about <span> tags and create named links on your page. Then your source references would simply be URL links back to those.

Otherwise, <ref> and </reference> tags merely create linked footnotes on the self same page. (all <ref> tags would be defined above the final </reference> tag, which is where the footnotes will appear on the page)

Comments

Thanks--I think you're saying the <ref> and <reference> tags don't work between profiles, which pretty much kills what I wanted to do. The URL links is one way, but I'd still be typing the source note twice. I think I'll still make a master list my profile page and copy and paste as needed. It doesn't look like I can automate the process.

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that's right... only on the one page.

Answer 2

Hi Christopher, welcome aboard.  One way you could do that is to create a free-space page and put your single list of sources, with complete citations on that page.  You can then link to the free-space page from your individual profiles and call your sources by a number or a short title.  See this section of the Help file for info:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Free-Space_Profile

FWIW, I have done that for some of my repeatedly used sources, although I'm not sure if it's considered good practice or is completely in accordance with the site's accepted style criteria.

Answer 3

Here is a free-space page for one source I use often:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Durbin_and_Logsdon_Genealogy_With_Related_Families_1626_-_1991

I suppose you could create a similar page to hold all of your frequently-used sources and use the span tags to link to profiles. What you cannot do is use the free-space page to transclude another document.

Answer 4

I created a series of sources pages on https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Category:Sources-Rowley%2C_Rowley_Name_Study and when I want to reference a source, for example if I want to reference the mouthful of

Brainard, Homer W. Henry Rowley and Some of His Descendants. New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Volume XXXVII (January 1906), starting at page 57 and continuing into the next three issues (pg 37:57-66, 97-103, 203-208, 251-266

I could use

* Source: [https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Sources-Rowley%2C_Rowley_Name_Study Brainard, Homer W. Henry Rowley and Some of His Descendants] pg 60-62

To get what you actually want, I could number them on the page by putting a # in front them them instead of a * and then

* Source: [https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Sources-Rowley%2C_Rowley_Name_Study Rowley Sources #4], pg 60-2

though the second choice isn't as elegant and the numbers could change on the page if I insert a reference at the top of the page.

I'm not sure how you use the <span>s to reference the URL instead.