List of unsourced profiles is too cumbersome to search through

+13 votes
314 views
Today’s WikiTree email blast asked for volunteers to become “Sourcerers” And add sources to unsourced profiles, but the landing page the confromts prospective vokunteers does not provide an efficient way to search for profiles that fit the volunteers’ areas of expertise and interest.  After scrolling through 20-30 pages of surnames started with the letter “G” I was still looking at surnames starting with “ga.”  Trying tonsearch by time period or geographical area produced the same kind of unmanageably huge lists to sort through.  I gave up in frustration because it was taking too long to find anything I thought Inmight be able to help with.
in WikiTree Tech by GR Gordon G2G4 (4.8k points)
retagged by Ellen Smith

there are also unfortunately a whole slew of profiles that simply have no location entered in them, Ales mentioned them in another conversation and basically said he wasn't creating a DBase error report for them because there were too many.

There is another Maintenance Category for those: Unlocated Profiles. It's another huge problem, but hopefully, as people are sourcing, it will be reduced. (At least, as long as people remember to fill in the location fields and remove the category after they add a source.)

I add locations regularly to profiles I work on, don't bother putting a tag on them I just handle the problem right away, even if only to write ''France'' or ''Canada, Nouvelle-France'' in there to at least put limits on where to look.
I agree, but haven't fully looked at search possibilities, so far I see letter selection, so choosing "M" it took almost an hour to get to "Martin", ... pst the Mc's and Macs... maybe there's a way to do specific surname where you might be able to supply research?
I find it easier to go up or down a tree for which I have sources available rather than trying to find them by surname.  For the name Martin, you could be dealing with a gazillion profiles easily, it is quite common in both French and English.

Danielle, since there are hundred of profiles in Unlocated Profiles, they've probably been placed there by different people for different reasons. Undoubtedly, some of them could be located pretty easily. I'm guessing that others of them would require a lot more work (or at least more work than whoever added the category was willing/able to devote to the issue at the time).

Although I found an earlier post from RJ that you can enter the letter and then add the full surname you're searching to the script. This should help terrifically b/c I have tons of Mitchell research from many states, not necessarily my line, but sources to share. Excited!!
This was exactly the same frustrating experience that I had, except that I did not have an hour to spend on the search and quit when it became obvious after 15 minutes of scrolling that I was still not getting anywhere near the neighborhood of the desired surname.  That’s what motivated this G2G qusstion.  Thanks to everyone for your sympathitc comments and helpful answers, especially RJ Horace and Jill Claus who provided a pair of great shortcut tips.

8 Answers

+3 votes
 
Best answer
It is possible to get a list of unsourced profiles for a specific surname.  To do this, go to the "My WikiTree" menu and select "Surnames".  It will automatically come up with a list of your surname.  However, you can type any surname at the top and search and then select unsourced on the results page.

It brings you to the correct page with the surname you selected.  So there will be more names than just the one you queried, but at least you are quickly on the correct page.
by Jill Claus G2G6 Mach 2 (21.0k points)
selected by GR Gordon
Thanks, Jill.  This answer and RJ Horace's answer are the most helpful answers for me, as they allowed me to cut the list down to about 800 entries that were a familiar surname and also unsourced.  A significant number of those appeared to be for private profiles.  I wish it were possible to give you both a star.
+16 votes
I agree, it wasn't the best way the unsourced profiles were presented. There is a different way you can find unsourced profiles though. If you click on "Find" in the top right corner there is the tab "Projects". Click on it, then look for "Data doctors". Click there. There is a line with "Custom reports for Suggestion lists, Unsourced lists, Unconnected lists". If you click on Unsourced lists, there is a list of geographical regions. Now you can look for a region you are comfortable with and you get a table with the number of unsourced profiles seperated by time. If you click on the number you get the list with unsourced profiles.
by Jelena Eckstädt G2G Astronaut (1.4m points)
+12 votes

You can also start from [[Category:Unsourced Profiles]], and then choose a continent, like [[Category:North_America,_Unsourced_Profiles]], then choose a country, like [[Category:Canada,_Unsourced_Profiles]], and then (at least in some cases), a smaller jurisdiction (county, province, state, territory, etc.), like [[Ontario,_Unsourced_Profiles]]

That's normally the way I work: I pick a jurisdiction where I have access to BMD (and preferably census) sources, and then try to empty that category (or at least clear out as many as I can).

You can also follow the second link in the mail blast to find unsourced profiles with "Gordon" in the name, or change the end of the URL to search for any other name.

by Greg Slade G2G6 Pilot (664k points)
Thank you for the star, Alex.
+7 votes
I agree with you 100%. I like to work on surnames that are common in my own family instead of lists of names I am unfamiliar with. I think an easier search mechanism for surnames like what they have for unconnected would encourage more people to help out. With that being said, I have found unusual things doing this that make the task of sourcing or connecting fun and educational even for people who are clearly not family members within 10 th cousin kind of realm.

I should add that an earlier post added that unsourced is our largest category so we should take some time to knock a few out each month.
by Gurney Thompson G2G6 Pilot (442k points)
Gurney --

I'm not sure if this will be helpful, but you can find all surnames on WikiTree listed alphabetically starting here: https://www.wikitree.com/indexes/person/A/

You can get to this alphabetical list by entering https://www.wikitree.com/genealogy or at the bottom of any surname page, e.g. https://www.wikitree.com/genealogy/Fiscus

Hope that helps!
+9 votes
I also like to go to the surname page of whatever I am interested in and select the unsourced profiles from there. It is usually the last quick link.
by Lucy Selvaggio-Diaz G2G6 Pilot (816k points)
+3 votes
I refine my search in the Unsourced wikitree+ page https://wikitree.sdms.si/default.htm?report=srch1&Query=Unsourced+Unsourced+Profiles

If you want a specific surname under Text change it to: Unsourced, surname

This will give you results of the profiles with that surname. You will also probably get some managed by that surname but you can ignore those.
by Kyla H G2G6 Mach 5 (53.8k points)
+7 votes

You can jump to a surname.  First jump to a letter, in the A B C ... X Y Z list at the top.  If you click S, the address bar will say

https://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Category:Unsourced_Profiles&from=S

Then extend the from=S at the end to the full name, e.g Sacheverell

https://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Category:Unsourced_Profiles&from=Sacheverell

You can save the link if you do the same surname a lot.

PS obsoleted by Jill Claus's post below

by Living Horace G2G6 Pilot (620k points)
I'll try that, thanks RJ!
Thanks, RJ.  This answer and Jill’s answer are the most helpful answers for me, as they allowed me to cut the list down to about 800 entries that were a familiar surname and also unsourced.  A significant number of those appeared to be for private profiles.  I wish it were possible to give you both a “best answer” star.
+3 votes
Perhaps, the two easiest ways to search are by using alphabetic surnames or by doing it by centuries.  Both options are listed on the unsourced name page.
by David Hughey G2G Astronaut (1.7m points)

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