Question

What do you recommend my doing with some really long entries -- such as wills, deeds, and the like.

Answer 1

You can also use "anything" or free space profile pages.

http://www.wikitree.com/index.php?action=newspace

They are really handy for storing long or unique pieces of information.

Answer 2

One option would be to convert them to a PDF file, which can be uploaded and attached to a profile.  That way it's not in the biography, but still easily accessible.  You attach it just like a photo.

Answer 3

This question is from 2012, but I think this is a relevant/interesting issue.  In my opinion, I always take a profile more seriously when I see that someone has made the effort to include a bio and/or text of or links to original documents related to the person.

If you find someone's will, I think, at minimum, you should provide enough source information so that a person could find the document.

For wills that are a few pages, I will usually type them into the biography.  For longer documents (like probate files or Civil War pension files), I will typically just either provide an image and/or text of the part of the document that has significant information (for example - pension files often have marriage records, for example).

Here is one of my favorites, my profile for my gr-gr-gr-gr-gr-grandfather, Reuben Lothridge, whose will is probably the most important genealogical document I have found for him, since it is the only source I have seen on the names of all of his children (and the only direct evidence that he is the father of my gr-gr-gr-gr-grandmother):

 http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Lothridge-3

Comments

Thank you.