Profile with non-public source

Question

Hello, I've got notification about newly created profile (  https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Zidek-46#M16621  ) . So I've checked it and found out that it's sourced wrongly.

Manager of the profile provided only path to image on her local computer (which is good for nothing) and added note "FamilySearch" - that could mean there is similar profile somewhere on FamilySearch, but no further detail was provided.

In conclusion, there is no valid source that could prove existence of the person, but I would say that aoutomatic mechanisms would not evaluate it as unsourced.

How we should treat those weirdly sourced profiles?

Thanks, Michal

EDIT: btw, it was probably caused by GEDCOM import.

Comments

I see that the unsourced template was added to this profile.  I do not know if you notified the PM by email or not.  If you did great, if not, at a minimum you need to send a message or post to the profile comments or research notes that the source is insufficient.  Otherwise a new member may not understand.  This can lead to conflict and/or a repeat on other profiles.

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Yeah, I've added that template, and sent following to PM:

Hello, I've marked this profile as unsourced and removed FamilySearch in Sources - it tells nothing about the person without providing further detail (ie person ID from FamilySearch or image of some historical resource).

You've included some external source, unfortinatelly, it's path to the image on your local computer ( = invisible for us).

Answer 1

The profile was created yesterday.  The Profile Manager made an edit today.

Why not simply talk to the PM? (Leave a profile message .. send a private message.)  Explain why that is not a source and ask if they can, perhaps, upload it, or link to where else it may be online.

Comments

Thanks for the star, Pip. 

Answer 2

Michal, unfortunately what you call "automatic mechanisms" that evaluate profiles as unsourced, do not actually do anything even that sophisticated.

The only time the Unsourced template is automatically added to a profile is when a new profile is manually added (not from a GEDCOM import) and the text box for "sources" is totally blank.  You can put anything at all in there - probably even a single space character, although I have not tested it - and it will not put the Unsourced template there.  The only time there is any intelligence used to make a decision to add the Unsourced template is when a member is looking at a profile and decides to manually add it.

None of the profiles - literally millions of them - that came in from GEDCOM imports had the Unsourced template - all the ones you see were manually added individually.

You have found a perfect example of one that needs that non-existent source removed and {{Unsourced}} added on the top line of the text area.

Comments

I would suggest keeping the "non-existent source" and moving it over to a "Research Notes" section so that it isn't lost. Sometimes those are valuable notes. Perhaps the original uploader of the GEDCOM can be contacted?

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I agree with adding the template Gaile but I'd warn of "removing" the source because it serves as a reference to the person who added it or to someone else that may have access to the book/website, etc.

For example, when doing a GED/merge cleanup I'll see a huge Ancestry.com paragraph and a broken tree link, and it is span linked to a "source" that also has the tree link, and yet another bunch of info in the bio with the span link.  In a case like this when the tree is broken you can remove all of the span links and the "Fact" bits and just leave the URL of the Tree and/or any Ancestry reference numbers and in the sources leave, as a source: [Ancestry.com/url/here Ancestry member tree (broken link) reference # 77627177].

The idea is to clean the profile to look good but not remove info that can be useful to follow on researchers.

Answer 3

I've found the source (birth / babtism record), but only for this profile, because the last name is in my field of interest.

Anyway I noticed  similar problem is on other profile of thet PM, so it's not solved - the core of the problem is still unsolved.

What would help?

Maybe enforcing better check of imported profiles by their PM and disabling of import of profiles with insufficient sources?

Or maybe the GEDCOM importer doesn't work as it should? (doesn't convert resources properly?)