Source Page Improvement

Gordon Collett

Currently there are three types of sources on the source page:

1. Sources generated from FamilySearch indexes. These are person-centric sources, contain information about the person in the source that the Family Tree program can use to find other sources/hints for the person, and should only be attached to one individual in Family Tree.
2. Sources generated from FamilySearch un-indexed images. These are source-centric sources in that they do not point to a person. They point to the image of a full page of a record source. They do not contain any information about any person in the image and can be attached to as many individuals as desired in Family Family Tree.
3. Sources generated from outside records. These are also source-centric and act just like the un-indexed images.

Currently the source page has only two icons indicating type of source.

• The tree icon which identifies sources contained within the FamilySearch website. This is used for both (1) and (2) above.
• The globe icon which identifies sources from outside the FamilySearch website. This is used for (3) above.

Please develop a third icon that can be used for (2) above so that the two different types of FamilySearch sources can be identified at a glance . This would serve as a subtle reminder that those two types of sources function differently in regards to the effects of source editing and the number of people to which it may be or should be attached.

Julia Szent-Györgyi

I would use the terms person-centric and page-centric. We already (mis)use the word "source" in too many ways.

Type (3) has subtypes, but I'm not sure they need different icons.

Type 3a is actually-outside sources, such as register images on Matricula-Online or index entries on Genteam. They can at heart be either page-centric or person-centric, but they're all treated on FS as page-centric, because FS's system can't talk to other sites' databases.

Type 3b is FS sources entered via the image's URL due to an incomplete index. These would be person-centric sources if they could be, that is, if index correction allowed the addition of entries and fields.

Type 3c is FS sources entered via the image's URL due to multiple events recorded on the same page. FS's attachment tools will only allow one association between an image and a profile, so if, say, both the husband's and a child's deaths are on the same register page, you either have to combine these otherwise-unrelated events into a single citation, or you have to attach one of the events as an "outside" source.