"Should I" and "how to" list a new source I've found

jonericnelson1

I am experienced in posting pictures of family in F.S. And looking at and investigating family trees. I have over 300 uploaded "memories" in my own work (photos, stories, etc). I so very much appreciate this resource and will continue happily using F.S.

I occasionally will find a document, usually a picture of a page (like picture of a death certificate) (or a picture of an obituary in a paper) ... and usually these are jpg's (If I scan them, or snip them). And they are not in the person's sources index ... but they become a "memory" that I have posted, and then linked to relatives.

My question is, when I find a document like this (especially birth certificates, or death certificates, or marriage certificates) ... is it sufficient to just post these as "memories" linked to a person in my family tree? I have the feeling that if it's from an official source (eg: govt source or newspaper source) (or even if it's a website url address) ... shouldn't I also post it as a new "source" in that person's pages? I have never done this (and don't know how to do it) ...

So, please ... should I be posting "sources" if I find new info, and how would I do that?

Thank you,

J Eric Nelson

Stockton, CA

Carla Tobler

@jonericnelson1

We are attaching a link to an article from the help center that should be helpful.

https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/how-do-i-add-an-outside-source-to-family-tree

Here is another.

https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/how-do-i-create-a-source-in-family-tree

Here is a paragraph from one of these articles. "Sometimes you find sources that are not available on FamilySearch. You find them on another website, or you have a paper or digital copy. You can type the information to add these sources to Family Tree."

You will discover as you read these articles and follow the instructions, that we are encouraged to create these sources.

Best wishes.

Julia Szent-Györgyi

Whether you add a scan/photo as a source (on a profile's Sources tab) or as a "Memory" depends not on the originating entity (government, church, funeral home, newspaper), but on the contents. In my opinion, pictures of people, places, or objects belong under Memories. Documents or pictures of documents belong under Sources. (Gravestones count as documents for these purposes.)

But FamilySearch makes it easy to give in to the power of "and": you can add a memory to a profile's Sources tab by clicking on "Add Source" and choosing "Add New Memory Source".

The resulting citation-creation screen gives you the option of uploading a new memory, or choosing one from your gallery:

If you make sure the "Add Source to My Source Box" checkbox (near the bottom of the citation-creation screen, not visible in the screenshot) is checked, then you only need to do the citation-creation step once per photo or scan; you can then add the same citation to every profile it's relevant to using your source box.