Bookmark a person or path to them

RebeccaMarshall79

As I’ve been digging around in my family history, it turns out to be vast, deep, and unbelievably extensive with some amazingly interesting relatives which is incredibly exciting. Only trouble is after I’ve found them and click a new path, I struggle to re-find the people and paths that led me to them. It would be outstandingly helpful if there was a way to bookmark a person and the path that I went to find them in order to find them again. I so desperately wish this were an option.

Too, it would be so helpful if I could email a path to another relative so they can see it as well.

I really hope this can happen. Thank you.

Paul W

@RebeccaMarshall79

I don't claim to be particularly computer savvy, so can't dispute the possibility of being able to "..bookmark a person and the path". However, there are currently two ways of getting back to an individual of whom you had been taking note:

(1) Bookmark their page - perhaps create a folder and add any other links of this type to it.

(2) Add any ID you are likely to want to view again to your "Following" list. You can create labels for family branches, so you know at least division of your ancestry to whom they are connected.

As an example, you could create eight, separate labels for each of the branches connected to your (eight) great-grandparents. True, the number of labels you can create is limited, but at least this facility provides a reasonable way of finding an individual / branch again. For example, if you label a great-great grandparent "William WATSON" with that of his maternal great-grandfather's name "(George) HALL", you should have little difficulty in getting back to him, via the HALL family.

If this is too messy for you, copy the relevant URLs into a database containing the names of your family members in which you have a particular interest.

Maybe your "bookmarking a path" idea is possible, otherwise I can only think of one other suggestion - of bookmarking the "pedigree view" pages that with contain several generations of a branch of a family in which you have an interest.

Hopefully, other members of this forum can offer better suggestions.

RebeccaMarshall79

Hi Paul,

Thanks for your tips and ideas, I really appreciate it.

I have added people to my following list but often I'm unable to find a way to get back to them following the line of ancestors, clicking person to person. The following list doesn't offer the tree branch to them, just the particular person is saved unless I'm doing something incorrectly.

My family tree is much deeper and filled with a tremendous amount of people, more than I ever anticipated plus quite a shocking grouping of notables that I'd like to be able to follow the line from me back through to them and save it. I'm going back in time by millennia so it gets thick and complicated.

I keep losing a particular person that I want to get back to and even though he is saved in my following list, I don't have the path to him, I can't find the route again despite having stumbled upon it twice. It's not a straight shot to him following a line of grandfathers, for instance.

I'll see if I can make your suggestions work, though despite being through this site backward and forwards trying to find ways to remember, mark people, and save paths, I'm a tad confused about the labels and folders you've mentioned. I'll see if bookmarking with my browser works.

The pedigree view, if I click a particular person, follows their line but doesn't show the line to me and unfortunately, I seem to be missing a way to save that too. Unless that's the limit to following.

This site is fantastic and it's beyond my imagination in helpful. I just wish there was a way to save a particular line of ancestors or bookmark a person which would readily bring back the path to them.

Thanks, I appreciate it and hopefully more tips will come along.

Julia Szent-Györgyi

The labels that Paul mentioned are available on your "Following" list, but they're all nicely well-hidden behind mystery-meat navigation. To get to your list, go to the main FS site and choose Following from the Family Tree menu. To the right of each name on the list, you'll see something that looks like a monochrome traffic light or vertical ellipsis. Click that and choose "Add Label". FamilySearch offers a half-dozen pre-made labels (Actively Changing, Completed, End of Line, Interested In, Researching, and Stuck), and you can make ten labels of your own. (They're each limited to 20 characters.)

When you add a label (by clicking on it on the popup; there's no indication that doing so will do anything), you're given an opportunity to add a note with it. Once you've added such a note, you can view it by clicking the label's "bubble" under the person's name and dates on your list. You can also filter your list using your labels; you access that using the "Options" button at the top right corner of the list.

Another tool that may help is "View My Relationship". It has its limitations: it figures out my relationship to my father-in-law's cousin, but not to his second wife's father or grandfather, and it only looks through 15 generations.

RebeccaMarshall79

Thanks Julia, I'll look into that, I appreciate the explanation and tips. Does that save the path from me to that person or more information to the "following" aspect?

I did try saving a URL after clicking through a long line of people and that doesn't work. When I go back to the link, it takes me back to the very start of my immediate family, just as an fyi.

Indeed, as I'm going back more than 15 generations, I'm getting those notices that "view my relationship" has hit its limit.

Julia Szent-Györgyi

There isn't a way I know of to save a genealogical "path", but the idea is that you can describe it in the note that you attach with the label. Something like "me - my mom - her father - his sister Mary's husband - his mother - her father". (It's generally shorter/easier to start with yourself and go up, because then you seldom need to include names. Going the other way, you'd always need to specify which of their kids, even if only one was entered, because someone could add more.)

RebeccaMarshall79

Oh I see what you're saying. Got it now, thank you. I will see if I can make that work though I know in some cases where I'm going back to 1200, 1000, 0 and before, that might be a long list to add in the notes. Terrific idea for sure though and I'll give it a whirl. I appreciate you taking the time to comment and help out.