Adding Unconnected Persons
Please Think about moving Add Unconnected Person, It is very very very Extremely Hard to Find. In 3rd party software they sure make this very easy to find while on your site it is very hard to find. I have to use this feature and it took me about lots of time to find. thanks
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I wouldn't say it's all that hard to find, since it's there every single time I click on Recents -- which is pretty much every time I use the Family Tree. However, I agree that it's not exactly in a highly logical spot, but I think this is on purpose: we're supposed to be building a single shared tree, not a bunch of separate ones, so if at all possible, we should be looking for that person or his family somewhere already in the tree, rather than creating a disconnected duplicate.
(Although, come to think of it, I have no idea what would be a logical spot for it. Where did you look first?)
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Like @s10297588641, for a long time I too did not know where to find that tool. I also didn't notice the link at the bottom of the Recents list. I did what so many other novices do: I added then detached a child, parent, or spouse, annoying other contributors in the process.
Where I expected to find the tool was on every Record page, as a third alternative to (1) attach to a suggested profile or (2) already attached to a profile.
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I never look at recents. I always start with find. I spent quite a while looking for a function to add a disconnected person, and never found it. So I had to resort to a goofy backhand way of making imaginary connections and then deleting them. Now that I know it exists I very much doubt that I will remember where it is, other than "some weird place", give up looking, and do it the goofy way again.
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IF you use 3rd software they have came up with a easy way to make so people don't make mistake, while build their own trees, why not do the same here? To prove this finding just look at Roots Magic, and Legacy family tree.
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s10297588641 thank you for sharing your concern about the difficulty you have had in finding "Add Unconnected Person" I note that several comments followed yours. We have forwarded this to the Family Search staff who will consider you suggestion (comment) and appreciate you taking time to let us know about this problem.
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We have forwarded this to the Family Search staff
Yay!
Just this week a contributor used a profile I follow to add an unrelated child, then detach the profile. I recognized a fellow sufferer. They thanked me for alerting them to the Add button at the bottom of the Recents list.
Oh, and I should mention my Recents list usually is so long that I would have to scroll to get to the bottom. I rarely do that. Once I learned the Add button was down there, to reach the button I would just type "xx" in the search box at the top of the list. On the mobile app, to make the search box appear push the list down.
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@dontiknowyou, huh? Everyone's Recents list is exactly the same length (50 profiles, including yours), and in my browser/OS (Firefox, Win10), the size of the box is always exactly the same, with the Add Unconnected Person button at the bottom of the "frame", not at the bottom of the list.
I think the size of the box might be adaptive to your screen size, but I'm not sure. In any case, there's zero scrolling involved to get to the button, for me.
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There is a certain minimum window height and if your screen is under that, the bottom of the frame is hidden until you scroll to very bottom of the screen:
I would be all in favor of moving this menu item elsewhere but also can't think of where else in Family Tree to put it.
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On the web interface, behavior of the Recents list depends on the browser and the window size.
On the mobile app, the button is not visible unless the Recents list is very short or the user goes to the bottom of the list. Resetting all data clears the Recents list.
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(I still don't trust the image uploading). Now, @dontiknowyou , request for having it on the record pages, I think it would be good to have it as a choice in the source linker:
under the Possible Matches tab so that there was always a "Create New Person" here. Unless they are concerned that this would make if far too easy for people to be lazy and just create a new person every time and lead to a whole bunch of duplicates.
But on the Family Tree page itself, it does not seem to warrant being a top level menu item, that is on the same level as "Overview - Tree - Person - Recents - Find - Following - My Contributions"
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I just tested it a little, and the size of the drop-down box is adaptive to the browser window: if I make the browser window shorter (top to bottom), the list shows fewer entries and the Add button moves up.
However, in testing whether this behavior was browser-dependent or not (it doesn't seem to be), I discovered that the behavior is different when you're using Recents on a profile page versus on a Tree view. I've been using it on a Tree view, where it has the described behavior. On a profile page (About, Details, doesn't matter), in a maximized browser the Add button just barely fits on my screen, and the box doesn't change size if the browser window is made smaller, meaning that there is scrolling involved, in the browser window.
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Yes, I would like an Add Unconnected Person button also in the Source Linker on the web interface.
The mobile app has this feature already, so if I am doing a lot of building the tree from scratch (working on a new surname or in a place with few records on FamilySearch), I work in the app.
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So what suggestions do people have for where to put it?
So after throwing it all over the page, I think I could put up with it being under Tools between Find Similar People and Merge By ID.
This would make the Tools list longer, but they could keep the length the same by doing away with "Possible Duplicates" since this link really is not needed. At this point it is completely equivalent to clicking Show All under Research Helps and it always has a (0) unless there is a list of possible duplicates at the top of the page under Research Helps.
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I've been using it on a Tree view
Hah! I almost always use the Recents list from a Person page.
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I use and value the Possible Duplicates in the Tools list. All those tools apply to the person being viewed, so logically Add Unconnected Person does not belong in that list.
Logically, it doesn't make much sense to add an unconnected person unless you have a source, right? So, on a Record and in the Source Linker. And, rarely, from the bottom of the Recents list. I have added unconnected persons from sources not in FamilySearch: eg, from published family history books or genealogy research articles.
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Yep, here is the tree page Recents menu:
It seems the Person page programming team and the Tree page programming team need to get together and get some consistency here. (I'm off to the New Person Page group again!)
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I use and value the Possible Duplicates in the Tools list.
Why? Why do you scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page to click Possible Duplicates when right at the top of the page in the Research Helps box you can click on Show All? The two links, although the names are different, have the identical function and take you to the same place.
Or why scroll down to see the number there when you can see whether there are one, two, three, or more in the Research Helps section? And click on Show All if you want to see the total number.
All those tools apply to the person being viewed, so logically Add Unconnected Person does not belong in that list.
True. Following that logic it doesn't belong anywhere on the Person page other than the Recents list since that is the only place on the page the deals with other people.
Logically, it doesn't make much sense to add an unconnected person unless you have a source, right?
Since the vast majority of genealogical sources have not yet been digitized, it has to be accessible somewhere other than when working from a FamilySearch source. So where?
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Question to those who use one of the individual-tree sites more often than I do (which is not hard to achieve): where do you go to add an unconnected person there? Is it available from a person's details, or only from a tree view, or both/neither?
And for anyone who went looking recently enough to remember, where did you look for it on FS?
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I just spent some time looking in My Heritage and staring at the person and pedigree for my tree there, I can't see any way to add an unconnected person. Going to the help page: https://faq.myheritage.com/en/family-site/online-family-tree there is no information about how to do so. Every article about adding people talks only about adding a family member. Either I am blind or the only way to add an unconnected individual is to start a separate, brand new tree or to add the person as a family member then delete the relationship.
Moving on to Ancestry, you can add an unrelated person by following this procedure: "An unrelated person: Add the unrelated person as any type of family member to anyone in your tree (because you're going to disconnect the relationship, but the only way to add someone at first is to add them as family)..." See: https://support.ancestry.com/s/article/Adding-People-to-a-Tree?language=en_US
So in Ancestry it is clearly stated that you cannot directly add an unconnected person.
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in Ancestry.com you can have as many logins as you want, and in each one you can start a tree. That is one way to make a profile of an unconnected person. You can also start a new tree in an account that already has a tree. Or you can upload a GEDCOM. However, most users there probably do what they do here: create a new person attached to a tree then detach them from the tree. Any way you do it, it is clumsy. There is no tool to split a conflated profile and no tool to merge duplicated profiles.
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Gordon -"It seems the Person page programming team and the Tree page programming team need to get together and get some consistency here. (I'm off to the New Person Page group again!)"
The home page programming team needs to also be involved, as Resents can also be accessed from there.
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That home page recents list is a bit different in that it is a complete web page rather than a menu. However, on that page you do also have to scroll to the very bottom to find Add Unconnected Person in rather unobtrusive type. That is probably the hardest place to find it.
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What is this home page you all speak of?
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The new one which now has Recents in its menu bar:
But this Recent's menu item goes to here:
(If both images load)
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I don't have a HOME tab anywhere.
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You don't get the new home page? Do you have that slider in the top right corner that says "Try New Home Page Features"? What do you get when you click on the FamilySearch log in the top left corner of any page? That should always take you to the old or new home page, which some people call the personal landing page, depending on how that slider is set.
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Got it. Thanks!
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The Possible Duplicates in the Tools list, and the Research Help on the top of the page work slightly differently. Possible duplicates adds an intermediary screen that gives more info, such as birth date; but it also requires an extra go back to get out. I like having the choice.
Also, quite often one of them is broken, so it is really nice to have a backup.
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I guess I'm not being clear enough when I state that Possible Duplicates under Tools is not needed any more. Images always help:
Rather than scroll all the way down to Tools, if you like that view of possible duplicates just click Show All and you will come to the same place.
To offer further proof, here are the URLs you get when using either of these links:
- ..............................Show All: https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/research-help/MX9H-MR1
- Tools-Possible Duplicates: https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/research-help/MX9H-MR1
As you can see, these are identical.
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Julia Szent-Györgyi to answer your question on how do I add unconnected people in Ancestry (for example), the answer is I usually don't. I have only added two people to my tree in Ancestry who are not documented family connections, and I attached them to an ancestor with the relationship "unknown". The vast majority of the time when I have information about a non-relative I look them up in FamilySearch and most of the time they turn out to NOT be unconnected to the world tree, just unconnected to me. I then update the record with my new source or memory. Rarely do I need to create a new person record, but I will - and have - if I can find them in at least one other source besides the one that sent me on the quest. If my little bit of information is all I can find, I hesitate to add them as unconnected to the world tree in FS.
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