Jeremiah Davison
I am working on my family tree on my mother's side, and making extensive use of the church records provided by familysearch.org.
Many of my potential ancestors have reference or code letters and numbers attached to them. A typical example from my family tree is a gentleman called Jeremiah Davison, who appears with the code MQSK-4WT. The codes always appear to consist of 4 characters followed by a dash then another 3 characters. They can be capital letters or numbers.
I am finding it highly challenging to trace the correct line of descent through the 17th and 18th centuries, and am wondering to what extent these "codes" can be used? Can anyone refer me to some place where I could find out more about them and how they operate? E.g. if a father has a particular code, would the same or a similar code apply to his children? Could one person have different codes at particular points of their lives? How are the codes determined in the first place? Is it possible to search for an ancestor using these codes?
Many thanks, Alan
Answers
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Those are the database identifiers in FamilySearch's collaborative Family Tree. They are randomly assigned by the computer at profile creation, and encode no meaning beyond pointing at a specific profile. IDs created close together in time are sometimes similar, sometimes not.
To use the profile identifier (PID) to get to a profile, you can use the box at the top of the Recents menu, or Find - By ID, or you can simply paste the new ID in place of the one at the end of a URL.
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