Attach source to mutiple people

Thomas Wilde

I'm sure this is not a new idea but I don't seee it on the discussions;

Often a source that is created has information that could appropriately be attached to several people, - particularly family members. It would be most useful to have a dropdown menu of at least other family members that you want the source attached to rather than having to add it to the source box and then adding the source individually to other affected individuals. I believe this options exists for sources of records found through FamilSearch records. Why not make it available for all sources??

genthusiast

SourceBox currently has the option to attach by Name, FSID/PID or the Recents list. You could browse to the profiles to which you want attach the Source to put them on the Recents list or you could copy/paste all the FSID/PIDs.

Alysha Sooaemalelagi

I agree. Often is says unfinished attachments because it's not possible to attach siblings to someone who isn't the main person. I do not know what sourcebox refers to though. It would be great to be able to attach it from the same place. I will look into copy/pasting FSID/PID in the meantime.

genthusiast

@Alysha Sooaemalelagi SourceBox is found under your account/profile menu (top right-hand area)

If it says "unfinished attachments" - that is likely because you attached the Source though Sources Linker and did not attach it to all the record/Tree profiles. If you click that link (unfinished attachments) - Source Linker allows to to complete the uncompleted profile attachment(s).

@Thomas Wilde

Here is a picture of the Source Box Attach Source dialogue (top part of the window) where the tab options - BY NAME, BY ID NUMBER and RECENTS to select are available:

If you copy/paste the IDs of the persons you can use the BY ID NUMBER tab. If you have recently browsed all those profiles - the RECENTS tab will allow you to ATTACH the Source to them.

There are also other solutions which can help you attach Sources to multiple people.

Julia Szent-Györgyi

@Alysha Sooaemalelagi, it is perfectly possible to use Source Linker to attach index entries to siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles, or even unrelated godparents. You just need to use the "Change" drop-downs to change the main person. Source Linker will even allow you to create a profile for missing people.

The only time "Unfinished Attachments" has to be simply dismissed is when the index includes unidentified people, such as boarders or officiants or medical examiners.

W D Samuelsen contact me please

Julia,

Track down and attach. I tracked down one certain officiant's PID because it has to be done due to the unique record identifying the couple as being the Quakers when there were no other records existing except a county marriage record.

Julia Szent-Györgyi

W D, yes, sometimes the stray people in an index can eventually be identified, but more often, it would take way too much effort for no purpose, because I'm pretty sure the relatives of the medical examiner don't care whose death certificates he signed off on. (Well, maybe if it's someone famous, but that's not applicable most of the time.) That type of unfinished attachment really just needs to be dismissed. This doesn't prevent attachment of the source if an identification should turn up accidentally, but it keeps people from feeling nagged about work that doesn't need to be done.

Back to the suggestion that started this, though: I'm in the midst of attaching a bunch of funeral notices and I'm really, really wishing for a Source-Linker-style attachment interface, because as wonderful as it is to find notices that list all of the in-laws and grandchildren and second husbands, it gets Really Difficult to keep track of who is already attached and who isn't.

Oh, and a way to add a linked citation to one's Source Box without breaking the linkage would be Really, Really Good.

Maile L

https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/how-to-find-the-add-to-source-box-link

https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/how-do-i-attach-source-from-source-box

https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/from-my-source-box-how-do-i-attach-a-source-to-a-person-in-family-tree

Kenneth Laird

I think it would be useful to be able to attach a given person in a source to more than one individual. I frequently encounter alternative people in the database who, for one reason or another, don't seem safe to merge. However, there are sources that seem just as plausible for more than one such person. Marking the source as not a match, causes it to disappear from the hints box. Not doing so leaves it cluttering the hints box, possibly causing other attachable sources to not show up conveniently.

Julia Szent-Györgyi

@Kenneth Laird, the problem is that attaching an index entry (meaning a single person in a single indexed record) to multiple tree profiles goes against the intended and designed structure of the tree, and can wreak havoc in the hinting system.

My thinking is, if the identification is too tentative for a merge, then the identification is too tentative for the source to be attached. Conversely, if the identification is certain enough for the source to be attached, then the identification is certain enough for the profiles to be merged.

All that said, it is actually possible to attach an index entry to multiple profiles, using your Source Box. It's just Source Linker that can't (or rather, won't) do that.