Referring to or reproducing newspaper articles (or other items of publication)
A person committed suicide in 1897. This was widely reported in Swedish newspapers at the time (since then, newspapers have established ethical standards to avoid reporting suicides). A few weeks later, a publicist and childhood friend of that person published a personal memory from their joint days in school, later encounters, and his own reaction to learning about his friend's death.
How is this written memory best represented on FamilySearch? It's written in Swedish, the newspaper it was published in has been scanned and is available free of charge over the Internet from the website of the Royal Library in Stockholm, Sweden (as part of its vast legal deposit collection); the author, who was a well-known politician of his time, died in 1899 and thus any copyright to the article has since long expired.
Should the text itself be uploaded to FamilySearch, or is a web link sufficient/preferred? If uploaded, should it be translated to English as well and the translation presented in parallel with the original? Should the text go under Memories, Facts (as a custom fact of a publication printing the personal memory), or Events (as a custom event taking place on the day of publication)?
In a more general case: Does the type of article (interview, news report, opinion, tribute, family ad, obituary, personal memory, biography) or its relation to the person concerned (subject, author) matter to what presentation format and context is chosen?
Answers
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good question.
I think most people would prefer an actual copy of the newspaper item be uploaded to FamilySearch Memories and linked to the profile of the people in question. And It would be nice if it was part of a pdf file - where more than just the newspaper image would be part of the pdf - but with additional information - such as a translation, and background information and supplemental information of interest.
There really is no right or wrong answer.
But when uploading items to FamilySearch you do need to be aware of possible copyright enfringement.
But a newspaper article from 1897 - would be outside normal copyright law - as anything before about 1923 is considered "public domain".
One should also be thoughtful of how descendants of such a person might feel about information of a sensitive nature being put in a public forum.
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In my opinion, it's always good to have a thorough summary of any source's relevant contents as part of the source citation, because link rot happens: websites reorganize, contracts change, entities go the way of the dodo. What form that summary takes depends on the specifics: what does the archive's Terms of Use say about screenshots or reposting of images? Does the periodical still claim any copyright? (For 19th century material, the answer is generally "no, it can't", but I don't know what happens when it's an article from the 1950s, say.) My most usual procedure is to create a source using the link to the archive's scan, and an English translation of the key parts in the Notes/Description field. And no, the exact nature of the material doesn't really affect anything: I'd cite an obituary or a police blotter the same way.
However, whatever you end up doing, be prepared for it to be re-shared. Many people have the erroneous belief that "free of charge" is equivalent to "free of any restrictions whatsoever", and will cheerfully copy your family photos, transcriptions, and translations to every family tree, blog, or other website they contribute to.
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Thank you for your comments so far. While I primarily had the technical question of where (under what header in the FamilySearch person entry) to put the material, and in what form, you bring up other important (legal, ethical) points, which should be covered by any general advice on this matter, and I'd like to address those in separate follow-up comments. But first the technical party:
Julia Szent-Györgyi wrote:
> My most usual procedure is to create a source using the link to the archive's scan, and an English translation of the key parts in the Notes/Description field.
Thanks, that was pretty much what I was looking for! I initially dismissed the Sources section because I didn't immediately see how I could add another source, but now I know. Still, I don't seem to be able to upload a PDF to the source record entry, only to the Memories section, completely detached from its source. This is the person I'm working on, in case you want to see what kind of source and contents I'm talking about:
https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/LRRP-FXV
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If you want to discuss the ethical issues with revealing "secrets" which, in fact, can be searched and found by anyone who knows to look for it, I am careful. I am doing research for me, in-laws and adopted relatives. I have found some devastating secrets, 4, to be precise. I consult with the current day descendants on whether to make those public sources visible by attaching them, and so far, the answer has been no. In my own family where I only consulted my brother, we are hesitant. As with your suicide I would consider if you want it made more visible by adding the newspaper as a source. Only you and your relatives can decide. It's very personal
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The Help Center coughed up this video lesson on attaching sources in Family Tree:
https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/lessons/attaching-sources-to-family-tree
I haven't watched it (don't want to wake people yet), so I don't know how much detail it goes into about file types and whatnot, but it may be a good place to start regardless.
Ah! Found the (very short) help article that I was vaguely remembering: https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/can-i-use-a-private-memory-as-a-source-in-family-tree
It rather skips the important detail of how one goes about attaching any memory as a source; for that, consult the "related article" it gives at the end (https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/how-do-i-add-an-outside-source-to-family-tree), or the more specific one on using memories (https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/how-do-i-use-memories-as-sources-in-family-tree).
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@AndersAndersson, one method of attaching memories to a new source is to create the source this way.
From Detail page
Sources Tab
+Add Source
Add New Source
Under "Source Type" click the Add a Memory radio button
From there you can Upload Memory or Select From Gallery (PDF & other formats)
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@Gail Swihart Watson, the ethics of what to post or not to post is an intricate topic involving numerous important questions. I therefore plan to start a separate thread on that rather than try to conclude it here.
Meanwhile, I have added a research note (on the Collaborate tab) to the person entry I referred to earlier with the following remarks titled "Discretion advised" (while ticking the Alert Note checkbox to also advertise this note on the Details tab):
The cause of death was suicide. The circumstances surrounding this event were reported in over 100 different newspapers across Sweden in March and April of 1897. Given the publishing practice of the late 1800's, some of those reports may be inappropriate for dissemination and may violate FamilySearch community standards. Therefore it is suggested that only a selected subset of those reports, which are available from the newspaper legal deposit archive at the Swedish Royal Library website, are linked from FamilySearch. As an alternative to linking, excerpts from those reports may be posted in the Memories section, in original Swedish or in translation, with source references.
As the person whose death is being discussed has no surviving descendants today (his only son passing away with no children of his own in 1973), nor had any siblings, his closest living biological relatives may be some first cousins two or three times removed. While I would welcome contact with them and hear their opinion, I also have to consider the interests of members of my own extended family, which has a strong connection (I consider it to be of existential significance) to this tragic event of 1897.
I may still have a few technical issues to discuss concerning newspapers and similar sources, and I believe those issues belong in this thread. However, I first want to better understand certain Family Tree editing matters to be able to make my point.
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