Tagging persons in a Memory, then creating sources from the Memory
I have an obituary in Memories listing a decedent and 17 survivors. I have no problem tagging them all. I usually also create a Source for the decedent in the Source Box from the Memory. I would also like to create a Source for each of the survivors who are listed. Is there a more efficient way than copying the decedent's Source 17 times and editing each one before attaching them to the survivors?
Answers
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Yes: create a single source that applies to everyone mentioned, and attach that to each profile, using your Source Box. This will create a set of linked/connected instances of the same source.
For example, I recently worked on a funeral notice (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-66BJ-GJ?i=916) that I ended up attaching to 26 profiles (https://www.familysearch.org/tree/sources/attachedto/QP6Y-TQT). You can see what it looks like for example on the deceased's sister-in-law's profile (https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/sources/LCSW-PL4); it's the 1909 source. Sorry, I couldn't offhand find an English-language example, but that actually points out the great utility of such "connected-set sources": if I were to add a translation of the notice, I'd only need to do it once, not 26 times.
Edited to add: you'll notice that I have not made use of the "reason to attach" box, but that's where I could write in the individually-applicable things like "sister-in-law of deceased".
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Julia - thank you for the suggestion - this is a timesaver. Because of past experiences, I was under the (mistaken) impression that I couldn't attach the same source to multiple people. (BTW, I was in Budapest in 2017 on a VIking Danube River Cruise, and I loved the place! Unfortunately, we were there only one day.)
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Your impression wasn't entirely mistaken.
Sources on FamilySearch fall into two very broad categories: individual or group. Index entries are the primary example of individual sources; they're attached using Source Linker, and each person in the index is intended to be associated with a single profile in the tree. This is doubtless the source of your impression that sources are single-attachment deals: when using Source Linker, they are effectively exactly that.
Indexes inevitably contain errors; to work around that, it is possible to attach an index entry to multiple profiles. You just have to use your Source Box to do it, not Source Linker. However, this is not the only purpose of your Source Box. The use that I consider primary (and also one of FS's absolutely best features) is the creation and attachment of group/linked sources, like what I illustrated with that funeral notice: a document (webpage, uploaded image, reference to a library book, transcript of your phone conversation with Uncle Bob, or what have you) and its metadata (title, citation, date, notes, and so on) which can be associated with every profile that it's relevant to. You can edit the source from any of its instances, and all instances will reflect the edit, but you can add individualized detail if needed using the "reason to attach" box.
Another aspect of FS's sourcing that I often wish other sites would copy is your profile's Source Box, from which you can attach any of the sources you've saved to any profile in the Tree (by ID or by finding it by name). Note that your view of your Source Box, and the tools available in it, depend on which end you got there from. If you start from a profile's Sources and use "Add Source — Attach From Source Box", then you'll only be able to attach things to that one profile. To get the "many to many" tools, you'll need to click your name at the top right of any main-site page and choose Source Box from there.
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