Are Source Linkages from NUMIDENT taking the tree forward or not?
Yesterday (4 July 2024) I raised a query asking whether the user "TreeBuilding Project" was taking the tree forward or wasting time? (I would link to that thread but the community software refuses point-blank to go to the thread as a whole)
The "TreeBuilding Project" user was linking a source record index (from the "United States, Social Security Numerical Identification Files (NUMIDENT), 1936-2007") to profile GFS1-ZS6, Amelia Matthews. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6KWF-ZSBL
In the original thread, I pointed out that several of the things that user "TreeBuilding Project" did on Amelia's profile were counter-productive.
The counter-argument to my allegation is that the user "TreeBuilding Project" (if they are actually a user and not a bit of software) can only work with what Source Linker has set up for them when attaching a source. I would therefore like to raise my concerns here in order to identify where the underlying issues lie. I must point out that I have attached and detached the relevant source in order to (a) understand the linkages better and (b) to correct one of the worst issues. My concerns are:
- The source record from the NUMIDENT contains multiple names suggesting - but not proving - multiple marriages. Nothing has been done with those multiple names as a result of which, clues to potential multiple marriages have been obscured. This is not a simple issue but perhaps a way forward would be to add the multiple names as Alternate Names. Could Source Linker do this?
- The user "TreeBuilding Project" had ignored her death date of June 1994 which is there on the record. When I investigated this today, I added that death date to her profile, so if the user is a human being, or if it's software, they seem to have messed up by missing the death date. Based on today's investigation I cannot blame Source Linker for omitting the death date.
- The user "TreeBuilding Project" created an undated Custom Event "PreviousResidence" of "Seattle, King, Washington, United States" when the correct input should have been an undated (standard) Event of type "Residence" of "Seattle, King, Washington, United States". This appears to be down to Source Linker creating a Custom Event "PreviousResidence" rather than just creating a Standard Residence Event. This is surely totally non-standard. Can Source Linker create a Standard Residence Event instead of the Previous Residence Custom Event?
- On a personal level, I find the creation of Custom Events for "SocialProgramApplication", and "Social Program Correspondence" (presumably down to Source Linker?) to be genealogical irrelevances - the events give rise to important records but are not, of themselves, important. However, anyone using Source Linker is free to suppress those Custom Events if they like, so I can't really complain.
Just in case anything is useful, here is my probably doomed attempt to link to my original thread:
I would agree with Julia's contention that
The user is just blindly clicking through, accepting everything that Source Linker offers — which is a problem, but a well-known and highly-predictable one that the programmers should be designing their tool around, rather than exacerbating with dubious-value conclusions
This thread is my attempt to understand and refine the Source Linker issues raised by the NUMIDENT interface.
Comments
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Adrian - link to the full thread, captured by clicking the date stamp just under your username on the original post:
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Áine - thanks very much for that. I may well have seen that method for linking to the full thread - but if I had, I'd forgotten it. I have copied your hint…
In my defence I'm perfectly used to hacking URLs to get a link to the full thread, rather than a specific post, but this software is set up virtually exactly opposite to the normal message boards that I use for this purpose.
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- Bullet Point 1 Multiple names should not be ignored. I submitted this as a New Idea.
Bullet Point 2 No action needed
Bullet Point 3 Residence not Custom Event Previous Residence. I submitted this as a New Idea.
Bullet Point 4 Social Program Correspondence - I never attach this source.
2 - Bullet Point 1 Multiple names should not be ignored. I submitted this as a New Idea.
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Bullet Point 4 Social Program Correspondence - I never attach this source.
Great. Neither do I, but it's too easy for this bot/group to do that and leave crumbs that need to be cleaned up.
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