Adding a new spouse directly from a record or transcription of the marriage.
Jane Ann Robson (22 years, daughter of James Robson) married John Frederick Smith (23 years, son of John Smith) on 31 October 1896 at Elswick, Northumberland, England https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QP78-M78Q?lang=en&cid=fs_copy , see
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I didn't yet have her spouse in the FamilySearch tree (though I did have him in my own family files already). Jane Ann Robson was however in the FamilySearch tree as a daughter of James Robson.
If I try to attach the record when the page is focused on Jane Ann using the button 'Attach to Tree' there is no obvious way to find her entry in the righthand pane (unless I've copied the ID number ahead of time and paste it in) although the correct father (James Robson, ID: 9KLK-HYR) is given in the righthand pane on the 'My History' tab.
If I instead first select her father James Robson on the record and then click 'Attach to Tree', I do get the match to him in my History List in the righthand pane, and if clicking 'Select' both he and his daughter Jane Ann appears and can be attached.
The source is now added to their respective pages, though her spouse has not yet been included. On the 'Sources' tab the entry shows "Unfinished Attachments' and following the link gives the possibility to Add John Frederick Smith as husband. (In this case with the righthand pane option to 'Create New Person').
I'm wondering whether there is a better or easier way to do this.
Best Answers
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So if I understand the question correctly, the procedure being attempted is to start with an indexed record for which one spouse is in Family Tree and the other is not. This is not starting from a hint on a profile page and not starting from a hint in the search results list.
For example I want to attach this record and add the spouse and marriage information at the same time:
To this profile on which there is no spouse and no hints and Eline is not on my Recents list:
Clicking through to the Source Linker from the indexed record I get to this:
Here is the first road block you mention. The program as no idea who Ella, as the source has her name, is. If it did, one of those little head outlines would have appeared on the index record such on on the other source for the marriage record where her name is indexed correctly. And there would be a hint on her profile page.
So no, there is nothing you can do on this version of the page other than put in her ID number as you know. There is just not enough information in this record to find a match in Family Tree primarily due to the indexing problems.
Changing tabs to see my History List does not help because this is just my Recents list (not sure why they don't have the names the same.) and I have not been to Eline's page recently (OK, I have but I erased her from the list for this demonstration):
So in this situation there is no help for that fact that I either need to find Eline manually in Family Tree to copy her ID number or to place her on my Recents list so she will be in the history tab or create a profile for her in Family Tree if she really does not exist at all using the Add Unconnected Person tab at the bottom of the Recents list.
To summarize current program function: You cannot create a Focus person in the Source Linker. You can only create associated individuals such as parents, spouses and children.
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Now to more fully follow your example I will go to Eline's father in Family Tree to put him on my Recents list then return to my last image above:
However, because the record is not associated with anyone, I cannot change the focus person right now and have to select Steen Larsen then fiddle around and get him to match up with "Hans."
Just so you know I am serious, here is the image showing the names of the fathers of the groom and bride. That really is Stein, a minor variant of Steen, not Hans:
It generally works best to fix the left side first then the right side. Sometimes when there is a bit of confusion in the information you have to fix the left side then use the Enter ID or Name box to force the right side to behave:
This really is the most extreme example you can have of trouble attaching records because both the father's and bride's names are indexed incorrectly. What I find amazing is that the Source Linker still can handle this. Yes, there is a bit more manual labor involved but it still works!
Now even though I know that "Ella" is Eline, I'm going to add her as a new child to point out a few things. I could follow your example more exactly and just move the source down to Eline. First I'll attach the record for Steen since that will help the source linker keep people lined up properly as I continue then I'll click add next to Ella and fill out that form to get to here:
Note that indeed as have you observed, adding an individual does not create any type of couple relationship in the source linker and so cannot add any marriage information. Now I'll attach the source and after that I need to move Ella back to being the focus person so that I can add her spouse:
And I will add him which again, because I am just adding an individual, does not provide any way to add marriage information:
When I click Create New Person, his line is automatically open still in the source linker and I can finally add the marriage information before attaching the source:
To summarize current program function: You can only add marriage information to a couple in the source linker while attaching a marriage source to the spouse of the focus person. You cannot add the marriage information when attaching the source to the focus person.
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After attaching the source to Amund:
The final step is to change the focus person to be Amund so that the source can be attached to his father. In this case I also need to create a profile for his father first. I find a lot of people skip this step for some reason:
And then we have a fully attached source:
This really is pretty efficient once you have practiced it a few times. You can do it much faster than reading thorough my posts. Once you know how to deal with the situations where the automatic routines just don't have enough information to go on, it is amazing how well the Source Linker can handle any situation.
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Final Summary:
Knowing how to use both Change Person links to force the proper alignment of individuals in connection with using the click and drag function to align people is a critical needed skill.
You cannot create a Focus person in the Source Linker. You can only create associated individuals such as parents, spouses and children.
Adding an individual in the source linker does not allow for adding marriage information to that new individual.
You can only add marriage information to a couple in the source linker while attaching a marriage source to the spouse of the focus person. You cannot add the marriage information when attaching the source to the focus person.
On a side note, the source being attached is only added as a source in the couple event box if you move that marriage information on the spouse from left to right. Otherwise it is only added to the individuals. If you want to add the source to the couple event box you must move over the information even if it is already on the right side and you will be creating a duplicate event you have to delete later.
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Comments
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@FrankLittle when you were attaching the source were you looking at this page? If so, you can change the focus person by clicking on "change person" and choosing another person.
Does this help?
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Thanks for the response, Rhonda; it's appreciated.
This is in fact what I did. But the actions did not result in the expected data being added. I had to do that afterwards myself.
I'll see if I can find another example and post it here.
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I tried this with the [civil] marriage index entry for Harold S Little at https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVZP-V17D?lang=en . This is Harold Shield Little whose marriage to Elizabeth Ann Laycock in Darlington, Co. Durham, England took place in 1924. The index does not give the full name in this case but only the surname Laycock (checking the index reveals it is Laycock Elizabeth A). The other couple is James T Key and Alice Thwaites. [Data from FreeBMD, but it could be checked via Darlington Register Office if need be.)
Clicking 'Attach to tree' on the index of marriage gives in this case the person I am working on directly Harold S Little; adding Elizabeth Laycock with a birth date in 1902 (established from the 1939 Register), a female, deceased c. 1949; the page wants to know why I believe she is deceased, but I can provide the 1948 index for her entry in the civil Register of Deaths.
The system apparently does not find her and I therefore trigger a new ID: PQJ7-PC4. 'Attach' both persons and back to the entry for Harold where Elizabeth has been added but there is no marriage event noted. Since I'm not just attaching a source to a person but claiming it is evidence of the marriage (including the year and quarter), I would expect it to make a marriage event with at least a year.
I would have preferred an example from a wedding in the FamilySearch system with full details, but perhaps this will do for now to check what I mean. (I intended to roll this back so you could look at it yourself, but do not see how to do this right now.)
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Thank you for the feedback. This is a source-linker issue, and a link to this discussion has been forwarded to them :)
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Thank you for that. I'm not sure why it ended up in this section, though any discussion which involves the underlying algorithms will tend to be cross-cutting.
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Well, thank you very much for this comprehensive response, Gordon! I'm going to have to read through the entire process a couple of times, I think, in order to get it straight in my mind. But your conclusion is helpful: you can't just create a person and expect the linker to do everything, it takes extra steps (which I did outside of the Source Linker). I'll try this on a new part of my tree (new to the tree in FamilySearch) and see what transpires.
Of course, these are issues which probably only arise if one has already done the research before updating the FamilySearch tree (otherwise one would not be adding in a person currently unknown to the system). I mean by that, otherwise one would not be sure it was the right person, so just randomly adding relationships based on name similarity would be unwise.
My starting point was the best procedure when there is a source for a marriage which has been indexed in FamilySearch and one person in that record is already placed in the tree but other person or persons in the record are (apparently) unknown to the system. The walk though (again thanks for that) shows how it can be done within the Source Linker,
And this is an interesting learning point for me: "You cannot create a Focus person in the Source Linker. You can only create associated individuals such as parents, spouses and children."
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@Rhonda Budvarson Unfortunately when Frank clicked that my posts answered his question, parts 1, 3, and 4 moved to the top of the discussion but part 2 was left down below which makes it really confusing to read through. Can you or another moderator get the four sections back in order?
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And for anyone out there wondering why you cannot create a Focus person in the Source Linker, I have a theory.
When creating a new profile anywhere else in Family Tree, you have to deal with this part:
I'm probably mistaken, but I don't recall ever seeing that pop up when adding a child or spouse in the source linker. I suspect that being in the middle of the source linker's version of adding a person is viewed as not the appropriate time to start evaluating whether to person already exists in Family Tree or not.
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I'm sorry that clicking (possibly in random order) the 'answered my question Yes/No' feedback link it messed up the order. TBC I didn't realise it would move messages around. That's not as handy as it probably first seemed.
Your explanation of why it doesn't check existing people does seem to make sense. I was surprised that I had to create a new person when I thought there would be someone already in the system. It'd be helpful to know if you are right on this.
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