Sources and Memories Gallery have redundancy

MattieH

Dear Memories Feedback,

Within details of an individual record, the information added is almost exactly the same as in memories, except for description/notes and citations. I realize that memories are used for a broad range of artifacts, is there a possible way to separate the description and citation within memories/gallery so that the fields completed in an individual's sources can simply be carried over into memories/gallery? For example: pls see birth record FSID: PQFD-T9S and memories/gallery: https://www.familysearch.org/en/memories/memory/227200035 Thank you for considering this idea. I appreciate family search and all of the hours, time and talents given to create, maintain and upgrade this extraordinary resource.

Alan E. Brown

@MattieH

In general, I think that copying a source record to Memories is a bad idea because it

• Wastes your time — the image is already available in Sources
• Needlessly uses storage space — the image is already stored in FamilySearch's record collection, and making multiple copies of it in Memories just stores it again. The fact that FamilySearch only allows one copy of an image to be uploaded to Memories creates further complications with this approach that I won't detail here.
• Clutters a person's Memories -- many person profiles have a lot of sources and a lot of memories. If you think you need to add the image for every one of the source images, you may be adding dozens of images. These make it harder to sift through the actual images and other memories for the person.
• May violate terms of use — FamilySearch carefully follows the terms of its agreements with the provider of the records. In some cases, images are only shown to FamilySearch users, or to Church members, or to users in FamilySearch centers or affiliate libraries, or to users in certain countries. And there may also be similar constraints for other record owners. If you copy a source record into Memories, you may unwittingly violate the terms of use for that record by making it available to people who should not be seeing it.

MattieH

Dear Brother Brown,

This is very helpful and insightful for me. I did not realize that the two places (individual sources and Memories/gallery) should not be identical. It certainly does take a great deal of time. I will find a way to be better at connecting the family members associated with each vital record or artifact. Thank you for taking the time to explain this to me. I appreciate it. Mattie

Pat Lowe

I had not thought of the points you mentioned, like duplication. What about a source which comes from another website such as ancestry? I have tended to use a photo, or image from ancestry specifically to make the photo or image available to others who may not be ancestry users. What could be wrong with that? I have not seen any restrictions from ancestry on such use.
Thanks for your help

AmberML1

@Pat Lowe

Just to make sure I gave you the best answer available, I talked this over with a colleague. We both agree that taking images from ancestry.com and making it available on FamilySearch.org would violate copyright laws. Particularly when you add your additional thought of making that image available for "others who may not be ancestry users."

Ancestry might have different agreements and rights to documents that FamilySearch does not, and we want to respect that. Even if you have not found any "restrictions from ancestry on such use."

Additionally, while copyright law allows researchers to make copies of portions of copyrighted material (like images that ancestry owns), researchers must get permission to publish that portion...The problem is, as soon as you upload to FamilySearch, you have now published that information without consent from Ancestry.

Sorry, I know you are just trying to do good work and make information available. This is a delicate issue, and FamilySearch asks that you respect the images owned by Ancestry.

Pat Lowe

I appreciate your insight. Thanks

AmberML1

@Pat Lowe two other thoughts on the question of managing copyrighted material (hopefully a bit more helpful)….

1. FACTS are not copyright material. So, if you found a record on ancestry.com that has information on a christening record, you CAN insert that information into FamilySearch.org, along with a description of where that information came from.
2. You can always create a Source with a link to ancestry.com. Go to an ancestor's person page / click Sources / click "+Add Source" / click "Add New Source." From there you can add a url and all the information you gleaned from the ancestry.com record.