1. How do I find directions for using Family Search? I can look people up OK, but there are no speci

RebeccaDickey

1. How do I find directions for using Family Search? I can look people up OK, but there are no specific directions as how to add things to the tree.
2. Why are there so many copies of the same source in the individual persons listing?

Brett .

@RebeccaDickey RebeccaDickey​ 

.

Rebecca

.

That is a very 'open ended' question ...

.

There are a number of "Parts" to 'FamilySearch'.

.

'FamilySearch' is an umbrella programme ...

.

There is ...

▬ the (One, SINGLE, World 'Tree' for ALL of us) "Family Tree" part; and,

▬ the "Search" Records (from ALL around the World) part; and,

▬ the (Add) "Memories" (ie. Photographs, Documents, etc) part; and,

▬ the (Volunteer) "Indexing" part

▬ the (Fun, Family History) "Activities" part; and,

.

When you say, "... I can look people up OK..."

.

Question: 'Look up' where ... the "Family Tree" part; or, "Search" Record part?

.

And, there IS direction on how to use the various "Parts" of 'FamilySearch', within the specific "Parts".

.

Now ...

In answer to your last 'Question' ...

.

As to, WHY so many "Copies" of the SAME Record ...

.

Short Answer: More than not, MORE than one "Indexing" of the same Record

.

There is often, more often than not, MORE than one "Indexing" of the same Document/Record - sometimes by 'FamilySearch' ( the later "Indexing" sometimes has MORE information/details being "Indexed"; and, sometimes by other EXTERNAL Websites (eg. "FindMyPast.com"; and/or, "Ancestry.com"; and/or, "MyHeritage.com"; ETC; Etc; etc)..

.

Now ...

That said ...

.

Here is a good place to start, with how things work in "Family Tree" of 'FamilySearch' (and, other programmes as well):

.

Introducing The Family History Guide

https://www.familysearch.org/ask/learningViewer/733

.

Introducing The Family History Guide

https://ps-services-us-east-1-914248642252.s3.amazonaws.com/s3/help-learningcenter-fh1-prod-s3/2019/03/08/9b82903f-89e0-426f-8815-5e652b960d17/Introducing-TFHG.pdf

.

The Family History Guide

https://www.thefhguide.com/

.

I hope this helps.

.

Brett

.

ps: Are you a Member of the Church or not?

.

pps: I am not prying, there is an avenue for Members of the Church (directly through Church); and, an avenue for non-members (external to the Church, other than on Sundays).

.

Amy Archibald

You may be interested in this resource: https://www.familysearch.org/home/etb_gettingstarted

 

 

Also, the Help feature is intuitive to each page. So when you are on the person's detail page, you will get suggested help that would be different than when you are on a fan chart for example.

 

Access Help - by click on the ? in the circle in the top right corner of your website screen.

 

Family Bible

also this is a great video: (not so much in how to add - but just FS over all)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwRSRZ9amlM

 

and more from where it came from:

http://yanceyfamilygenealogy.org/family_search_videos.htm

 

RebeccaDickey

Thanks so much for all the info. I can look for and find records for people in the 'search records part'. There are some real creative name spellings on some of the records - US Census, marriage and death certificates.

RebeccaDickey

Thanks Amy! There it was, looking at me all the time.

RebeccaDickey

This is so great to have so many resourceful people to help. Thanks again

JeffWiseman

Regarding your second question, please be aware that most of the source "titles" showing in the sources (citations) list for a person record are automatically created. As a result you can frequently have multiple source citations with identical or similar titles that are in fact citations to totally different sources. For example, a given collection may contain images to a marriage certificate, a marriage registration, a male index to the collection and a female index to the collection (i.e., paper index that are actually inside the collection). These will all come back with similar or identical titles. You'll have to examine them to see the differences.

 

Also, you can have situations where a source image has been indexed more than once. Each index data file is a totally different source stored in the system. They may have identical indexed data in them but frequently they can be different depending on how hard the handwriting on the original image was to read. In any event, the hints engine is going to find BOTH of those sources (likely with identical titles) and suggest them for the same person. It is important that all of those separate sources are attached to the person record even though they might have very similar information in them. If you don't do this the hints engine will continue suggesting it to other PIDs as well and chances are good it will get attached to the wrong person reducing the accuracy of records that the hints engine is working off of.

 

I will frequently modify the title on a source citation so that it becomes more clear as to exactly what it is. For an example look at the source list for Rebecca Ralston 2JS2-GVM. The 3 "Ohio County Marriages" near the top of the list originally had identical titles which I've enhanced. The affidavits were done several days before the actual marriage occurred so the indexed data is showing different "Marriage dates" because the source linker brings them over that way. But when you look at the titles you understand that all three of them are NOT talking about the actual wedding.