Ordering Sources in the Source Box

LegacyUser

Dixie Cragun said: I like the new source feature on Family Trees. However, my source box is now 3 pages long with over 60 sources. I've noticed that the sources are being entered in the order that I create them. This makes it very hard to located a source I've already created if I want to add it to another family member, such as in the case with census sources. It now takes me longer to find a source I've already created, then to create it over. There needs to be a way to order our sources in the source box. If they could be ordered alphabetically, by title, it would be easier to find them. That way, similar sources could be bunched together. It would also be helpful to have a way to order the sources once they are attached to an individual. That way, all the censuses could be ordered together, all the death records, etc.

LegacyUser

gasmodels said: I agree there needs to be some way to order the sources so they can be easily located.

LegacyUser

HawkBlade124 said: I totally agree. I have an idea that would hopefully be a good addition to yours. For example, lets say you use a source like England and Wales Census 1841. Since you used it recently, you can just click on the source when you see it in "Recently Used sources" above the source pool. Then, there should be a drop box for ordering said source pool. Like you can sort your sources 'alphabetically' or 'Date when source was added to tree'.

LegacyUser

Bonnie Jean Bowles said: Would it be possible to have a simple list to choose from; for example:
BIRTH
BOOKS
CENSUS
DEATH
MARRIAGE
MILITARY

Then fill in the details after that. Then they should be easier to follow

LegacyUser

gasmodels said: After using the new Source Feature in FamilyTree - I have two suggestions related to ordering.
1. In the list of sources I have created, I would like to see the sources alphabetized using the Title block. This would allow several options for someone to organize the list of sources. It could be done by family name, source type or some other strategy. That would make finding a source in a large list much easier. It presently appears to be stored in the order they are created with the oldest last in the list and the newest on top of the list.

2. For an individual person, it seems to me the ideal would be for the sources to be ordered is in chronological order. Ie the source for birth would be first and then sources for incidents during life and last would be death - burial sources. To do this may require allowing the user to select the order of the sources displayed.

I believe adding the ability to order would greatly improve the flexibility of the source feature.

LegacyUser

Beth Ann Wiseman said: This topic is very similar to another topic here, "Family tree sources," and I would recommend combining them.

LegacyUser

Heather McPhie said: I would like to see some sort of "search" feature for my source box. I'm especially certain that by the time I add all my documentation, that source box will be 100 pages long. If there were a little box that would search those pages for a keyword, then it won't be so intimidating. I think, also, that people should have some sort of warning (in a training video or something) that tells them to connect the source to all the individuals mentioned on the source at the time the source is entered. That way it doesn't matter if the source disappears into the long list.

LegacyUser

Alyssa said: Yes! And how about some sub-folders! When I'm working on a family I like to make a folder for each family member but I quickly end up with a list way too long to really be useful. Sub-folders would be much more organized.

LegacyUser

markshepherd said: I think subfolders are planned in the future. However, many of the organizational problems with source box can be avoided if you use the source box as a temporary clipboard whenever possible. For example once a source has been attached to all of the persons it pertains to, you can remove it from the source box. It still stays attached to all the persons in Family Tree that you attached it to. If you ever need it again, you can go to one of the persons it is attached to and put it back in your source box.

I use this clipboard method with all sources that pertain to an individual or a family group. The majority of sources I have attached fall into this category. However, there are some sources such as church records with hundreds of pages that cover a span of many years and may contain information about numerous different ancestors. I may still find many additional vital records of many more ancestors in these type of sources. In this situation I leave the general source in source box because I will use it over and over again. I don't put specific details regarding each person in the source details box because if you have dozens of ancestors christenings, marriages, burials, etc. in the same source, it is way too long and cumbersome. I just leave that source details box empty. Instead, I put the specific details in the "reason you attached this source". I.e. "christening record of John Doe is found on page 33, entry #2."

LegacyUser

Allan Hale said: I personally do not see any reason to keep sources in my source box. Once I have attached and tagged the source to the event or person I no longer need it. so far in the last year I have never gone through my source box for any particular source. IF I needed a particular source I clicked on it from the person page source list. Therefore, I go through and delete the last couple of hundred of sources.

IF my reasoning is fallacious then please tell me where I am slipping up

I also usually just copy the indexed data in to the reason this source is attached as being obvious. This is not a hard rule as IF I needed some kind of logic to determine that this is Suzie's source because she is the third wife of Benjamin and the second wife just died 6 months before and there are little children to be cared for in the 1800s etc.

LegacyUser

Larry Kent Cragun said: You need to keep your sources in the source box as a way to retrieve a source if lost to the person via a detach. I keep them organized (about 300 now) by using the folders. My only concern is that the limit to number of folders will be too few.

LegacyUser

markshepherd said: You can go to the change log and restore any detached source to restore it as a source to an individual. You can also add it back to source box if you need to attach it to someone else.

I really don't understand why people feel a need to keep sources in their source box that are attached to only one or a few people. The best way to organize these is to leave them on the person or persons to whom they are attached.

The source box can then be used more as a master source list for sources that need to be attached to numerous persons. This completely alleviates the need to have a huge file of sources where it is impossible to find the master sources that do need to be used over and over again.

LegacyUser

Carol Rae Kendall said: I second your idea - I have nearly 600 sources, and it is virtually impossible to find a source I didn't just add in the last few days.

LegacyUser

Don M Thomas said: I agree with you, there is no reason to keep sources once they are attached. If needed again one can just look them up again. Looking sources up again would be a lot easier in that one has sourced people connected to the person with the lost source.

LegacyUser

Teresa Ann Power said: I add source labels to my sources, but it is confusing to people when they see a source listed as -----DEATH AND BURIAL RECORDS----- and no source is attached. It would be a lot easier if Family Search would add an option to insert labels into the source section. The ones I use most often are...

BIRTH AND CHRISTENING RECORDS
MARRIAGE RECORDS
DEATH AND BURIAL RECORDS
CENSUS RECORDS
MILITARY RECORDS
AND "IN ENTRY FOR" OTHER FAMILY MEMBERS RECORDS

It would be wonderful if I didn't have to type up these labels for each of my ancestors in Family Tree. Since they aren't really sources, there needs to be a way of identifying them as labels to the sources. Adding an option to the source area to insert labels would be very helpful and the labels could be standardized so they all look the same . In addition, the labels would be standard and obvious when added to the sources.

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: I have my headings (similar to yours) in my Source Box, but in a folder that reads 00 - Header/Separator. At the top of the list is this one, and I add it whenever the source list gets a bit on the long side:

NOTICE: Sources are arranged chronologically. When adding a new source, it is automatically placed at the top of this list; please adjust its position in the list accordingly.

I'm wondering if a "NOTICE: at the front of the separators would work.

According to a recent Ron Tanner Facebook live question and answer session, the idea that FS will provide headers has been shelved.

I'm beginning to think that good ideas are being ignored over personal staff preferences among the developers. That narrow-minded thinking hit something that was at one time considered to be something to be developed.

Maybe after all the rework gets done in a couple of years, we can start hounding FS on problems that continue to plague us as users, since they do not seem to show much interest, even in the face of a lot of unhappy conscientious patrons.

LegacyUser

Dieter Voß said: The source-box should display the date-field and then make a sorting (or a search) of this field possible.

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: Dieter, Welcome to the community-powered feedback forum for FamilySearch. FamilySearch personnel read every discussion thread and may or may not respond as their time permits. We all share an active interest in using the resources of this site and as users, we have various levels of knowledge and experience and do our best to help each other with concerns, issues, and/or questions.

This is a very old discussion going back 9 years.

This request has been brought up a number of times. The history of the individual's source box is that it was meant to be a temporary storage location for a source while it is being attached to a number of profiles. Once it is attached to all applicable profiles, the intention was for the user to delete the source from the box.

What has happened is that a significant number of users do not follow the intended use, but want it as a list of sources that they can put in order and sort.

If my memory is correct, there was an indication that consideration is being given to expand the capabilities of the source box for those users who do not use it for its intended purpose. I don't know if the sorting and search features are still being considered, on a list of features to be developed, or has been shelved (for now).