How do not get records hints for city directories and/or how to delete alot of them at the same time
I try to keep up on all the record hints in my tree which is a large one. Now for the last few days all of these city directory hints have shown up for many of my people. Some of them with 18+ directory hints for the same person. One, I find these hints completely useless, particularly when it is the same address over and over. Two it is a lot of work to get rid of them and i do not need that info in the details multiple times and finally it hides the truly useful hints that i would like to review.
Best Answers
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@davidhenrykressin1 We agree, that it can feel over whelming when we are bombarded with what seems to be duplicate or unnecessary hints. You may declare the Record Hint as not a match, which changes that algorithm, but in doing that you may have removed the opportunity for a beneficial Record Hint to be offered.
This article may provide some options.
Hope this helps.
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I suggest attaching every correct hint, but only transferring facts from the first and last directories with those facts. For example, if the directories from 1889 to 1892 all have Mr. Joe Schmo living in Jonesville, and 1893 to 1901 all have him in Smithtown, and you're certain that they're all "your" Mr. Joe Schmo, you can do four residences for him by transferring that data when attaching the indexed 1889, 1892, 1893, and 1901 directories. When attaching the 1890, 1891, and 1894-1900 directories, you'd simply not click "add" on the residence in Source Linker. Alternately, you could only transfer two of the residences (1889 and 1893), and then edit the dates to be a range.
Yes, adding citations for a dozen directories will make the source list pretty long, but I think long source lists are much easier to deal with than the endless jumble that the "Other" section ends up with if there are too many bits of trivia added. Also, yes, it takes some work to sort through a dozen city directories, but it's not difficult work, since the whole question only came up because they're all indexed.
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Thank you for responding and your helpful suggestions
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Yes. I want to stress that it is important to attach all those repetitive sources. Do not dismiss the hints as wrong; they are not wrong, just boring.
Like others I do not move all the detail to the person page, I move just one directory entry in a run and then after all attaching is done I review and edit the detail on the page. The result is nice: Joe Schmo served in the Army from 1911–1918. His sources include 8x4=32 quarterly rosters detailing where he was, what he was doing, with what other soldiers.
Attaching all those sources is so boring! I ease the boredom by doing them while listening to music or half watching some frivolous show on TV. The mobile app on a smartphone is great for this!
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