Tagging people not in my family tree

JaneSmith2600

I have memories in my gallery and need to tag people who are not in my family tree. When I type in their names (unique and exact match to their name in FamilySearch), I get no hits.

Is this a software glitch or is there a restriction on who I can tag?

Thanks for any assistance.

Sheryl Neal Slaughter

Gordon Collett

You state that you "need to tag people who are not in my family tree." Please don't take offense, but I first have to say that this statement makes no sense because your family tree is the entire Family Tree database. All its bits and pieces may not be connect yet, but all 1.3 billion people in Family Tree are your family tree and with the open edit system there you can do anything you want to any of them, including tagging them.

What you may be running into is that there are two parts to tagging, creating the tag and associating the tag with the correct individual in Family Tree.

When you click on a photo to add a tag, you get the box to start typing in the name. As you type, a list of people you have previously tagged with matching names shows up as well as other names that I think may be generated from your Recents list:

If the tag you want does not already exist, you have to create a new tag by clicking on Add New.

Clicking on Add New gives you the tag, but it is not yet associated with anyone in Family Tree:

Now you have to click on "Attach to Family Tree" to open this panel:

I have found that it is most efficient to already have the person open in Family Tree and copy and past the Person ID rather than use the "Find in Family Tree (Deceased People Only)" button.

However, if I do use that button and put in Leabert's information, he does come right up to be selected for the tag (which I won't complete, of course):

Clicking Select will associate Leabert with the tag "John" and place the memory on his page.

Maybe your problem is using the exact search option. That can cause trouble when searching.

Try again, and if you can't get this to work, post exactly, step by step what you are doing and what you see.

JaneSmith2600

Thank you. Painful, but this answered my question.

The lack of clear point-of-use helps makes this a very frustrating process.

Sheryl

"Good leaders attack problems, not people."

Gail Swihart Watson

@Sheryl Neal Slaughter I know exactly what you are talking about. I have plenty of letters, photos, etc from people who were family friends, not family. Here is the process I use: I first do a search of the tree to find them. You must study the search results to ensure they were alive at the right time, living in the right place at the right time, etc. Then I copy the ID and use the process @Gordon Collett described. I am now in the process of identifying and tagging everyone I can find through research mentioned in a bookkeepers ledger I have inherited. The business transactions recorded all took place between 1831 and 1855 in a small town. Very few people mentioned are direct relatives. I am isolating who may have owned this thing through 1) a family name largely missing and 2) a preponderance of "in-law" names to the family name that is missing. Jury is still out on who actually owned and used it. BUT, point is, I am tagging non-family members of mine using the process I described.

Gail Swihart Watson

Oh, I forgot to mention one important thing. You said "I can't tag them without creating new individuals."

You can tag people directly from the image/story that you have uploaded to your gallery. They don't have to have a known connection to "your" direct ancestors. Again, @Gordon Collett shows how to do that. Check out the link below to see an image tagged to my deceased father and to the record of who is in the pic (who died in 1510). The guy in the pic is not a direct ancestor of mine, but because I researched who the guy was, I tagged his record.

https://www.familysearch.org/photos/artifacts/124941616?cid=mem_copy