Person Source -- What Purpose Does it Serve?

RootsMagic
1

I imported a GEDCOM file from a family member that contains sources entered for “Person”.

What are some of the ways people use this field? I had not used this for people I personally have entered, so not quite sure its importance.

2

Did the family member tell you their purpose for putting sources in “Person”. I would start there. One thought is you could put sources there when you don’t enter Facts for the person other than B/M/D.

3

For example, you may find a family genealogy or an online source such as Find A Grave that gives you biographical information that you or others may want to consult later but you are not at that point going to enter very much of it to your database. I would summarize the information I wanted most in a general note, then use the book as the “person” source. Later on I could revisit the source which only then might help me in my current research of the person or his/her family.

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4

Perhaps, for sources that provide info unique from all other sources and/or instead of sources (that would be repeated multiple times across other events) to avoid repetitive listings in reports.

5

Is “Person” a fake person in the database that has sources attached to them? Or are these sources added to the Person row on the Edit Person screen?

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6

All good points, thanks. So far, all the sources listed are repeated in the Edit Person screen. I think I will examine each for unique information, and just remove those that are already sourced as facts.

Thanks for weighing in everyone. I did not want to miss something important.

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7

When I first started with genealogy, software often didn’t support sources on individual facts and instead only supported sources for the person. So I attached all sources to the person. Then when software started supporting sources on individual facts, for a short time I would attach sources both to facts and to the person. The result was a huge number of sources for each person record, and they seemed redundant.

So I then spent a great deal of time removing such redundant sources from the person. I discovered that what I had left on the person record was sources for the person’s name. That’s because a person’s name was not actually a fact and the person record was the only available slot for name sources… That’s the way I have operated ever since - the person record only has sources for the person’s name.

RM now has a Primary Name fact, but sources for the Primary Name fact do not show up in reports. Therefore, I still need to attach sources for a person’s name to the person record.

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8

Ohhhh. Makes total sense.

9

Maybe not. Other wrinkles to consider are that Ancestry Trees have no support for RM Person sources (RM had to expose Primary Name as a fact in recent versions to unhide and support sources for same from Ancestry Treeshare) and that Sex is part of the Person record.

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10

I add sourcesfor two reasons. 1 So I know where it came from ( ihave lots of facts on my tree with no sources) and 2 it helps other people if they want to check family members. eg. I will do someone’s parents and record their marriage. If a family member of theirs follow up later they can then find more family members.

11

I only use it when given details of a living person from a relative, or other contact, when there is no other data to support the inclusion in my tree or when they give details of an ancestor I haven’t yet found (usually because they don’t use their birth name). When I re-visit it reminds me how they got into my tree in the first place!

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