Tools for using family tree/Search

This page is designed to allow users to share helpful hints they use while working in Familysearch or Family tree.

Research History Create a google doc to use wherever you have access to a computer.  Use this to record what you have done researching an ancestor.  You can inlcude: where you have looked, what failed to yield results, what you found, what other places you should search, or what you need to do.  You could organize your document using those titles or by surname.  In fact, you might want to create a seperate document for each surname.  You could then go to source box, and create a folder possibly named tools.  Use the create a source to link your google doc to the source box in that folder.  If you wanted you could then attach a page with a surname to a family.  Then others would know what you have already tried.

Links to other sites

Create another google doc that has links to sites you frequently use or that you don't have time to read now.  Bookmarks would also do this.  However google docs can be shared with other family members or even be made public to all users.   

Additional Uses for Sourcebox Both of the above uses involve Google Doc's however if you are not familiar with Google Doc use many of the same things and more can be done by creating your own sources in your Sourcebox and using folders to organize the types of sources is great. (Note currently you are limited to 50 folders and there no sub-folders)

Research logs

You can use the notes section of a source similar to a google doc. I will advise however because of the open edit nature of sources attached to persons anyone could edit your notes so if you want to share the research log I would use an online document like a google doc or a blog. However for personal use just leaving it in your sourcebox unattached to someone is great. (Though discussions might be even better than sources for this use see below)

Useful Links

In addtion you can create a folder and create sources for links to useful sites like findagrave.com, mocavo.com or createfan.com. By having these as source links in your sourcebox it acts like a favorites bar but the same favorites are on any computer you use as long as you are logged into Family Search and go to your sourcebox.

Saved Searches.

Much like the useful links you can use the URL (web address line) of any search results you perform on most any search engine to perform the search over again at a later date without having to remember what parameters you used. Just copy the address line from the search results as the link and create a source for it. Store these sources in a folder for saved searches. You can even record your results in the notes field of the source each time you use it. This can be very useful for those searches that produce very few results so that you can repeat them every so often as new stuff is added all the time. You can even do that with searches here on family search. (Though some search results require you to login)

To Do Lists.

If you are having  trouble remembering where you were or you find something you simply dont have time to complete you can create a source in your sourcebox and use the notes for to do items. Other uses of this same type are to record link to a microfilm description you may want to order. Or copy the link to a person who you may want to do some work on. (The history navigation works for this too but you might not remember who it was when you look at the list).

Clean Copies

Due to the open edit nature of sources  that are created by users and even the notes fields on Family Search supplied sources it is probably good to make a copy of a source before you attach it to an ancestor because it is difficult to track when someone else may have made an edit to a source. Leave these clean copies unattached in a folder.

1001 uses

As you can see anything you can link to can be made into a source and the notes field can be very helpful for keeping track of the reasons for things.

Discussions

Due to the open edit nature of sources I find that using discussions for things can have a better effect because only a data admin or the originator of a discussion can remove them from a person and only a data admin or the poster of comments can edit any information in the individual comments. Here are some suggestions of discussions that I like to put on my ancestors by default.

Help Us Find: I post a description of the discussion as a place for people to talk about information or even physical items that are of interest about the ancestor but have to date cannot be located. Then I use comments for the items I want to look for.

Research Log: I post a description of the discussion as a way to record what search activities and results Ive performed on this ancestor. I then add a new comment about my search and results. I usually start by recording the results of a duplicates search.

Attached Source Notes: I post a description of the discussion as a way to record notes about sources that can not be inadvertantly removed by others edits. Then I [bracket] the source name in a comment and add my notes here often giving even more detailed description. This also serves as a buffer against someone detaching a source and an indicator to look for it in the change log. 

Family Search has stated that discussions were not meant to be permanent records and were expected to be removed over time however until such useful tools as research logs and other less open edit features can be added I see them as a good place to hold items that help back up Sources etc.

Stories Using Stories for some of the features of research logs or even for recording personal interviews (either formal or memories) are also a great way to document an ancestor. Future enhancements of Family Search will allow these stories to become sources as well. 

Photos/Documents

You can upload photos(or other images including documents) as further evidence of your ancestors. Futuer enhancements to these tools will allow you to separate photos from documents and create sources from them. You can even organize these images into albums and attach them to stories.