Sourcing Events

Do you typically attach sources to events (facts) you have for an individual? For an ‘old fogey’ like myself, this has been an evolving process.

My first foray into researching my family history worked with family group sheets where the birth marriage and death dates and places were recorded for members of a family. I was encouraged to locate birth, marriage and death records for family members. However, I don’t believe I ever added any mention of a source to those family group sheets.

When my ‘methods’ of recording information transitioned to a computer, I still wasn’t adding source information. As I collected more and more information, I realized that I had to document where I got it from. In the process, I started filling in the ‘dash’. In other words, I branched out from just recording birth, marriage and death to recording many details of a persons life. And I started adding sources to each of these events.

Now, every time I learn something new about an ancestors life, I add it as an event and attach the source of the information to the event. One of my recent ‘goals’ has been to update the sourcing for my 3rd great grandparents. I’ve recently been working on John Briles (or Broyles) of Randolph County, North Carolina. Below is part of John’s timeline in my RootsMagic file. The pen icons to the right of the place indicate there is at least one source attached to the fact.

My Heartland Genealogy tree on Ancestry also attaches sources to the various events. If the source is from an Ancestry database, Ancestry creates a link between the source and the fact. When I have added facts from sources outside of Ancestry, those facts and ‘other sources’ can be copied from my RootsMagic file to Ancestry using TreeShare. Like sources found on Ancestry, there is a link created between the fact and the source. Below, the 1815 tax fact is linked to an ‘other’ source.

While some WikiTree profiles will not show all of the facts and sources for an individual, it is possible to add these various facts and the sources for them.

Since most genealogy sites allow for the creation of ‘custom’ facts AND the addition of sources for those facts, I’ve been somewhat frustrated trying to do this on the FamilySearch tree. However, I recently watched a July 2023 video by Devon Noel Lee about how to tag events on FamilySearch.

See FamilySearch Tagging for additional information.

As I’ve been working on John Briles [L52Y-FK9], I’ve been attaching the deeds as sources to his profile as I find them. Not only was his profile missing a lot of events but many of the existing events were missing sources. Since I have those events in my RootsMagic file, I can use RootsMagic’s FamilySearch Person Tools to add those events.

When I place a check mark to the left of a fact I’d like to add, a window opens comparing my RootsMagic fact to FamilySearch. I’m asked whether I want to add the fact as a new event or to replace an existing fact.

After providing a reason for adding the fact, the fact will appear on the FamilySearch profile without a source attached.

From this event, I could click on the 0 sources to open a window allowing me to select one of the existing sources and add a tag to it. 

Since there are several deeds attached as sources to John Briles, I need to pick the correct one for this particular event. Thus, I will go to the sources to do the tagging. Thankfully, I added the transcription of the deed to the description. This allows me to verify that I have the Jacob Briles deed to attach to the 1836 custom event.

Using the instructions in the Family History Fanatics video, I was able to quickly add a tag for the custom event regarding the sale of land. 

From the profile screen, clicking on the source opens a window showing the event and attached source.

Thank you Devin Noel Lee for alerting me to this ability to link sources to events.