Have you ever returned to a familiar person in your family tree only to realize that several facts are missing source citations? That was exactly my situation when I opened the profile for William Crawford (1748–1809). William is believed to be a brother of James Crawford, who married Rebecca Anderson, and with Big Y-DNA results pending from a descendant of William, I wanted to review—and update—my research on him.
I was able to locate records that documented some of the previously unsourced facts, but several events still lacked clear documentation. Hoping to identify where those details originated, I revisited William’s profiles on Ancestry Trees, WikiTree, and FamilySearch. It was on FamilySearch that I found the clue I was looking for: a Brief Life History that neatly summarized many of the very events in my database that had no citations.
That discovery created a new problem. While the Brief Life History clearly served as the source for those facts, I couldn’t find a recommended citation format or template for referencing this type of information. Searches through RootsMagic templates and general citation guidance didn’t turn up anything useful. Rather than leave the information undocumented—or rely on memory—I decided to create my own citation template in RootsMagic.
Using that custom template, I was able to complete the relevant fields and generate a citation that clearly points back to the FamilySearch profile. I also copied the Brief Life History text into a Research Note, preserving the content exactly as it appeared on the date I viewed it. This approach gives me both a citation trail and a snapshot of the information in case the profile changes in the future.
While this citation may not fully meet current genealogical standards, it provides something far better than an unsourced fact: documentation, context, and transparency. For now, it allows me to clearly identify where the information came from—and that’s a meaningful step forward in maintaining a well-sourced and responsibly researched family tree.