Sourcerers' Challenge (June 2020)

Question

Hello, Sourcerers! It is time to start sourcing! Prior month Owl Stickers and Sourcerers Badges will be posted soon.

To participate:

• Review the Rules
• If you are new to the Sourcerers' Challenge, click the "answer" link (not the comment link) and tell us you are participating

You only need to answer this month's post if you don't already have the Sourcerers' Badge. You are welcome to add an answer to ask questions or offer encouragement.

If you have a problem with the Tracker let us know by adding a comment to the question that opened this thread. 

USING THE TRACKER

The tracker should only be used when the profile meets the Monthly Challenge definition of Unsourced (see the Rules). Add a comment to the question if you are unsure if something counts as Unsourced.

After you save an edit, a green banner appears at the top of the profile edit page with a dark “button” labeled Challenge Tracker is a link to the Tracker page. Click the link and, on the page that comes up, select Sourcerers challenge and click the appropriate hint in the right column (or fill in your own if none of the canned answers fit what you did). Click Add Action and you are finished. The Tracker tracks the number of profiles to which you have add sources. You can see the results for any monthly challenge using this link. The current month is at the bottom

http://wikitree.sdms.si/Challenges/SourcerersChallenge/default.htm

Remember, your sources need to be as full and specific as possible, so others find them useful. That means, if the source is online, you should link to it. If it is a page from a book, the page number should be included so others can easily see where you found the reference. Some books and magazines have free-space pages to help with citation formats. Find them in the Source Category.

When you can, it is great to do a bit more while adding sources, like clean up the gedcom leftovers or help the formatting from older profiles. Sources are important, but if you cannot find them among all the other stuff, they are not helping as much as they could.

The Orphaned profiles category is another great place to look for unsourced profiles. 

If you attempt to add sources to a profile and cannot find any, please add a note under a == Research Notes == section (click the link for examples and instructions on placement) giving where you tried to find records. Something like "Looked for John in the US Census records for 1900-1940 and could not find him on FamilySearch or Ancestry" would be fine. Or, "Searched google for an obituary and did not find one." That way the next researcher knows where to start. Do not remove the Unsourced Template and do not use the tracker to count in your tally.

The Monthly Challenge runs from the first of the month and ends on the last day of the month, GMT time. 

The Current Challenge Tracker Results Page has up the minute stats for those of you using the Challenge Tracker.

http://wikitree.sdms.si/Challenges/SourcerersChallenge/20200601/User.htm

Ask any questions here in the thread, otherwise, SOURCE! 

Comments

So just looking at the rules- what if the profile doesn't have the unsourced tag. What if it says (for the source) "unsourced family tree", "first hand information of (profile manager's name)" - for someone born over 150 years ago, etc., or "my local library". I often come across these or similar and sometimes the sources are easy to find on Family Search or similar. Surely these should count as "unsourced" too?

Thanks,

Judy

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The Unsourced Template does not have to be on a profile for the Sourcerers Challenge. Those types of "sources" can be counted participating in the Sourcerers Challenge.

If the "source" were to be something like "1910 Census," you could not count it. While not really a helpful source, it is considered enough.

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Thanks Debi. I was hoping this was the response. I often forget to add to the challenge anyway but figure I should be "seen" to be doing them to keep my Sourcerers badge. :-)

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Don't worry about your Sourcerers' Badge *smile* I've never known one to be removed once it has been earned. My experience with the Sourcerers is that we discover how much fun finding the sources is and we do it whether they count or not.

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Normally I am happy to have sources added to profiles in my watchlist. However, when someone adds a FamilySearch census record to one family member and then uses that same source for the entire family it annoys me since I then have to correct these mistakes.

FamilySearch has a specific source for each family member that should be used on only for that specific person. I had to change about a dozen sources that were added because it named a different family member. While I have no idea whether the these sources were part of a challenge, the person who added all the sources has a sticker in her comments section for each month this year. Every source she added to profiles in my watchlist had to be changed.

I do not think it is right to honor those taking these shortcuts (which create more work for the PMs): cutting from FamilySearch once and pasting it to the entire family. The process to post source that matches the profile is not difficult. It's so easy:

1. Find FamilySearch source(s) to be added.

2. Load the WikiTree profiles for family members on source/sources. 1st window

3. Cut FamilySearch source for one person. 2nd window

4. Cue up the next person on FamilySearch.

5. Paste the source to the correct family member's WikiTree profile and SAVE

6. Repeat steps 3 - 5 for each family member.

7. Repeat the process for the next source. By the time you finish one person the next person's source is waiting to be cut (step 3). It's a simple process that doesn't take much extra time considering a PM doesn't have to take time to correct those sources.

Remember to update for the challenge for each profile.

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Thanks Pat, this is something I have been guilty of in the past and am learning some of these things as I go, so I do appreciate your instructions. At first I thought your comment was aimed at me so had to investigate to ensure it was not.  However, I believe that if a Census source for the father is included on a child's profile (WITH NO SOURCES) then it does support the parentage of that child. It is a starting point and if it encourages the Profile Manager to improve the profile by making a source even more specific then that is useful in itself. I usually try to avoid having a source that is not applied to something specific as in the case of your Allen family which were completely unsourced.

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It's encouraging to know that some Profile Managers do take the time to notice the work the Sourcerers do. As Judy mentioned, many Sourcerers are learning as we go (myself included). Thanks for the great step-by-step instructions on how to get the detailed FamilySearch source for an individual within the household.

Most FamilySearch records which involve more than one person will have a link to the specific record for the person. While taking that extra step is really nice, having an accurate source which includes the profiled person is the goal of the Sourcerers Challenge. Presentation and profile cleanup is usually left to those who enjoy that.

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Debi,

I have many profiles I have adopted that need TLC. When sources are added to the correct person, I usually find something to improve the biography while I'm checking for accuracy of that newly added source. If it's a FamilySearch source I check for more sources. Lately I've had to make sure the Family Search profile has info for only one person. I just thought that since Source-a-thon is coming up it would be a good time for an accuracy reminder. I don't participate in the challenges anymore but I usually have more profiles to correct during these challenges.

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Thanks for adopting them, Pat. The next Thon is the Connect-a-Thon (July) so I expect lots of sourced profiles to be created. It will definitely be better if they all get the specific citations. I'm going to pass your directions along to the team I'm on.

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Judy, you're welcome.

There is a way to cut once for a census record and paste for the whole family. Use the link for the census form add the family number and/or the lines for that household. Cut once and paste for each family member. The index record is easy to locate in FamilySearch from that page showing the census form.

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Glad to help. While you are passing that along you might want to add the option I just presented to Judy.

Answer 1

I am participating.  Thank you.

Comments

Thank you, Alisa.

Answer 2

Hello Debi you sent me a message to join the Sourcerers Challenge. You asked me to say "I'm in".  So yes I'm In. Hoping I'm to receive my Soursers Badge.-Gilly

Comments

Thanks, Gilly!

Answer 3

Debi I am in for June

-Gilly

Comments

We've got you, Gilly.

Answer 4

I dislike this "looked in ... and did not find..." note thing.  For a majority I've encountered, the specified place was where the largest number of needed sources were.  Are these people staking out territory?

To me, sourcing also implied dealing with or noting fixable errors. The instructions are specific about looking for referenced people to attach. This sometimes involves a family group of unsourced or undersourced profiles, so it seems appropriate to count them, as it's slower anyway than stopping with one source.  It will be much more difficult to make the profiles usable if there's no attempt to organize and cite multiple sources.

Occasionally, someone will remove added sources without explanation, most annoying when I'm the PM.  Where do they get their rule of no sources except bare URLs, requiring total omission of text only citations?  I've orphaned a few which people change without reason.

Comments

The Sourcerers and Sprinters challenges are designed to get at least one source on profiles which qualify for the Unsourced Template, nothing more or less. Participants sometimes do more because they enjoy those kinds of activities also. Other participants really like sourcing and spend their time concentrating on that.

The "looked in and didn't find" note is optional but encouraged. It's a way to let others know where the participant looked and when. If someone looked in the FamilySearch New York Deaths database yesterday, I probably wouldn't look in that database again today. If they had searched it last year, I probably would because things are being added all the time. It definitely is not intended to discourage other members from looking for sources for a profile. 

There is no rule or guideline that says Sourcerers may remove valid citations. A text only citation which includes enough information to find the source is valid and the profile would not qualify for the Challenges. The Sourcerer might adds a link if they happen to find the source online but should never be removing valid citations.

If you see either of the items identified in paragraphs 2 or 3 happening, please let me know via Private Message. If you don't feel comfortable doing that, check the Problems With Members process to see how to proceed.

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I've studied and reread the Problems with Members policy.  It looks clear that it deals only with inactive members.  So I've had to set some stalled merges to unmerged to stop the error notices.  Profiles of such people carry polite messages from others asking for response, with none given.  I noticed more recently that one way to block default expiration more than once without comment may be to set the profile private with no death date.  So I started putting estimated death dates "after ..." on profiles where the death probably occurred say 50 years ago even though the records haven't become public, as I don't want others to be blocked, and my watchlist is too big anyway.  I haven't seen multiple repeat offenders on this business of stripping citations where I'm the PM.  In the last round, there was one marked unsourced, which I sourced, where the PM thanked me but kept only one source.  More often, people appreciate all available sources, and notes about parents set as siblings...

Answer 5

Count me in for July!

Comments

OOPS. I've posted the July thread now. You already have the badge so you don't have to post but, if you want to, would you add an answer over there.

Answer 6

I will do some.

Comments

OOPS. I've posted the July thread now. You already have the badge so you don't have to post but, if you want to, would you add an answer over there.

Answer 7

I thought I was always in the challenge  but guess not. Please add me as I always do a few each month.