what is the best way to search the Sources Library for a certain title?

Question

Hello,

What is the most efficient way to check whether an open space sources page has already been created for a given source?

Since sources are categorized at the lowest level, I keep looking in all the sub-categories I can think of - there has to be a better way! ; )

Answer 1

If I am looking for a specific book, I do a general text search (option 4 under search) of the source's title. It usually pops up as the first result.

Answer 2

I usually use this page to do a search by the book title:

• https://cse.google.com/cse?cx=003048598688029858478:e-amlq_p4my

Also, at the bottom of every page (at the very bottom, including this page you are reading now) you will find "Search". Clicking on "Search" and scrolling to the bottom you can do a search for "Free-Space Profiles". This will allow you to find the source if someone has created it.

Comments

That Wikitree search relies on Google, so it will not see pages that have not been added to Google's search database. I have sometimes failed to locate Source pages (and have gone on to start a duplicate free-space page) when I depended on search results to tell me that a source didn't have a Source page in WikiTree.

Answer 3

When searching for something in the WikiTree Sources library, categories are helpful only if I can identify a fairly specific category where the source is expected to be found.

I often search Google with the source title (or a string from the title) and site:wikitree.com to limit the results to the wikitree domain. That often returns a source page for the item, but sometimes it fails to find an existing source page (possibly because the Source page doesn't have sufficient inbound links to have been picked up by Google's database).

The "Source" list pages such as Sources-New York and Sources-Family Genealogies and Sources-Torrey are often much more helpful than categories. If I'm looking for a published family genealogy, that Sources-Family Genealogies page is often very handy.

Also, please don't overlook resource pages and reliable sources pages maintained by WikiTree projects. Pages like New Netherland Settlers Project Reliable Sources and the New Netherland church records page are intended to be resources for Wikitreers, and they contain links to individual Source pages (as well as links to other source/resource lists).

Comments

Hi Ellen, thanks again for your very helpful answers! I am gradually discovering more and more of the project-based resource and reliable sources pages. They are VERY helpful, as is "Kitty's Library"! I guess what I was hoping for is a "fail-safe" search strategy to be certain that I find a source if someone else in the WikiTree community has already discovered and catalogued it - to avoid unnessary questions and effort. Since I can't easily guess on what "low level" page a given source might appear, I think the "text search" answer is best this time. Lots to try out and discover!