Can some kind person tell me how to eliminate lengthy duplicate sources?

Question

Here is a prime example: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Bates-4898

I use Mayflower Births and Deaths, Vol 1 & Vol 2 twice. I know there is a way to only do it once.

Answer 1

When you want to insert the exact same footnote more than once, you can give your note a name and cite it by name. If you named your footnote "Mayflower" instead of <ref>Footnote text.</ref>, your first citation to the named footnote would be <ref name=Mayflower>Footnote text.</ref>. Subsequent citations can use the form <ref name=Mayflower/> instead of the full note.

The first use of the note needs to include the opening tag with the name, the complete text of the note, and the closing tag. There's no harm in repeating that full note in subsequent citations to that note -- as long as you use the name, the page display will come out the same whether you repeat the full note or simply use the short form.

If you give your footnote a name with a space in it, you need to put quotation marks around the name -- for example, <ref name="May Flower">.

Comments

Ellen, You are definitely a heavy hitter. Thank you for making this link worth saving. HERB TARDY gets the main prize tho because he went and fixed the Profile FOR ME. Herb you're still a ROCK Star. I hope you see ths. - I know, I can copy it and paste it in a comment to Herb!!!

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Thanks, Bill!  It's great to be appreciated.  :)  Also, I know you only have to see it once, and you've got it!

Answer 2

First time, you add a name to the <ref> tag.  After that, you use the name.  Easier to show, so I took the liberty of editing the profile you cited.

Cheers,

Herb

Comments

Ellen, You are definitely a heavy hitter. Thank you for making this link worth saving. HERB TARDY gets the main prize tho because he went and fixed the Profile FOR ME. Herb you're still a ROCK Star. I hope you see ths. - I know, I can copy it and paste it in a comment to Herb!!!

Answer 3

the first time you use it, do <ref name="something">sourcelisting</ref>

the next time just use <ref name="something"/>

for each source, give it a different "something" name

now when you see the sources/references instead of seeing it 2, 3, more times, you will see 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, etc for each usage and the source only shows once,

Comments

You all made this page worth saving. Oodles of thanks (born in 1932)!

Answer 4

You could also put a single back around the urls and add the word link before the second bracket, eg
[http://www.wiketree.com Link]  
I don't like like long Source citations in my text, so I do something like the following:
This a biography.<ref>[[#C1840]]</ref>
== Sources ==
<references />
* <span id='C1840'>1840 US Census...yada yada.. </span>

Comments

Hi G.  Thanks for your answer just now. Hope it helps out. By the way did you get my message about our Source-A-Thon?? Please let me know if you are registering this year. Thanks, Dorothy B.

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You all made this page worth saving. Oodles of thanks (born in 1932)!

Answer 5

Hey there, William,

The Advanced Sourcing section of the sources help page explains the process quite nicely. There is a lot of other info on how to format different types of sources on the page. I bookmarked it early on and have found it extremely useful.

Hope it helps.

Comments

You all made this page worth saving. Oodles of thanks (born in 1932)!

What makes yours pretty special is the Advanced Sourcing link, thus enabling me to be closer to the wisdom of Wikitree!!!