Today’s tip is for anyone who uses an Ancestry tree. When we attach sources, we generally add facts to a person’s timeline. Sometimes we get some duplicate facts that are really about the same event. It happens. We can avoid that, but even if you know how to avoid it, we are human and sometimes forget.
In this quick video, I will show you a person in my Ancestry tree who had three different facts about one marriage event. I will show you how to carefully review the sources linked to each fact, delete unnecessary facts, edit the remaining fact to reflect the event accurately, and then link all supporting sources to that one fact on the timeline.
This process is pretty fast, but it’s important because it helps tidy up a person’s timeline. Tidy trees are easier to review.
Do you know how to avoid these multiple fact entries on a person’s timeline? I’m contemplating a follow-up video on that subject…
Happy Tuesday, I hope you make a fantastic genealogy discovery today!
ps – Did you index a batch? I just checked the stats (I’m writing this on Monday the 23rd at 11:30ish). It says that 4,868,080 records have been indexed and there were 60,408 volunteers participating. I hope those numbers aren’t final yet because that is less than half of last year’s event. But let’s focus on the positive. That is nearly 5 million more records that will be searchable for free on FamilySearch! If you did not participate – NO GUILT! But, even indexing 1 batch a month is an important contribution. Consider setting a goal for yourself that is appropriate for your time. If all genealogists gave back by indexing one batch a month just imagine what we could accomplish together! Except you don’t have to imagine. I’ll do that math for you. In 2016, there were 3.45 million contributors to FamilySearch. Multiply that by 12 – one batch per month – and you get 41.4 million records. Pretty awesome!