Part 3
You can use the Search feature to find out whether a deceased person is in the system. You cannot use the Search feature to find living people. Before you can search for a deceased person, you must know one of the following:
At least part of the name of the deceased person or his or her father or mother. You can add more information if you have it.
ID number (person identifier). This unique number is assigned to every person in the system. An example is KWC1-BF7. It appears on the person’s summary card and details page. ID numbers are generated randomly to help the system keep track of a person. You cannot use them to determine specific information about the person or the source of the information.
Tip: As you enter information about the person you want to find, remember these tips:
Entering more information results in fewer results.
Entering less information results in more results.
Using the Exact check boxes results in fewer results
A source is a historical record, such as a picture, journal, Bible, document, or other item that contains evidence about your family history. A citation is a reference that describes what the source is and how to find it. Sources are critical to the genealogical process for documentation and discovery. In Family Tree, it is recommended that you create one source for each image or citation that you use. So your source list will not just say 1900 US Census, it will have an individual entry for each person on the 1900 US Census and those are automatically created when you find the person on www.familysearch.org’s historical records and click Add to Source Box. Your source box contains the sources that you want to attach to your ancestors. It lets you reuse sources instead of retyping a source each time you need to use it. You can add up to 10,000 sources in your source box. However, most people find that having too many sources makes it hard to find the one they need.
Sources indicate where the information in Family Tree came from. They add richness and credibility to the information on Family Tree. Sources increase your sense of connection to your ancestors and their place in history. Sources allow you to evaluate the reliability of your information. For example, an original record created near the time when an event occurred is probably more reliable than a biography written after the event. Knowing the source can help you identify information that you want to verify with other types of records. Sources also provide a history of the sources you have examined. You can then focus research efforts on sources that have not yet been used.
For more information, contact Shanna Jones at shannasjones@msn.com or 435-628-4900.