March 27, 2016 - Person Page: Watch, Duplicates, Standardize Dates and Places

Today we worked on the Person page on Family Tree in FamilySearch.org.  To get to the person page, click the name of the person you want to work on from the pedigree chart.  A small window opens.  At the bottom of the window, click on the word "Person."  This will take you to the person's detail page, which is where most research work is done.

We did a quick look over each section of the page.  Then we started doing a little work.

The first 3 things I always do:
1 - Watch.  I click the watch button if I want to know if anyone else does work on this page.  I get a weekly email with all changes.  I can then go in and look to see if I agree with the changes.  I can also see where other researchers have found new information that I want to copy to my files.

2 - Duplicates (near bottom of right hand column on the Person page).  If there are possible duplicates, check them out carefully to make sure they really are a duplicate of the same person.  Sometimes information is similar, but not exact.  Once sure that it is indeed a duplicate, they can be merged.
     "Review Match"
     Your person on left - duplicate on right
     Move anything you want to add to your person from the right to the left 
     If it will replace information already there, use the "Replace" option
     When finished, click "Continue Merge" at bottom of page
     Fill in the reason why you think this is a duplicate - remember the message is for the next person
          who looks at this page, so make sure to be as detailed as needed
     "Finish Merge"

3 - Standardize dates and places.  All dates and places need to be pulled from the list in order to get maximum benefit from the search engines.
     In the Vital Information section, click on the date/place under birth and death.
     "Edit"
     Choose a date and place from the standardized list.  Sometimes, you will need to retype all or part
          of the information to get the list to properly come up.
     In the reason box, I usually just put "Standardized date and place" if I did not make any other
          changes.  If other changes are made, you will need to explain why you made those changes.
     "Save"

Next week, we will continue working on the Person page.  Any questions, be sure to contact me.