-- Source Box! --

This is one of the most important features to be introduced to Familysearch. The reason I site it's importance is for the clarity it will give once the Family Tree feature is released to the public. But ANYONE can begin now to start accumulating sources and proving their family history. All you have to do is set up an account.

One of the deepest ideas behind Family Tree is to create a place where everyone is working on the same family tree. Not a million different ones but the same big one - disconnected maybe but it is one. And then if we use it right in avoiding duplication we grab a hold of the purpose of the internet - to save us time and to share ideas and facts.

Disagreements about those facts concerning our ancestors was one of the most annoying things about the older tree feature provided by Familysearch. The Source Box and sources are the only answer to that problem. For this post I'll assume you have created an account already and that you are logged in.

Here is an example:

So you find the death record to one of your ancestors! Now you simply click "Add to My Source Box" and it has been saved in your account's source box. Like So:

Now the record above appears in the greater Source Box below. (You can access your source box from hovering over your name and clicking on Source Box). You have the ability to open and close them for more details and to see the record again. Notice on the left there is a file folder structure you can create. Each record can go in one folder so you can decide for yourself the best way to organize!

You do have the ability to create a source yourself! If you look and the item second from the bottom on my source box there's a world symbol. I made it because I found an online biography of one of my ancestors which I never wanted to have to look for again!

It's as easy as that. And as a user of Family Tree I can tell you linking your ancestor to the record is just as easy. Happy hunting!