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Indexing/Including Doctor, Priest, etc...

Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2015 7:54 am
by tertullian01
As I have been going through sources and attaching them to family members I have found many records (death, birth, and marriage) where third parties are involved. Typically we index only the people that the record is created for. But it seems that we are ignoring some potentially useful information. For example, on a death certificate that includes an image the doctor or individual that certified the death is George Giffin. For my family history this isn't necessarily important. But if someone is looking for records on George Giffin this would give them some information. They would know a place of residence (or at least approximately) during a time period. Is there anyway to record this information so that it is searchable? The only thing I can see would be to add a Custom Fact but I assume this isn't searchable. Just curious if there is a better way.

Re: Indexing/Including Doctor, Priest, etc...

Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2015 9:21 am
by drepouille
I have noticed recently that indexed marriage records (mostly in Maine) include the name of the officiator. Since the officiator was typically not related to the family, I could not attach him to Family Tree. However, I understand your point that it might be useful to attach these source entries to people, although it would be extremely difficult given that only the name is given, with no other identifying information.

Re: Indexing/Including Doctor, Priest, etc...

Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2015 9:28 am
by tertullian01
You are right that there is not other specific identifying information. But you do typically have a location of where the event happened. Although something like a marriage, birth or death may not be the exact city I am guessing that most of the time it would give at least the state so you could establish residency in a specific year. Again, its not the best record you could find but the question is if there is a way to include it so it is searchable for other individuals. I don't think there is but I don't know what exactly is searchable and what is not.