Quick! Which ancestor profile on Ancestry seems more credible and worth checking out, the top one or the bottom one? Same man (a very distant relative, you know I really like putting these folks on my tree), one with and one without a profile image.
By adding the man's marriage cert as his profile image, I wanted to turn a generic profile into one that might seem more appealing to other researchers interested in the Hartfield family from Galicia, Austria.
Why? Because any researcher can now easily read the marriage cert and verify the name of bride, groom, and their parents, plus the date and place (and of course the two witnesses and the officiant).
With a glance at the profile image, it's faster to figure out whether this might be their Louis Hartfield and they will then dive deeper into my family tree's sources for a closer look at his life.
Adding a document or personal photo as the profile image is my not-so-subtle way of suggesting that I can back up the facts for this ancestor with actual documentation. The more folks who have real facts for their ancestors, the better.
Please, go ahead and add my Louis Hartfield to your tree if he belongs there--along with the sources and the profile image. I don't want Louis or his wife Bessie or anyone on my tree to be forgotten, that's why their profiles are public.
This how LOCKSS works: Lots of copies keep stuff safe. The more trees Louis and Bessie are attached to, the better the possibility that they will be remembered into the future. For more ideas about safeguarding and perpetuating family history, please see my genealogy book, Planning a Future for Your Family's Past.
