If the Brief Life History field contains research notes or warnings, the following message will be displayed: "Please move warnings and cautions from the Brief Life History to the notes. Then mark the note as an alert note."
In Family Tree, we recommend that you move some information from the life history to notes. Specifically, move all information that is not a life sketch to the notes. If you feel the content is life history related, close the banner. If you think that other users should read the information before making changes, move the content to an alert note.
Note: On 4 November 2022, FamilySearch moved some content from the Brief Life History into a person's Notes. Some were marked as alert notes. A very small percentage of life histories contained no real content—only special characters, numbers, punctuation, or a single letter. These histories without real content were deleted. All changes to the life history and notes are listed in the change history as having been made by FamilySearch.
Purpose of the Brief Life History
The Brief Life History summarizes a person's life. It is displayed on both the Details tab and the About tab. The About tab displays a computer-generated life history, but it can be replaced with the user-created life history from the Details tab.
Purpose of alert notes
Alert notes allow you to flag data on a person’s page so other users know to be careful before making any changes.
When a person has an alert note, Family Tree displays a message beneath the colored banner on the person page: "Important research has been done on this person: Please read these alert notes before making changes."
Tips
- People are more likely to read short notes, life histories, and stories than long ones.
- Each person can have 50 notes. One of those notes can be an alert note.
- Notes can have up to 3,000 characters.
- If the Brief Life History describes an incident from a person's life rather than a summary of the person's life, consider copying that information into the person's memories as a story.
Steps (website)
Tip: Many Family Tree users appreciate it when other users contact them before making changes. You can send a brief and courteous message about your proposed changes to the Brief Life History using FamilySearch messaging.
- Open the Details section of the person page.
- In the Brief Life History section, click More.
- Highlight the content to be moved, and copy it with your computer's Copy feature.
- Close the Life History pop up by clicking X.
- Find the Notes box, located along the right side of the Details tab, beneath the Search Records box.
- Open or create the alert note:
- If the person does not yet have an alert note, click Add Note.
- If the person already has an alert note, click the first note in the list. Then click Edit.
- Paste the copied information into the Write Your Note field.
- In the first field, enter a title for the note.
- If this note should be changed into an alert note, click Alert Note.
- Click Save.
- Return to the Brief Life History, and delete the information that you copied from the field. If you moved all of the information to the note, you can delete the Brief Life History instead.
- If needed, repeat this process to move other information.
Steps (mobile app)
- Navigate to the Person page of the individual whose information that you want to correct.
- Tap Details.
- Tap the Life Sketch.
- In the upper-right corner, tap ...
- Tap Edit Life Sketch.
- Tap to select and copy the content to be moved.
- Tap the X button to close the Life Sketch.
- Tap the plus button, then select Note under Add not to create a new note.
- Give the note a title, and paste the contents you wanted to move in the Note field.
- Tap Save.
Related articles
How do I add notes to a person in Family Tree?
How do I add a story to Memories?
How do I add vitals and other information to a person in Family Tree?
How do I correct a brief life history that was written by a user?
In Family Tree, how do I correct a computer-generated life history?