Bio Ideas

Categories: WikiTree Help

Here are some suggestions for what you might include in the biography section for yourself or anyone else. See also: Sources, Footnotes.

• Were they named after someone or something?

• Where did they grow up? A certain neighborhood?

• Where did they go to school? Elementary school? High school? College?

• What did they do for a living? Career path? Personal goals?

• What were their favorite subjects or interests?

• What were their hobbies?

• Are there any other web pages (e.g. Facebook or MySpace profiles) about them?

If you want to go into detail about any single event in the person's life such as a wedding or military experience, a school, organization, club, family business, town where they grew up, family home, special pet that belonged to them, etc. you might start a free-space page and link to it. Here are examples.

For someone who recently passed away

Any of the above, plus ...

• What was important to them during life?

• How did they die?

• Where are they buried?

• Were any memorial services held?

• Were any obituaries written? You may want to excerpt, upload, or link to them.

For people who have recently passed the Memories section (beneath the About section) can be especially significant. Consider including a first-person story or fond memory about the person.

For ancestors

Any of the above, plus ...

• How do we know what we know about them? Did someone tell us this information? Did it come from a document or website? Including sources or references can make a bio more valuable for future researchers.

• What are you uncertain about? Don't be afraid to include something because you're unsure about it. For example, you might write "Jane may be buried in the Center Cemetery in Springfield. (Is this right? Great Aunt Judy said this but she wasn't sure. Can someone confirm?)"

• What would you like to find out about them? You might include questions for your friends and family to fill in. For example, you might write "Where was Jane born? Does anyone know this? Please help!"

• Are there any family heirlooms that belonged to them. You might include who currently has a certain object. You might also consider creating a separate page to profile the object like a virtual "show and tell."

This page was last modified 11:58, 17 July 2012. This page has been accessed 6,654 times.