Australian maintenance categories on Wikitree+, August 2020 [closed]

Question

It's a new month, so I thought I would check in again on Wikitree+ Australian maintenance categories:

• I'm not quite sure how to count the number of profiles tagged with Australian maintenance categories: at the top level it looks like 1,846, but there are 2,111 with 'Victoria, Unsourced Profiles' alone.
• There are now 1,092 profiles tagged 'Australia, Needs Profiles Created'
• 'Australia, Unsourced Profiles' comes in with 304 profiles (plus another 2,317 with state and territory tags).
• 'Australia, Needs Biography' has 193 profiles

Comments

Hi Clare
Why do you add unsourced to profiles that are sourced?

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Hi Leslie,

Good question, I didn't used to, until Gillian shared this: comment. Ever since, I have add the 'Unsourced' tag for profiles which are sourced, but only with generic sources. 

But also, I may well have made a mistake? Sorry if that's the case.

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I am a little thick, what are generic sources?

Is this a generic source
<ref>Victorian birth registration 1897: 28135,M,Whitehill,Albury Sydney,Francis George,Naismith Caroline Louisa,Footscray,</ref>

Or this
 <ref>Victorian birth registration not found: DoB based on age at DoD</ref>

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Hi Leslie, 

The Albury Whitehill source is certainly a proper source (includes details and registration number), not a generic source. This means this edit, where I added some categories to his profle included a mistake (should not have had the unsourced tag). Thank you for fixing it!

Regarding the second example, I guess I would call it an explanatory note. If the source for the dod was included in a non-generic way in another part of the profile, I think that profile also shouldn't have an 'Unsourced' tag. What do you think?

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Hi Clare, thanks so much for keeping us all on our toes. We'll have plenty to do at the Source-a-Thon coming up!

Les, I agree with Clare, that on its own, your second example is equivalent to unsourced. At a minimum, a specific Australian BDM registration source should have a registration number, although more details about the entry would be even better. If a profile has only one source which just says something along the lines of 'Victorian BDMs' it would appear to be just a cut and paste, and someone would need to do some research to check if there was actually a birth, death or marriage record that was relevant. Of course, there are other sources that may also be acceptable.

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The second (a profile I am currently adding children to) has in the profile <ref>Victorian marriage registration 1878: 02095,F,Cowan,Ann Jane,Dunn,William,Crawford,1878: 02095,M,Dunn,William,Cowan,Ann Jane,Portland,</ref>

and

 <ref>Victorian death registration 1879: 07472,,Dunne,Ann Jane,Cowen James,Mcnally Eliza,,22,birth(Condah)</ref>

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Cowan-4670

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Hi Leslie, I checked out the profile for Ann Jane Dunn, it looks great, definitely not 'unsourced'.

Answer 1

Hi Clare 

I am a reasonably new-comer to Wikitree and the Australia Project. I would love to know more about the monthly stats and what I can do to help improve them as a member of the Australia Project (even if I am a member with a limited amount of time available to do much). 

Also thank you for your posts of the last 2 months that meant I found out that there were maintenance categories  I have SOOOO much to learn still.

Comments

Hi Rosalie,

You are welcome to add biographies, sources or profiles in response to maintenance tags, but I think the path that you're on already is just as valuable, particularly with a limited amount of time.

You're already adding profiles and sources for people in your direct line, people you are likely to have far more reliable information about: your cousins and ancestors. You're learning about sources, categories and tags, and you're building great biographies. Thanks for all your contributions!

We don't want Wikitree to become a chore, hopefully it will stay fun and interesting. That said, I think as Wikitree grows, maintenance tags may become more important. Who knows, Wikitreers might more often be looking for direction to where they can improve profiles in a targeted way. Right now, there are so many different ways to improve Wikitree that tags don't really need to direct our attention, they're just nice to have and interesting to keep an eye on over time.

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Thank you Clare :) so far I am still in the full of enthusiasm stage of engaging with Wikitree. It has so many levels there is a lot to become familiar with.