We are pleased to announce the new Medieval Project. Project leaders are John Atkinson, Michael Cayley, and myself. The project will focus on all pre-1500 profiles (not just royals and nobles) that aren’t already covered by other projects (such as Magna Carta and some country projects). Due to the scope of the project, pre-1500 certification is required to be a project member. Those of us that are passionate about medieval genealogy want Wikitree to be a place where accurate information is available and discussed concerning those that lived during this period of time. We also have the opportunity to become the place where we are the leading edge for new research being done. The Medieval project will not be focusing on aristocrats. Certainly some will be included, and project members are free to work on any profiles they desire, but aristocrats are not the primary focus of the project.
The criteria we envisage for the Medieval Project (MP) management are as follows:
1. MP will take over pre-1500 profiles that were managed by the European Aristocrats Project (EuroAristo). Some of them may not need Project management if there is another, pre-1500-badged profile manager, and we plan to weed those out over time.
2. Where the EuroAristo project has been co-manager with another Project, we will consider which Project should be the manager. As a general proposition, we do not need two Projects actively managing pre-1500 profiles. This will be a process that can take place over time.
3. Where another Project is already managing a profile, MP will not seek to become a manager unless the other Project wants to drop out.
4. If another Project (e.g. Magna Carta) has a good reason for wanting to manage a profile managed by MP, there will be no problems - and MP will often want to bow out of management.
5. MP will be flexible about the 1500 boundary. For instance, if the England Project is taking over post-1500 monarchs, it is appropriate for the England Project to manage Henry VIII even though he was born before 1500.
6. Other Projects and all Wikitree members can suggest profiles for MP management.
7. For profiles not currently managed by a Project, there would be no automatic presumption that MP would become a manager.
- If there is a pre-1500-badged profile manager, MP would seek to become a profile manager only if there was a special reason.
- If there is no pre-1500-badged manager, and there is a tangle to unravel, or some other mess, MP would either become a profile manager or see if whoever works on the tangle is willing to do so.
- In other cases, MP would not normally become a manager.
8. New profiles would normally be managed by whoever creates them unless there is a special reason for MP management.
9. We may want to ensure that a Project, not necessarily MP, is a manager for certain key types of figures, like monarchs, discussing if necessary with other Projects which Project is best placed to take on the role.
10. The usual WT criteria for Project Protection will apply.
With the advent of this project, we plan to reduce the European Aristocrats project back to one project covering post-1500 profiles. There will no longer be separate British Aristo and Euro Aristo sub-projects. With the advent of numerous country projects over the past couple of years (e.g. England, Germany, Scotland), EuroAristo has started reducing the number of profiles that are managed by the project and allowed the country projects to oversee the bulk of the profiles for their respective countries.
Availability of time ebbs and flows. The Medieval project will not be requiring any certain level of participation to be a member. If you have the skill set to research in the medieval period and are pre-1500 certified, then we welcome you as a member. To join, reply with an answer (as opposed to comment) to this post.
We have a few teams already in place, but we welcome and encourage other teams to research and manage medieval profiles. Feel free to contact John, Michael, or me to discuss your ideas.
We have a Google group for the project. Membership in it is optional. If you'd like to join, send me a PM.
If you are not pre-1500 certified, you are not eligible to join the project (due to the scope of the project).
Darlene - Co-Leader, Medieval Project and European Aristocrats Project