Nickels on WikiTree - Annual Report

Question

This report is part of a series from my project of tracking surnames from my immediate ancestors and those of my wife, in this report, I'm looking at people with the surname Nickel.

Comments

As it happens, there are no people with the surname Nickel listed on ThePeerage.com. (There are alternate spellings, like Niccol, Nichol, Nicholl, and Nickle, but I'm having enough trouble chasing down people with the same spelling as in my family, so I'm going to avoid chasing those rabbits.) That makes tracking Nickels slightly easier.

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I can help with Nickel, Nikkel additions to the tree.  Most of the ones that I know are of Mennonite heritage, which is likely not the Nickels that you looking for.  (sorry couldn't help myself). If you post a profile link to a specific Nickel that you are researching, I can see what I can dig up.

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I just found a list of people with the surname Nickel on the German version of Wikipedia. It lists a lot more people than the equivalent page on the English version. I will have to go through it and add people to my Nickel spreadsheet, but I thought I'd share the link here, for anybody else who's working on Nickels (and either speaks German or is comfortable using translation sites or applications).

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In case anybody's interested, our "brick wall" Nickel is Johan Nickel, born in Wiesbaden, Hesse-Nassau about 1814.

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Notable Nickels with articles in Wikipedia, but no profiles on WikiTree:

English version:

• Harald Nickel (German football player)
• Heinrich Nickel (German general)
• Horst Nickel (German biathlete)
• James Nickel (Canadian canoeist)

German version:

• Adolf Nickel (German politician)
• Bernd Nickel (German football player)
• Bernhard Nickel (German forester and politician)
• Eberhard Nickel (German politician)
• Egon Nickel (German politician)
• Ernst Nickel (German archaeologist)
• Ernst-Aderlbert Nickel (German veterinarian and university lecturer)
• Erwin Nickel (German mineralogist)

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Since I am nowhere near finished adding and tallying Nickels from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, ThePeerage.com, the Veterans Legacy Memorial, or Wikipedia, the numbers in these charts are woefully incomplete. But I'm not planning to work on Nickels again until January.¹

So, I have uploaded my Nickel Name Study spreadsheet² to GMX.com. The link is: c.gmx.com/@557630630498670822/FebFCLnqSlOlKI7rvwUk2A From that link, you should be able to download the spreadsheet and edit it on your own computer. You can:

• see the Nickels whom I am tracking so far,
• add sources for unsourced Nickels (you can take part in the Sourcerers' Challenge if you do),
• connect unconnected Nickels (you can take part in the Connectors' Challenge if you do),
• add more Nickels from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission,
• add more Nickels from ThePeerage.com,
• add more Nickels from the Veterans Legacy Memorial,
• add more Nickels from Wikipedia (especially the German version),
• add a worksheet for Nickels in your own watchlist, and, optionally, include those numbers in the "Dashboard" worksheet,
• generate new charts from the "Dashboard" worksheet, and post them wherever you want. (Well, okay, probably not on the page for a different one name study.  At least, not unless you edit the worksheets and the charts to use that surname instead.)

If you do this, and make your own edits, please send your edits back to me by December, so I can include them in next January's report.

1. It's not that I have anything against Nickels. It's just that I have hordes of other surnames to track, too.
2. I use LibreOffice, so the speadsheet is in Open Document Format. If you use Excel, the values will import correctly, but the formulae won't. If you need the formulae, send me a private message and I'll send you a copy in Excel format.

Answer 1

As of January 1, there were 1,216 WikiTree profiles for people with Nickel as their Last Name At Birth. That's an increase of seven profiles during January.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission lists 16 war dead with a last name of Nickel. Out of those, two have WikiTree profiles (12.5%). The Veterans Legacy Memorial lists 276 veterans with a surname of Nickel. Of the 69 entries I have tallied so far, three have profiles on WikiTree (1.1%). Wikipedia has entries for 75 Nickels. Of those, one is a fictional character, one has a different Last Name At Birth, and 32 are living, leaving 41 deceased notable Nickels. Of those, ten have WikiTree profiles (24.4%).

The percentage of all Nickel profiles that are connected to the main has tree decreased slightly from 88.8% to 88.5% during January. The percentage of connected Nickel profiles from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the Veterans Legacy Memorial, Wikipedia, and our family trees stand at 50%, 100%, 50%, and 100%, respectively.

At the beginning of the month, 100% of the tallied Nickel profiles from Wikipedia had links back to those people's articles on Wikipedia, but none of the profiles of people listed on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission or the Veterans Legacy Memorial did. Now, 100% of profiles of people listed on all three sites have links back to those sites.

The percentage of Nickel profiles from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the Veterans Legacy Memorial, Wikipedia, and our family tree with photos on them stand at 50%, 33.3%, 30%, and 0%, respectively.

Comments

Of the 1,216 Nickel profiles on WikiTree, 41 are currently marked as unsourced, leaving an improbably high 1,175 profiles (96.6%) at least supposedly sourced. The percentage of Nickel profiles from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the Veterans Legacy Memorial, Wikipedia, and our family tree with at least one primary source stand at 100%, 100%, 80%, and 100%, respectively.

The sourcing level for Nickel profiles from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the Veterans Legacy Memorial, Wikipedia, and our family tree with at least one primary source stand at 1.5, 2.0, 1.8, and 2.0, respectively.

The number of "tallied" profiles (profiles from Wikipedia and our watchlists) with no primary sources (level 0.5) increased by one during January. The number with one primary source (level 1) increased by seven. The number with two primary sources (level 2) increased by three. The number of with three primary sources (level 3) increased by three.

The percentage of all Nickel profiles on WikiTree which are partially sourced barely show as a thin light orange line in the chart. For the tallied profiles, I depend on the counts in my spreadsheet, where I assign sourcing levels as I check the profiles. For WikiTree as a whole, I depend on WikiTree to get a count of profiles with the {{Unsourced}} template, and WikiTree+ (thank you, Aleš!) to get a count of profiles with the appropriate [[Category:Location,_More_Records_Needed]] category applied. But because both templates and categories are applied manually, there are a ton of profiles to which they should be applied, but haven't been yet. So that's why the tallied profiles show as nearly 40% "fully sourced", while all profiles show as over 95% "fully sourced". (This is one big reason why I keep saying that such-and-such a percentage of profiles on WikiTree is "supposedly" sourced.) As the appropriate [[Category:Location,_More_Records_Needed]] categories and the {{Unsourced}} template get applied to more Nickel profiles where they're needed, both lines should get more visible. That might seem like going backwards, but it would actually be progress, because the numbers would more accurately reflect the state of Nickel profiles. (Of course, sourcing those profiles which are unsourced or partially sourced, but aren't marked that way, would be better still, but even if you can't find any sources, marking the profiles appropriately would alert Sourcerers to profiles where their efforts are needed.)

Answer 2

I did have hopes that some of these Nickels would turn out to be relatively closely related, but none of them have panned out so far.

Comments

Since people are asking, our "brick wall" Nickel is Johan Nickel, born in Wiesbaden, Hesse-Nassua, Prussia about 1814.

Answer 3

I just saw this topic and it so happens that I just created Nickels-648 on April 16. She is the grandmother of a notable line I am currently working. The living notable is a popular Fox host who was in the news this week. His mother was the former Mrs. Lisa (Lombardi-310) Carlson. This line is also connected to the Swanson (frozen dinner) family which I haven't finished connecting up yet.

Where is your Nickels ? ... can't see it on your limited family tree page.

Comments

I added Mary Nickels' father, George Wilmarth Nickel.  Her grandmother has the last name Tucker, where you-know-who probably got his name. And they may be descended from the fabulous Havemeyer sugar fortune. W.I.P.

https://www.wikitree.com/genealogy/Lombardi-Family-Tree-310

Update: They are indeed descended from Dietrich Wilhelm Havemeyer, patriarch of the sugar Havemeyers, including a mayor of New York and a Nobel Prize-winning chemist.

Answer 4

At of the beginning of this month, there were 910 profiles WikiTree for people with Nickel as their Last Name At Birth. That's an increase of 31 profiles since the beginning of May, 2021. (I counted up profiles for all the surnames I'm tracking at the beginning of the year, to get a count on the same day to start the year, but I did not issue reports for most of the surnames. Just in case you were wondering about the extra data points in the chart.)

On Wikipedia, out of the 25 Nickels listed, there are 16 living Nickels, leaving a net of nine Nickels. Of those, six (66.7%) have WikiTree.

Of the 910 Nickel profiles on WikiTree, 36 are currently marked as unsourced, leaving 874 profiles (96%) supposedly sourced. Of the six profiles of Nickels listed in Wikipedia, 5 (83.2%) have at least one primary source.

The percentage of Nickel profiles that are connected to the main tree increased slightly from 85.2% to 86.9% since the beginning of May. The connection percentages for Nickel profiles from Wikipedia and on our watchlist remained unchanged.

The two notable Nickels who are not currently connected to the main tree are:

• Heinrich Nickel - German soldier
• Richard Nickel - American architectural photographer

Comments

One notable Nickel who I need help creating a profile for is Hans Nickel, who competed in rowing at the 1928 Olympics. Even though it's unlikely that he would still be alive at 115 years old, it's not impossible. So before I create a profile for him, I'm going to need a date of death (and preferably a place, too).

Answer 5

At the beginning of this month, there were 915 WikiTree profiles for people with Nickel as their Last Name At Birth. That's an increase of five profiles since the beginning of February.

On Wikipedia, out of the 25 Nickels listed, there are 14 living Nickels, leaving a net of 11 Nickels. Of those, seven (63.6%) have WikiTree profiles.

Of the 915 Nickel profiles on WikiTree, 41 are currently marked as unsourced, leaving 874 profiles (95.5%) supposedly sourced. Of the seven profiles of Nickels listed in Wikipedia, 6 (85.7%) have at least one primary source.

The average sourcing level for notables Nickels from Wikipedia dropped from 1.6 to 1.5 over the course of February due to the addition of a new profile for a notable Nickel. Average sourcing levels for Nickel profiles from our family remained the same at 2.8.

I have added a new measure for sourcing levels, showing the percentage of "tallied" profiles (profiles from Wikipedia and from our family) at each sourcing level. Hopefully, over time, you should see the percentage of profiles at level 0 (unsourced) and level 0.5 (no primary sources) go down, and the number of profiles at level 3 (three or more primary sources) go up.

Comments

The percentage of Nickel profiles that are connected to the main tree increased slightly from 86.9% to 87.1% during February. The percentage of Nickel profiles from Wikipedia dropped (again) due to the addition of a new profile for a notable Nickel. The connection percentage for Nickel profiles from our watchlist remained unchanged.

Another new measure this month, showing the percentage of Nickel profiles which are connected to the main tree, not connected to the main tree but linked to at least one other profile, and not linked to any other profile. (This measure is made possible by Aleš's cool reports.) Hopefully, over time, you should see the percentage of unlinked and unconnected profiles going down, and the percentage of connected profiles going up.

The notable Nickels who are not currently connected to the main tree are:

• Goswin (or Goschwin) Nickel - Superior-General of the Society of Jesus
• Heinrich Nickel - German soldier
• Richard Nickel - American architectural photographer

Answer 6

As of the beginning of February, there were 993 WikiTree profiles for people with Nickel as their Last Name At Birth. That's an increase of 15 profiles since the beginning of January.

Wikipedia has entries for 26 Nickels. Of those, one is a fictional character and 14 are living, leaving eleven deceased notable Nickels. Of those, seven have WikiTree profiles (63.6%).

The percentage of all Nickel profiles that are connected to the main tree remained steady at 87.1% since last March. The percentage of connected Nickel profiles from Wikipedia remained steady at 42.9%, and the percentage from our family trees remains steady at 100%. (You'll notice that the percentage of connected profiles from Wikipedia keeps dropping, as more notable Nickels have profiles created, but aren't being connected.)

The number of Nickel profiles which are connected to the main tree rose by eight since last March, the number of profiles not connected to the main tree but linked to at least one other profile increased by six, and the number of profiles not linked to any other profile increased by one.

Every Nickel profile from Wikipedia links back to that person's Wikipedia article (100%), and has since May 2021. (So no chart.)

Neither the Nickel profiles from Wikipedia nor any of the Nickel profiles in our watchlists have photos on them (0%). (So, still no chart.)

Comments

Of the 993 Nickel profiles on WikiTree, 38 are currently marked as unsourced, leaving an improbably high 955 profiles (96.2%) at least supposedly sourced. Of the seven Nickels listed in Wikipedia, six of them (85.7%) have at least one primary source. The profiles from our family tree all have at least one primary source, so no change there.

The sourcing level for Nickels from Wikipedia remained at 1.5. Average sourcing levels for Nickels from our family tree remained at 2.8.

The percentage of "tallied" profiles (profiles from Wikipedia and our watchlists) at each sourcing level remains unchanged (so no chart).

The percentage of "tallied" profiles and WikiTree as a whole which are partially sourced now shows as a thin light orange line. (As the appropriate "Needs More Records" category gets applied to more Nickel profiles, this line should get more visible, and as the {{Unscourced}} template gets applies to more Nickel profiles where it's needed, the darker orange line should get thicker as well.)

Answer 7

(Note: I originally posted this information on May 1, 2021, but I posted it as a comment instead of an answer, so I'm moving it to an answer to clear space in the comments so none get hidden.)

During April, 12 new Nickel profiles were added to WikiTree, bringing the total to 769 people on WikiTree with Nickel as their Last Name At Birth. Of those, 737 (95.8%) are not tagged as unsourced, and 655 (85.2%) are connected to the main tree.

During April, I added two more profiles for notable Nickels from Wikipedia, bringing the percentage of deceased Nickels with Wikipedia entries who have profiles on WikiTree up to 66%.

 

Comments

During April, the percentage of connected Nickels from Wikipedia dropped, because neither of the two new Nickel profiles (Ernie Nickel and Heinrich Nickel) have been connected yet.

The number of sourced profiles also took a hit, because I haven't found any primary sources for Ernie Nickel yet. Although the number of sourced Nickels on WikiTree as a whole did improve slightly.

The average sourcing level for Nickels on my watchlist improved over the course of the month, while the average sourcing level dropped for Nickels from Wikipedia.

Answer 8

As of yesterday, there were 1,004 WikiTree profiles for people with Nickel as their Last Name At Birth. That's an increase of 11 profiles since the beginning of February.

Wikipedia has entries for 66 Nickels. (Actually, even more than that, because I'm only about a third of the way through transcribing Nickels from the German version of Wikipedia.) Of those, one is a fictional character, one has a different Last Name At Birth, and 33 are living, leaving 31 deceased notable Nickels. Of those, eight have WikiTree profiles (25.8%).

The percentage of all Nickel profiles that are connected to the main tree increased slightly from 87.1% to 87.2% during February. The percentage of connected Nickel profiles from Wikipedia rose from 42.9% to 50%, and the percentage from our family trees remains steady at 100%.

The number of Nickel profiles which are connected to the main tree rose by eleven during February, the number of profiles not connected to the main tree but linked to at least one other profile decreased by one and the number of profiles not linked to any other profile increased by one. (I should point out that the BioBuilders had a challenge to work on People whose last name is the same as a coin or currency last month, just so you understand that I personally didn't manage to connect 11 people in one month.)

Every Nickel profile from Wikipedia links back to that person's Wikipedia article (100%), and has since May 2021. (So no chart.)

Currently, three of the Nickel profiles from Wikipedia have photos on them (37.5%). The number of profiles from our family trees with photos on them stubbornly remains at 0.

Comments

Of the 1,004 Nickel profiles on WikiTree, 43 are currently marked as unsourced, leaving an improbably high 967 profiles (95.7%) at least supposedly sourced. Of the eight Nickels listed in Wikipedia, seven of them (87.5%) have at least one primary source. The profiles from our family tree all have at least one primary source, so no change there.

The sourcing level for Nickels from Wikipedia rose from 1.5 to 1.7 during February. Average sourcing levels for Nickels from our family tree remained at 2.8.

The number of "tallied" profiles (profiles from Wikipedia and our watchlists) at each sourcing level is improving. Sort of. The good news is that there is one more tallied profile with three or more primary sources. The not-so-good news is that there's also one more tallied profile with only one primary source. (Which is still better than no sources at all.)

The percentage of "tallied" profiles and WikiTree as a whole which are partially sourced still shows as a thin light orange line. (As the appropriate "Needs More Records" category gets applied to more Nickel profiles, this line should get more visible, and as the {{Unsourced}} template gets applies to more Nickel profiles where it's needed, the darker orange line should get thicker as well.)

Answer 9

As of January 1, there were 1,209 WikiTree profiles for people with Nickel as their Last Name At Birth. That's an increase of 205 profiles since the beginning of March, 2023.

I am introducing two more datasets this year. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission lists 16 war dead with a last name of Nickel. Out of those, none have WikiTree profiles (0%). The Veterans Legacy Memorial lists 276 veterans with a surname of Nickel. Of the 17 entries I have tallied so far, none have profiles on WikiTree. Wikipedia has entries for 67 Nickels. (Actually, even more than that, because I'm only about a third of the way through transcribing Nickels from the German version of Wikipedia.) Of those, one is a fictional character, one has a different Last Name At Birth, and 33 are living, leaving 32 deceased notable Nickels. Of those, eight have WikiTree profiles (25%).

The percentage of all Nickel profiles that are connected to the main has tree increased slightly from 87.2% to 88.8% since the beginning of March. The percentage of connected Nickel profiles from Wikipedia rose from 50% to 62.5%, and the percentage from our family trees remains steady at 100%.

I am no longer going to put up charts showing connection status (except possibly for the surnames with the smallest number of profiles), because the number of profiles is so huge that even relatively large changes in the number of profiles at each connection status don't result in visible changes in the charts.

Currently, three of the Nickel profiles from Wikipedia have photos on them (37.5%). The number of profiles from our family trees with photos on them stubbornly remains at 0.

Comments

Of the 1,209 Nickel profiles on WikiTree, 38 are currently marked as unsourced, leaving an improbably high 1,171 profiles (96.9%) at least supposedly sourced. Of the eight Nickels listed in Wikipedia, seven of them (87.5%) have at least one primary source. The profiles from our family tree all have at least one primary source, so no change there.

The sourcing level for Nickels from Wikipedia rose from 1.7 to 1.9 since last March. Average sourcing levels for Nickels from our family tree remained at 2.8.

The number of "tallied" profiles (profiles from Wikipedia and our watchlists) with three or more primary sources (level 3) has increased by one since last March. All the other levels remain unchanged.

The percentage of all Nickel profiles on WikiTree which are partially sourced barely show as a thin light orange line in the chart. For the tallied profiles, I depend on the counts in my spreadsheet, where I assign sourcing levels as I check the profiles. For WikiTree as a whole, I depend on WikiTree to get a count of profiles with the {{Unsourced}} template, and WikiTree+ (thank you, Aleš!) to get a count of profiles with the appropriate [[Category:Location,_More_Records_Needed]] category applied. But because both templates and categories are applied manually, there are a ton of profiles to which they should be applied, but haven't been yet. So that's why the tallied profiles show as nearly 60% "fully sourced", while all profiles show as over 95% "fully sourced". (This is one big reason why I keep saying that such-and-such a percentage of profiles on WikiTree is "supposedly" sourced.) As the appropriate [[Category:Location,_More_Records_Needed]] categories and the {{Unsourced}} template get applied to more Nickel profiles where they're needed, both lines should get more visible. That might seem like going backwards, but it would actually be progress, because the numbers would more accurately reflect the state of Nickel profiles. (Of course, sourcing those profiles which are unsourced or partially sourced, but aren't marked that way, would be better still, but even if you can't find any sources, marking the profiles appropriately would alert Sourcerers to profiles where their efforts are needed.)

Every Nickel profile from Wikipedia links back to that person's Wikipedia article (100%), and has since May 2021. (So no chart.)