Advice before adding of this pre-1700 Cooke profile?

Question

I can add a to the profile of John Cooke. This is who I can add:

• John Cooke (Cooke-7495) and  John Cooke (Cooke-19) 

These are the sources I am using:

• John Cooke in the North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000, Mayflower Births and Deaths, Vol. 1 and 2 

Should I contact one of the pre-1700 projects or know about any style guidelines before proceeding? Thank you!

Comments

You might want to contact the Mayflower project https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Project:Mayflower

or add Mayflower tag to your question.

Answer 1

Of course, your John Cooke-7495 is a duplicate of Cooke-19 part of the Mayflower project.  Two things about WikiTree.

First, we shouldn't create duplicates. Only one profile for person. I know it's hard some time.

Secondly, Especially when dealing with ancestors who were born before 1700, we strive to use primary documents and evidence. There are much better sources for Mayflower ancestors than your listed sources.

I have proposed merges for the profiles in question. Please approve them, when they come to your inbox

Comments

I should also mention that Jane Wilcox Shelly Burdick was not the daughter of Elizabeth Cooke-22. and have removed her.

---

Thank you!!  I'm more comfortable with ancestry and find wikitree a bit confusing when it comes to adding sources.  I appreciate your suggestion.

Answer 2

Alice, when you went through the pre-1700 certification process, you should have seen the importance of providing good sources with adequate citations that permit someone to find the information easily.

In addition to posting this question requesting advice before adding new information after you already added the profile, the only source you provided on the first one is:

• John Cooke in the
  North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000

That book requires better identification that would include author, publisher, publication date and location, and specific pages where the entry for John Cooke is found.

You apparently discovered that this profile is a duplicate and proposed a merge - thank you - that's the way we handle duplicates here.  In addition, you added a new profile for one of his daughters, that is also a duplicate and will need to be merged.