1776 Project (American Revolutionary War) news and updates

+24 votes
1.4k views

Hi everybody, we've had a lot of changes in the 1776 Project and I wanted to share them with the community.  

The project has recently organized into teams in order to help us organize volunteers into areas that interest them and that serve to help the project to meet its goals.  We have also promoted new Team Leaders to help organize the team members and to aid in project administration.  To date we have created the following teams:

* Improvement Team led by Wendy (Fildes) Bransom.
* Sticker and Template Team led by Christine (Campbell) Preston
* Categorization Team led by Marvin Philips 
* Research Assistance Team led by Butch Smith
* Welcome Team led by Lisa (Smith) Martin

And Mary Richardson continues to serve as the Project Coordinator.  We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Mary for all  of the tireless effort that she has put into this and other projects.

One of the biggest challenges that the Project is facing now is the changeover of the 1776 Sticker from the old format to the new format.  You can find an explanation of the sticker on the project's main page: 1776 Sticker

The old sticker format had many variables including service start and end dates, different unit names, etc.  If any of the values were missing the sticker often looked unfinished.  The new format needs only the rank and the unit and is written in the format "1776 Sticker":

{{1776 Sticker
|rank=
|unit=
}}

(Note: the unit name must end with ", American Revolution," For example, 7th Infantry, Pennsylvania on the sticker would be: unit=7th Infantry, Pennsylvania, American Revolution).

The sticker will generate a category for the unit name so it is important that we have correct unit name categories for all of the units of the Revolutionary War.  This is a tall order and with some luck and a bit of work we hope to get all (or most) of the units entered so that when new stickers are created the ancestor will be automatically categorized.

For ancestors who had patriotic (civil) service or served as Loyalists, there are other sticker variations (please check the sticker section at the project page).

If you have any ancestors that are using the (old) 1776 sticker we encourage you to change it over to the new format.  If many of the stickers are updated by their profile managers this will save the project volunteers a lot of time in the future.

In addition to updating the stickers the project is moving towards a structure with more active project members.  We set the bar low and ask that each member make at least one contribution towards the Project's goals every 6 months but we hope that more Wikitreers will be active and regular participants.  

I have posted profile comment messages to existing project members (those who joined before Jun 2021) asking each current member to respond and to join a team.  If you are a current 1776 Project badge holder, please reply to the check in message if you haven't done so already.

For Wikitree members who are interested in helping the project to achieve its goals you are invited to join the project, you can find details here.  For Wikitreers who do not wish to contribute towards project goals but have Revolutionary War ancestors, you can show your connection by adding the project sticker to your own profile: 

{{Military and War Project Member|1776}}

I want to give a special thanks to the 1776 Project Members for all their help and work to get the project moving towards achieving its goals, a special thanks to the new Project Team Leaders and to our Coordinator, and thanks to all Wikitree Members who have contributed to creating and improving the profiles of 1776 ancestors.  

I am sure I have missed some details so I may be editing this post as I go.  If you have any questions or comments I look forward to answering them.

WikiTree profile: Space:1776_teams
in Requests for Project Volunteers by SJ Baty G2G Astronaut (1.2m points)
edited by SJ Baty

Everyone could find their profiles by using wikitree + to find their profiles with one of the 1776 project box/ stickers, using this link, changing surname-nnn to their WikiTree Id, and selecting the blue Get Profiles button.  The last column shows which one is in use in each profile. 

Thanks Linda, great suggestion! I've added 26 so far. My profiles show 2 who have Rev War service but aren't proven Ancestors so I'll have to wait on those and have left the old participation sticker.
Thanks I found 3 that needed to be changed.
Works like a charm. Great suggestion!

9 Answers

+16 votes
Nice! The sticker and category changes are quite helpful. Good work, 1776 Project. :-)
by Natalie Trott G2G Astronaut (1.5m points)
+12 votes

Great job, SJ!

One recommendation: On the 1776 Project page, there is a section, "1776 Researchers Willing to Help". I would recommend that you remove what exists there and point to the 1776 Teams Page and the Research Assistance team on that page. That seems to have more people / resources listed.

Additionally, I will see what I can do to update the SAR / DAR stickers section on the 1776 Project page. It could use some help too.

by Eric Weddington G2G6 Pilot (544k points)
Thanks Eric, the whole project page is about to get a makeover next week.  I previously condensed a lot of the extraneous section into resources and I need to further consolidate them, add some space pages, add the teams info, etc.  I'll add your suggestion to the list.  Thanks!
Oh, awesome! I'll hold off on doing any changes until after the makeover.
If you want to make improvements now please do so. We can fine tune it later.
+11 votes

Please review the Sticker for Patriotic Service on the project page.

The coding and resulting wording seems to be different than the example.

....performed Patriotic Service (Example)

....served with Patriotic Service (Actual)

by Michael Stills G2G6 Pilot (545k points)
Mine also says: "...served with Patriotic Service" (actual) after updating it!
Here's a fix:  Remove the word "Sticker" from the 1776 Sticker!

Instead of: {{1776 Sticker|unit=Patriotic Service, North Carolina}}

Use: {{1776|unit=Patriotic Service, North Carolina}}

Now it says "performed..." like it should!
Bartley - No, that is not a correct statement. 1776 is a Project Box and is not valid unless the project is PM. If the Project is not PM, it has to be '1776 Sticker' and they need to possibly rework the wording.

Well, the profile actually only has the "sticker" on it, nothing about the project.  From what I've read, it seems they want to use "1776 Project" for Project Profiles.  But the line used in this profile is:

{{1776|unit=Patriotic Service, Virginia}}

and it does make the text read properly as "performed..."  And it does not make the the category show as "Needs Review."

But, maybe they do need to re-work the text, so that we can move all of these over to "1776 Sticker."  Thank you Michael for bringing this up!

The profile you linked to does not have '1776 Project' as a PM.  Therefore, '1776 Sticker' should be used, not '1776'.  The wording may be different from what the sticker or project states, but the correct use is the '1776 Sticker' only OR it will generate a Suggestion, which is what the project is trying to work through now.
Good point.  Probably best not to try to 'hack' the system!

But I sure do like making things work the way they are meant to!

{{1776 Sticker|unit=Patriotic Service}}

results in

1776 Project
Joseph Neville Sr. performed Patriotic Service in the American Revolution.
I just experimented again with this, to verify that its current info:  So, if the location is left off of the Patriotic Service, it states “performed.”

But if the location is included, it states “served with.”  Seems like something the programmers should address.  Because it would be nice to indicate where the patriotic service was performed in the sticker!

Examples on Help Page for 1776 Sticker do not show any location used with 'Patriotic Service' or any of the last items.  If anything is put in the Unit parameter, other than those items in the 'Values' column for the 'Unit' parameter, the wording is going to say 'served with' followed by what is put in the 'Unit' parameter. There is nothing on that Help page that states that a location can or should be included with any of those 5 Values. 

Adding a location, 'American Revolution', or anything else after those 5 values will change the sticker to say 'Served with' because it is no longer the 'value' that it is looking for. From my viewpoint, the sticker is working correctly, according to the 'values' for that Sticker, as stated on the Help Page.  If you want it changed, then you should request a 'Change' for the Sticker. 

I corrected the template to also handle the state after the Patriotic Service in the unit parameter. See examples here https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Template:1776_Sticker#Examples

If you want to know how the unit parameter is used, see https://www.softdata.si/wt/Templ_20211017/Template_1776_Sticker_Param2.htm

Thank you Aleš!

Thank you Aleš!  This is so great!

+11 votes
SJ, I've updated stickers on 6 of my ancestors, have 4 more to add but they won't be updates, just new recognition. Stickers look great!
by Sherrie Mitchell G2G6 Mach 5 (55.6k points)

SJ, I rechecked my suggestions at wikitree + and now i'm really confused, it's giving me profiles that don't make sense, they're not ancestors but do connect to ancestors. Please advise: mitchell-17863

Ellis-268: Bethunia Leftwich (Ellis), wife of Col Thomas

Holford-4:Katherine Leftwich (Holford) born in England

Hopkins-239: Anne Paine Smith (Hopkins, wife of Guy Smith

Leftwich-4: Ralph Rafe Leftwich, born 1628 England

Leftwich-5: Ralph Leftwich, born 1548 England

Leftwich-6: Susannah Thurman (Leftwich), daughter of Col. Thomas

Leftwich-7: Col. Thomas Leftwich Sr. NSDAR is corrected. 

+7 votes
I'm still getting 1776 Project Sticker review on this profile- https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Chase-1679.  I thought I fixed it the right way.  Can someone look at it and let me know what I'm doing wrong?

I'm not sure what to do with the NSSAR sticker yet.

Thanks, Lisa
by Lisa Martin G2G6 Mach 1 (11.0k points)
It looks OK - did you update the profile since this post?

Lisa, This is what I see: it looks ok to me.

C:NSSAR_Patriot_Ancestors
C:Patriotic_Service,_Massachusetts,_American_Revolution
T:1776 Sticker
T:DAR-grs
T:NSSAR Patriot Ancestor
Connected: PublicTree 630 views

No I had updated it on day before but it was still saying it needed to be reviewed.

Thanks for looking at it.
Thanks
I looked at my wikitree + again and it seems that the profiles that I added service descriptions in Rev War other than patriotic rendering are marked as needing review, that's about 12 of 18 currently showing. I added the service as it shows at NSDAR, on the Ancestor's records which is not always fully fleshed out by NSDAR...

I've decided I'm not going to worry about it. To date I've added 78 new stickers, and if anyone wants to review them that is certainly welcomed.
+8 votes

This is a DREAM come true! Thanks to each and everyone of you smiley

by Maggie N. G2G Astronaut (1.4m points)
+7 votes
Can someone please walk a newbie through how to add the 1776 Sticker to my ancestor?  Everyone on Wikitree seems to have been born with the knowledge of how to do everything.  It would be much appreciated.
by Cindy Beam G2G6 (7.5k points)

Cindy,

This page might help. Let us know if you need more information.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Project:1776#Sticker

The entire page includes other information that may be helpful as well. Just be sure to add source information to the profile.

Ken

+6 votes
What do we do for a person who served in more than one unit during the war? Do they just get two stickers?

Also, does this work for militia units or only for continental troops?
by J Briller G2G6 Mach 1 (13.3k points)
edited by J Briller
In the 1776 Sticker, use the rank and unit that give the soldier the most honor. Usually this will be a service performed at the highest rank. Then categorize other services.

There should only be one 1776 sticker on the profile.

Betty
+6 votes

Updating the 1776 stickers raises several questions: 

* Do we have a space page or similar that tells us which units are militia & which are Continental Army?  

* The Continental Navy was formed in 1775 by General George Washington so John Paul Jones and his crew were Continental Navy, but... Where do we place crew members of privateers (Navy, Militia, or something else)?

* Are the Minute Men who responded at Lexington & Concord a separate category, or were they considered Militia? 

Thanks - Jim 

by Jim Wiborg G2G6 Mach 7 (78.5k points)
The best way to determine whether a unit is Continental or Militia is through categories. Using [Category: Virginia, American Revolution] as an example, you will find a link to Virginia Line (Continental), Militia, State Troops, and Navy. If you know the name of the unit, you can use the "Category Finder" at the top of a profile in edit mode.

Minute Men are categorized as Militia, although the best way to do that categorization is a work in progress.
Appreciate your reply. I'll try it and see how it works.

Thanks - Jim

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