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.
