Hi Categorization and One Name Study Members,
The ONS and Categorization Leaders have noticed that there needs to be some clarification on how to set up categories for One Name Studies. Alison recently put together a great ONS FAQ page which gives this basic form, too, but so if any discussion needs to happen or questions regarding the structure are asked, we have a thread here.
After looking at a lot of possibilities, this is what we came up with, based on structure Nae Lockhart has been using. Note, instead of trying to pluralize surnames-which can get messy-use "Surname Name Study" instead of "Surnames".
You do not have to use regions in your study, though if you have a study that will have a substantial number of people in it, it can be really useful to break them down this way. Like all categories, the smallest possible category should be used, but Nae found that it was also useful to also have them in a category at the major regional level up, like state, as digging through all the towns someone was in can take a long time when examining patterns. Here's the structure in action. We'll use Brown for the example.:
Category:One Name Studies
>Category:Brown Name Study
>>Category:United States, Brown Name Study
>>>Category:Iowa, Brown Name Study
>>>>Category:Jasper County, Iowa, Brown Name Study
>>>>>Category:Mingo, Iowa, Brown Name Study
If I knew a person was born in Mingo, I'd use the Mingo, Iowa, Brown Name Study as well as the Iowa, Brown Name Study category. Again,this is slightly different than the usual suggestion to use only the smallest category. Using both proves very useful in this case. Ideally, no one would be in the Brown Name Study category-it would be a top-level, and very few would ever end up in the United States, Brown Name study, as well, as we'd aim to at least figure out the state, though it definitely happens that we often only know the country.
Categories for the Name Study should also be put in the general regional categories they pertain to, so Mingo, Iowa, Brown Name Study, would also be nested under Mingo, Iowa.
Here is the Lockhart Name Study for more examples, but note, we want to use "Lockhart Name Study" where she uses "Lockharts" so "Virginia, Lockhart Name Study" rather than "Virginia, Lockarts".
Though still in in its infancy and with far fewer profiles in it yet, here is the Brown Name Study for another set of examples.
Questions? Input?