NOTE: Closed. No longer needed (Clean-a-Thon is over). Policy moving forward appears to be that July 4, 1776 is the only date needed (see [this G2G thread] & [this comment], from the leader of US Southern Colonies Project clarifying that project's position - I had incorrectly believed that it was that project's position to use the dates the colonies ratified the Constitution instead. Glad that's getting settled. (FYI - our work during the Clean-a-Thon [5,457 errors corrected!] was based on the July 4, 1776 date, since we were correcting "USA too early" database errors and that was the date used to flag those errors - assuming I correctly understood the DB Errors Project leader).
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The following is guidance for [Virginia Spring Cleaners] during the [Spring Clean-a-Thon] (April 22-24, 2017).
1. Correct "USA too early" location errors by changing as noted below:
- Colony of Virginia, America >before June 29, 1776
- Commonwealth of Virginia, America >June 29, 1776 to before June 25, 1788
- Commonwealth of Virginia, United States of America >June 25, 1788 - before April 17, 1861 [See the [policy discussion] - just "Virginia" with USA or spelled out is not wrong, and "Commonwealth of" may not make the "final cut" for official policy (once decided); however, if the profile manager has added "Commonwealth of" (June 29, 1776 or later), please don't delete it.]
2. Add location categories as appropriate (existing categories only, based on information in profile). For existing Virginia county categories, see [this table].
3. Please add {{Unsourced|Virginia}} if no sources or if the profile "has just Geni or Ancestry (or the like) tree for a current source" (from [Sourcerers Project]).
Remember to have fun and don't get too stressed. For post-USA dates, refer to the proposed guidance, posted separately - see [the G2G policy discussion].
If you have questions or comments during or about the Clean-a-Thon, please post them here. If you have suggests/comments about the proposed policy, please post them to [the G2G policy discussion] (if you post them here, they'll be hidden/flagged for removal - no offense intended, just want to stay focused during the Clean-a-Thon.)
And some sage guidance to keep in mind from Team Wiki:
Unless a location name is clearly wrong [e.g. a database error], it should be at the discretion of the profile manager (or the project, if it's a PPP) whether it's Virginia, or Virginia Colony, British North America, etc.
Cheers, Liz
Leader, [Virginia Spring Cleaners (Team Virginia)] (but offline the day before & the first day - sorry!)
edit: removed "Virginia >>" from the start of each bullet & added source for quote about sources.
another edit: It's ok if you simply replace USA or United States, which is clearly wrong, with Colony. Just please do NOT use the option suggested in the dropdown menu ("British Colonial America" is wrong per WikiTree guideline to "use their conventions, not ours" - see more at [Location Fields]). Thanks!
edit April 20: Struck "Commonwealth of" for post-USA Virginia (third bullet above) and added a note of explanation.
edit April 27: Closed with note in text (for full note, see top of question).
NOTE: Closed. No longer needed (Clean-a-Thon is over). Policy moving forward appears to be that July 4, 1776 is the only date needed (see [this G2G thread]).
