May/June 2018 Connector Challenge

+9 votes
397 views

Hello Connectors!

Let's begin another month of connecting the unconnected across WikiTree. We'll get the project page updated soon with last month's tallies, but for now, it's time to start connecting!

Thanks to all of you who participated in last month's Challenge. If you haven't checked out the Connectors Chat page, you should! There is a lot of chatter there about what everyone is working on.

Now on to the Connectors Challenge Rules:

  1. Answer here to let us know you're in for this month, but use the tracker to record your connections.
  2. Pick any WikiTree profile which is not connected to the main tree. (In other words, that profile does not have a box at the bottom of the page, showing the degrees of separation from Queen Elizabeth II etc.) You can find unconnected profiles using the Unconnected People tool, the Unconnected Profiles category, the Unlinked_Profiles category, or you may run across an unconnected profile in the regular course of your research.
  3. Add a new or connect an existing profile for a first degree relative (parent, spouse, sibling, or child) of the person on that profile as a link toward a connected profile.
  4. Add a source to the profiles involved in the connection showing the relationship between the two profiles. This could be a census record listing a family, a marriage record, a death record listing the spouse and/or parents, a birth record listing the parents, or any source which demonstrates that the two profiles should be connected to one another. Your source needs to be cited as closely to the style recommended on our Sources help page as possible to count towards your tally.
  5. If you are adding a new profile, it is a good idea to add a second, independent source for that profile. (For example, if you add a spouse because of a marriage record, then look for a birth or death record for the spouse you're adding.) (Note: The reason for this rule isn't to discourage you from adding people. But as you have probably already learned, even official documents frequently misspell names, so adding an independent confirmation of the name helps to save other researchers time in trying to find records that don't exist, because the person's real name was not the same as showed up in the linking document.)
  6. The tally is of branches/unconnected profiles connected to the WikiTree tree, not sources or profiles added. That said, if you can add a number of sources to a profile, all the better, and sometimes a connection will take a number of profiles to get added. Every one is different, and each one makes our tree better. 
  7. If either or both profiles you connect did not have good sources before and were already on WikiTree, then you can also count those sources towards the Sourcerers Challenge.
  8. All participants who do not already have a Connectors Project badge, will get one. Winners each month-the person with the most connections made to the tree-will get the Connection Challenge Winner badge, and the Top Connector each month with get a spiffy template to wear on their profile page. Stats will be kept on the Connectors Challenge page, just like we do for the Sourcerers Challenge.       
     

Ask questions in the comments section here. Thank you! 

 Follow your standings in the Connector Tracker.

WikiTree profile: Space:Connectors_Challenge

in Requests for Project Volunteers by Bob Keniston G2G6 Pilot (263k points)
Sorry this is late.
I know this was discussed when it was implemented but is the tracker actually useful for this challenge? When I make a connection it often takes adding a quite a few new people in the middle. But the final connection is often done through attaching a parent or child. Attaching doesn't bring up the tracker box. So I then have to go back and make what is usually a pointless edit, as I have already sourced the pages, just to bring up the box to add the point on the tracker.

Another thing is that this is one of the challenges that is often misunderstood. If you click on "tracking" next to a name in the score list and change the number next to TimeRange= in the url to a bigger number you can see what that person has tracked as a "connection" over longer time periods. From a look through the list, a lot of people aren't actually making connections, just adding sources and marking it as a connection. With the old system of lists this was easier to check and help people understand the challenge. Also the lists were not that time consuming relative to how long it takes to make a connection, which can sometimes be hours.
ready to go
pretty late, but im playing!
I have an okay internet connection  and some time this afternoon, so I will be attempting some connections.
Paula, when I'm making connections, since I know I have to add a source to support the connection, I'll mark the connection tracker when I save the source to the profile. That's been the best flow for me for not having to go back and make another edit to access the tracker.
Jayme, how do you know when you add a source that you will be able to make a connection? Or do you find the connection first then add the sources? It often takes adding at least two or three profiles for me to make a connection so I then I usually go back to the first profile to make a  change and add to the connection count.
Yeah, I always have the profile ready that will make the connection, add my source, mark the tracker, and then click add father/mother. I think this process only really works for me because so many of the unconnected profiles I work on are ones where I'm seeing if their parents are already on Wikitree rather than creating profiles to make a connection.

9 Answers

+3 votes
I'll do some this month. I have never done this challenge before, but as I am leaving a trail of unconnected profiles as I am working of the victims of the Yorkshire mining disasters, I think I should help to join some of them up with the main tree. I don't know if it matters, but if it does my team is the Windsor Warriors.
by Joan Whitaker G2G6 Pilot (169k points)
Welcome 2 fellow team mate :)
I joined yesterday and have asked for 2 of my managed unconnected profiles to be merged one has been done and I am going to check that it has been cleaned and see if the other has been merged as they were mother and daughter.

Glad to see 2 more Windsor Warrior team members.
+4 votes
I've achieved a number of connections this past week through DB suggestion 131 (No Dates - No Dates on Relatives). Some of these are "floating" duplicates of connected profiles, so to get them connected, you merge them. But, how can the tracker be used in such a context?
by Isabelle Martin G2G6 Pilot (566k points)
+2 votes
I am in for Team Tennessee Volunteers.
by Living Barnett G2G6 Pilot (502k points)
+3 votes
I would like to be in this challenge.  I have not done it before.
by Kathryn Wenzel G2G6 Mach 1 (17.9k points)
+3 votes
I will be working on this challenge as I attempt to connect some of the profiles on my current watchlist.
by Emily Holmberg G2G6 Pilot (155k points)
+2 votes
Forgot to add before, I'm participating. Still working on NZ profiles. Now working from the unconnected orphan list in the 1800s.
by Paula Staunton G2G6 Mach 3 (37.9k points)
+2 votes
I'll do some.
by Sandy Harris G2G5 (5.6k points)
+3 votes
I know there isn't much time left in this challenge, but I'm in : )
by Jayme Arrington G2G6 Pilot (182k points)
+1 vote
I'm working on them...
by Cheryl Skordahl G2G6 Pilot (288k points)

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