Categorization: Military, WWII

Question

I have a cousin (1st cousin, once removed) who was KIA in WWII.  Adding his exact military unit as a category is driving me completely nuts.  I get RED letters for the category, no matter how I input it.  And the instructions for creating a new category are completely opaque to me.

Here's his military unit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/373d_Fighter_Group

How do I add that as a legitimate category?

Comments

Yes, he indeed was a pilot.

See articles:

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/21272300/william_j_heitman/

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/21272379/william_j_heitman_is_a_pilot/

Answer 1

Ok, first we look at US Army Air Corps or Air Forces in WWII categories. I search, using Find>Search in the upper right of my nav home page "fighter group world war II" and I find: 

[[Category: 366th Fighter Group, United States Army Air Forces, World War II]]. This is a similar group. 

So, the category would be:

[[Category: 373rd Fighter Group, United States Army Air Forces, World War II]] and that would have a parent category of [[Category: United States Army Air Forces Groups, World War II]].

Comments

Thank you, Natalie.  I think what was throwing me was displays (can't remember where exactly) that showed underscores in place of spaces.  It looks like you (or someone) created the correct category.  Or maybe the system sorted it out since the category on the profile is now showing up normally.  There is no record of any change to the profile since my last edit.

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He needs to be listed in the Roll of Honor, too. I shall do so.

I added him to the table on this page:

https://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Space:Killed_in_Action

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Fred, someone created the category before I could, but it had no parent and was missing the military and war template. Now it's all set.

Answer 2

This continues to make me climb the walls.  I just looked at the parent group shown for the 373rd (Category: United States Army Air Forces Groups, World War II) and notice that the 1st Air Force is not listed under it as a subcategory.  So I attempted to add it, changing First to 1st, since all those subcategories start with numerals.  I preceded the category with the template {{ProjectCategory|Military and War|Military_and_War}}.

Now 1st Air Force is showing up in red.  I am SO lost!

Comments

Look at his profile..I left you notes.

If you open his profile for me, I will fix it and then you can close it, if you prefer.

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I’m with you Fred. Trying to find the correct category for  regiment in any war is difficult. I sometimes resort to copying the text from someone else I can find who has the same regiment as the profile I am trying to  create although that is not always easy either.

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Thank you, Susan.  And I'm sorry, Categorization Project folks, but Categories are an all-around train wreck.  There's got to be a better way.

How about a searchable database of all legitimate current categories?  Then I could have searched 373 to get all occurrences of that string.  If that search comes up empty, I could search "fighter group" to find a template.  Similarly, with geographic categories, if you come up empty on a town, then you could search "county Louisiana" for example.  That would likely yield a template you could use to create your new category.

Also, better instructions are needed for how to add a category.

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Ditto - I had several relatives in the Civil War and had no idea regiments were sorted by state. So I set up new categories for some profiles, only to be informed of where I could find them.

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You can use WT+ (you can locate a WT+ search at the top of any category page. Here is a  search categories for "fighter group" http://wikitree.sdms.si/default.htm?report=srch5&Hierarchy=1&Query=Fighter+Group to search for any particular word in the category system.

Here is a search for "373rd" as used in categories: http://wikitree.sdms.si/default.htm?report=srch5&Hierarchy=1&Query=373rd

You can do the same with the Find>Search in the upper right, though this is a google search. They are not perfection, but once I learned how to use those, I have a lot more success in locating existing categories.

I agree, Fred, that better instructions for adding a category are needed, and we are in the process of revamping the Help Page. The proposed changes will be posted in G2G for discussion as soon as they are completed. (It's not a quick process.) Fred, if you have some ideas, I invite you to join the Categorization Project to help us!