Avoiding Reinsertion of Counties not yet Existing

+10 votes
214 views

Often I see the use of Virginia Counties before the county existed.  For example, saying born in Orange County in 1721, but Orange did not exist until 1734.

I want to avoid editors ignorantly changing it back to Orange because they for example see sources that cite Orange incorrectly.

I've been adding a parenthetical phrase to the birth data field, e.g., Spotsylvania County (later Orange), Colony of Virginia, to alert potential editors to not make the change.  However, parenthesis in the location field will generate a db_error.

Alternatively, I could put this info in the body of the text, but I'm concerned it would not as easily be noticed in a long profile.

What is the best method of cueing editors to not introduce this error again?

in Policy and Style by William Foster G2G6 Pilot (120k points)
Great Question!

I've been doing as you do.......

The parentheses will definitely cause a database error as a separator in the location fields. Database Error 613, 643, and 673: 

  • Parentheses in location: Parentheses should not be in location fields. Either remove the information to the biography if it does not belong in the location field, or remove the parentheses if the place name is correct with them.

It is a good practice to place the information in the biography as you noted, and using red will call attention to it. You could also use the Spotsylvania County category. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Category:Spotsylvania_County%2C_Virginia_Colony

1 Answer

+6 votes
 
Best answer
you could add something like this at the top.

<font color="red"> Please read bio before changing location</font>

Fixxed per william below.
by Steven Tibbetts G2G6 Pilot (407k points)
selected by William Foster
Shouldn't it end with </font> instead to keep them balanced?
ok, I couldn't find that part so I just did another switch. Maybe?
The way to do color is {{Red|the text you want to be red}} or {{Green|text you want to be green}} etc.

Exactly right.  I've found that the colors are a bit pale so adding bold helps to brighten things up (e.g. '''{{Red|text}}''' )

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