Hello Judy
The structure of the subcategories you have described (such as Ireland, Smith Name Study) is already in place in most ONSs. I use it in all of mine.
It is probably preferable for the person who wants a new category created to ask you as the Study manager to create it for them. Or, if they feel confident enough, then when the category name turns red, they would click on that red text and, in the box which appears, add a parent category as well as the wording you have provided.
For example:
Category:Smith Name Study AND
"This page covers the "This page covers the Smiths/Schmidts/Schmyths/etc from {{insert appropriate location here, for example Ireland if you are the first one to enter Ireland}}
It is very important for technical reasons NOT to include the forward slash in category names i.e. it should be Category:Smith Name Study, not Category:Smiths/Schmidts/Schmyths Name Study.
Also: do not make the surname plural i.e. not Category:Smiths Name Study, but Category:Smith Name Study. Do you see why I suggest it would be easier to have just one person (i.e. you) to do the category creation? otherwise people might get it all wrong and you will spend the better part of your days checking their category work and correcting errors.
