Can we please have a new sticker for homesteaders?

+9 votes
401 views
it has been brought to my attention that the way to get a new sticker is to request it here on G2G.  So, I am hereby requesting a new sticker for homesteaders, distinct from the Westward Ho Project Box.

Thank you.
in WikiTree Tech by Susan Anderson G2G6 Pilot (118k points)
I vote yes to homesteader sticker
I could use a sticker on two of my ancestors also..  I had the Westward Ho Homesteader on my gr grandfather.  During Clean-A-thon,  I removed the box as did not have the project account.  Then added category, then had to come up with a lower category.   My ancestor homesteaded in the Panhandle of Texas, even had the source for it.

4 Answers

+7 votes
 
Best answer
I have started to draft a sticker for this purpose. I think it's needed and justified by the fact that "Homesteaders" was or is an established sub-project of Westward Ho!, has numerous categories, and is well-identified as a topic of interest for a number of members. I should have started this earlier (as Leader for the US History Project, which apparently is regarded as the parent project for Westward Ho!), but I've been travelling and I didn't want to try to create a profile while using my smartphone...

ADDED: The new sticker is at https://wikitree.com/wiki/Template:Homesteaders
by Ellen Smith G2G Astronaut (1.5m points)
edited by Ellen Smith

Question: Is anyone using the County categories for Homesteaders?

I see profiles in some of the state Homesteaders categories, such as Nebraska, Homesteaders, but I don't see and profiles in the county categories I've looked at.

I think it would be a good idea for the template to put profiles in the state categories, but I wonder if the county categories are needed.

Well I think maybe we need to see the category people and see what they think - will have to look and see what counties my grandparents homesteaded in - they had two sets, Montana and first they started in North Dakota

Oh and thanks for getting on our new sticker creation - hope your travels went well.
Navarro, the categories already exist -- there's a complete category structure for Homesteaders by County. We can set up the sticker to put people into those county categories. I'm just curious to know if anyone has been using the county Homesteaders categories.

Oh! Silly me, had not been on that project page for a while, should have known that - I would say yes - not too hard to see the county it is on the homestead documentation - so I would think that is a great way to go.

Thank you so much, Ellen!  I hope you'll announce it when the sticker is ready.

Regarding the county categories, I managed to locate a county for one homestead (Daniel Leaming) and put the category on his page: Category: Thayer County, Nebraska, Homesteaders.  I just checked and he's there.

By the way, if others have the same sort of difficulty I have locating category pages, it's no wonder they aren't used more.  As I recall, when the categories appeared on the public page, you could just click on that to go to the category page.  If there's a convenient link to the category page somewhere on the profile, I can't find it now.  To get to the Homesteaders by county I always have to go through the entire tree, starting with World History, hoping I'll make the correct choices as I go.

The Homesteaders Sticker exists now and is ready for use.

The image in the sticker isn't ideal. I looked through the images on https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Homesteaders and picked one that I hoped would work at the scale of a sticker -- specifically I chose https://www.wikitree.com/photo/jpg/Homesteaders-13 . Unfortunately, it's almost illegible in the sticker. I rather like https://www.wikitree.com/photo/jpg/Homesteaders-7 (the family with their sod hut on the plains), but I think it also would be pretty hard to distinguish in the sticker.

Does anyone have an awesome "Homesteaders" image that would look great when it's tiny?

Ellen, I like that the one you picked has the "Homestead Act, 1862" on it, since that emphasizes the fact that a "homesteader" was someone who claimed land under that act.  I agree, though, that it's a bit hard to read.  The family with their soddie is a great picture, but I think it's too generic.

So  glad you are working on Homesteader sticker.  Just  that I have read there have been over three active members interested in the Homesteader sticker.

I had the Homesteader box on  (from long ago when templates were legal to use. _  Then the Suggestions report flagged it.  

I then tried the Category: Homesteaders.   That turned red, saying it was upper level,  So tried Category:Homesteaders, Texas.  Finally had to use  Hansford County, Texas, Homesteaders  category 

Thank you Ellen,

Here is your the Homesteader Sticker on  my grandfather

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Richardson-5319

Robert McAlpin Richardson

Ellen, thank you again for making this sticker possible.  I've added it to my profile for Daniel Leaming.  Now, I just have to find the correct records for a John Anderson who supposedly homesteaded in South Dakota!

Mary, that's a great photo of your grandfather!  My mother tells me that, somewhere, we have a picture of Daniel Leaming, but ....

So far, Susan and Mary and I are the only users of this sticker. (I don't think of myself as having homesteaders in the family, but I tested the sticker on a profile for a member of my family who farmed his homestead claim for a few years before moving back East, and after I determined that the sticker was OK, I figured I'd leave it on his profile.)
I slapped that sticker right on my grandfathers profile and will add it as I add their homesteads to their profiles - thanks so much I hope to see more using this - it is fun to look back and see these and think of how it was
here is my grandfather - work in progress - just found a census that is sooo wrong, but will be added with explaination soon

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Schoonover-587
+7 votes

You are correct in that you need to propose it here on G2G.  But there are other things you need to do.

"Include your thoughts on what it would say and give examples of profiles you manage that you would place it on. If three or more other active members say that they would also use it on profiles they manage, and there aren't strong objections from the community, it can be created."

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Stickers#Creation_and_Editing

by Ros Haywood G2G Astronaut (1.9m points)
+6 votes
Would the Occupations sticker suffice? It can be customized with an image and text, and falls neatly within the intended usage.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Template:Occupation
by Steven Harris G2G6 Pilot (738k points)

I already suggested that in the original discussion.  cheeky

I saw that Melanie, but really no, Homesteaders were the pioneers of inner migration.  They are unrecognized compared to our settlers that first came over, but like they did these folks bravely went out into unknown land and settled and built lives in these places and should be recognized properly for their resourcefulness - and many failed and the land was not kept, but those who did endured many hardships in the new homes they built
Oh and I forgot to say I have several homesteaders in my family that I will use the new sticker on - may I suggest one of the ads that inspired this program or some show of hard work

Oh, I wasn't RE-suggesting it.  I accepted the response I was given at the time.  Hence my suggesting a separate sticker be requested. 

I was simply responding to Steven that his suggestion had already been offered (and, implied, rejected).  smiley

Was a good temporary thing to do if no one makes one - should be easy to do I would think though
+2 votes
Well I was all excited but now I think none of my 1840s people who got land grants can use the sticker because it was before 1862?
by Joelle Colville-Hanson G2G6 Pilot (150k points)
I am well aware that the generic sticker text is very lame. I created those as an expedient, mostly to replace project boxes. The "part of state history" label also didn't ever seem right for some people whose profiles had project boxes that needed to be replaced. Some states already had stickers that defaulted to "was born in state," which isn't true for every important person in a state, and also seems lame.

We can set up some new standard wording -- and new options -- if people identify what wording options they'd like to have.

But it doesn't even say "lived in (state name)".  The Minnesota one says "was a part of Minnesota", which my brain auto-rejects because it queries "what part?  the upper part?  the ground?  the trees?" "some county?".  (Reminds me a lot of the "want to go with?" I trained my husband to NOT say.)  Illinois says the same "was a part of Illinois".

It would be better worded as "was a part of the history of (state name)", or "was a part of (state name)'s history" .. or, for older profiles "was a pioneer in (state name)".  North Dakota uses " is part of North Dakota history", as does Connecticut with "was a part of Connecticut history"

Louisiana uses "lived in Louisiana"

Then there's the "was part of the Low Dutch Settlements in Kentucky, 1780-1810"

North Carolina offers a choice "was born in North Carolina" "lived in North Carolina" and "was part of North Carolina history"

Virginia offers "was born in Virginia" "lived in Virginia" and "Native Virginian"

All the other states on https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Category:US_History_Project_Stickers use the "was a part of" statement (unless they're a specialist sticker such as "First Families" or similar).

Yes .. I did just sit here and click on every state's link.  I wouldn't ever put on my profile something that said I was "part of" an object/state.  (I object to the term "chair" instead of "chairperson" for the same reason .. I am NOT a chair, a chair is something upon which I sit.  I have been a chairwoman, I have been a chairperson, but I will never be a chair (except for a child, or a cat).)

What would be ideal is add your own text no category. So you could say “born in Illinois” or “Was an early Pioneer in Illinois” “was the first woman doctor”.  Whatever is important about being in that state. I’m not crazy about stickers that add to categories. It’s just begging for confusion and errors.
At one time you could adapt  the religion sticker to whatever you thought was important to highlight. Then a bunch of people got all offended by the use of the word “religion”. (Which you couldn’t even see) So then we had to have a separate “Occupation” sticker. Which apparently you can adapt for homesteaders but not to highlight an immigrant ship.

I don’t see why we can’t just have a generic sticker you add your own image and text to highlight things on a profile  

And before people go crazy it’s no different than adding any image to a profile in fact it’s better because it’s smaller and there are limits to how many stickers and under what circumstances they can be used  

But what do I know?
I used the religion sticker a few times when it was still the generic "use for anything" sticker.  (There are probably still a few on profiles.)  I have since used the occupation sticker a few times.  (I think it's great to have both, but miss the generic usage.)

I have also made my own faux "stickers" by using images set to about the same size.  I even managed, once, to set the image and text in a table frame, so it looked more like a sticker.  But I could never align the stupid thing to the right the way I can with images, so I dropped the idea and went back to just images with text, because at least I can align those.
Melanie, I love your comment about people being "part of" a state.  (Though, if Gramps was buried out in the back 40, he probably has become part of his state!)

Why shouldn't there be a generic "pioneer sticker," for the first settlers in a state?  The verbiage could then add the state or territory designation.  I don't know what you'd do about the trappers, traders, missionaries, explorers,surveyors, and assorted riff-raff who preceded those who claimed the land - not to mention the native inhabitants who were invaded by them all.

Yeah .. I thought about the old-style burials, but (in most cases) the sticker is talking of the person's life, and while they were living they were part of the development of their state/s, becoming part of what we see as the history of it.

Also, unless I've been mis-informed, Illinois, at the least, has a law(?)* regarding burials and the requirement for a lead coffin.  There ain't much gonna get outa that there thang if it's fact.   cheeky  (Can't speak about other states, as I only know of Illinois burials and one Wisconsin one (and I did not ask about the coffin requirements).)

.

.

* I have not looked up the law.  For someone writing about people having died, passed away, killed in action, etc .. I currently find it difficult to address current/recent such matters.

I think we could revise the state stickers to accept free-form content.
Cool!  Thanks
I'll look forward to seeing it!  Thanks!

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