Family Search and One Name and One Place Studies

Question

I have found the Family Search tree to be a good way to collect sources and information for the people in my one place study.  Once I'm sure I've collected all the information and hopefully resolved conflicts, I'm then using the Family Search - Wikitree Chrome extension to create the profiles on WikiTree.

Is anyone else doing this?

If so, do you have any suggestions, especially for keeping track of which ones you've finished with?

I've created some personal categories on WT to keep track of which ones need to have more sources added, more connected profiles created, and/or biographies written.  On the Family Search side, I've adding the WikiTree Id for the person under the Custom Facts section.  Its a cumbersome process and I sometimes forget to add the IDs on Family Search or remove the remove the maintenance categories on WT.

Answer 1

With over 500 profiles needing a biography started you may want to consider using a tool to generate simple biographies. I find it works best if spouses and children have WIkiTree profiles but it isn't a necessity.

Anna Barbara Baron This tool would provide this basic information that can be improved upon to fit your needs. This will be how the edit page will be viewed. 

"Anna Barbara Baron was born on November 01, 1690 in Hayna, Kurpfalz. Her parents were [[Baron-684|Niclass Baron]] and [[Foltz-326|Anna Foltz]]. She married [[Metz-1493|Johann Georg Metz]] on May 12, 1721  Together they had 6 children:
# [[Metz-1595|Maria Catharina Metz]]
# [[Metz-1596|Joanna Metz]]
# [[Metz-1597|Johann Georg Metz]]
# [[Metz-1598|Johann Georg Metz]]
# [[Metz-1599|Georg Adam Metz]]
# [[Metz-1702|Johann Metz]]
She died in"

In the case of Anna, replace birth information with the baptism data and complete the death information later (or remove it if you prefer).

You can easily work through the profiles by families. Do the first one, then you have links to the parents and siblings which you then can create their biographies. This will keep family groups more or less together on your contributions listing.

Comments

Thanks Pat.  That's a great idea.  It will really help with all the biographies for those not in my direct line.

And I have a lot more than 500.  That's just the number that I managed to create during the Thon.  There are at least another 1000 and probably more over on Family Search.

Right now my priorities are to sort out the family and get the profiles created on WT with all the sources I have on collected on Family Search. Then I have some old films to go through that are not well indexed and try to add to the sources with particular attention to clues to sorting out several people with the same or similar names. That step is essential to resolving several questions I have in my direct lines.

As I get tired of just working on sources and profiles, I'm writing bios for those in my direct line that I know the most about.

Without some sort of helpful bio tool, it will be a long time before I get bios in a lot of these profiles unless they turn out to be of interest to other genealogists.

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HI Pat,

This is a great tool that I have not come across and does make a lot of things a lot easier. 

It would be good if the following was added when the profile was generated, it also acts as a place holder if not all the references are already in hand

== Sources ==

<references />

Having said that, thank you to ever wrote the tool, it's great. I will be using it moving forward. 

As Mary said " It will really help with all the biographies for those not in my direct line." and for those who married into the Jacka families who are part of the study.

Very cool.

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Glad you like it. I like it so much that whenever I use it I add an acknowledgment to the profile:
Here's the edit mode
* Thank you to the [https://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Special:Badges&b=enhancements WikiTree Apps Project] Member, [[Shipley-1223|Greg Shipley]], who created [https://apps.wikitree.com/apps/shipley1223/Bio.html A tool to generate simple biographies] which gives a good start for any biography.

This shows in the profile:

Thank you to the WikiTree Apps Project Member, Greg Shipley, who created A tool to generate simple biographies which gives a good start for any biography.

I usually add a few tweaks to them so they are not always the same.

Answer 2

I'm doing a ONS on Lynches focusing on one county in Ireland and I've found it's absolutely imperative to cross-reference records with Wikitree IDs across the different sources. I'm using spreadsheets with downloads of BMD and census records to 'tick off' completed entries and to make notes where issues need to be resolved. I'm also using a tree on Ancestry, which is just easier (unfortunately) than Wikitree to find people quickly in certain circumstances.

It's my preference to use offline methods rather than personal categories but a process you're comfortable with is absolutely essential if one is to do an exercise like that properly.

Should say I've also done a OPS on a particular parish and I wish I'd approached it a similar way (although it did have a methodology) as it would help as more records come available. Going back to re-engineer something when you realise it's necessary is much more work.

Comments

Thanks Jason.  Your ancestry reason is why I have so much on Family Search.  They have made it so easy to attach sources to profiles in the tree.  And I find their tools for finding profiles to be much more intuitive for quick finds than WikiTree.  Their possible duplicate suggestions are especially helpful with names that have several alternate spellings.

I really wish the Chrome extension someone wrote for Family Search to WikiTree could pick up and transfer the sources automatically.  That would really speed things up.

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I'm mostly using the census and BMD records that are available online, so I'm linking directly to the source (i.e. a web page), rather than citing. If I didn't have that ability, I would certainly not be attempting what I'm doing!

Answer 3

I added a whatlinkshere link to the comments on one of your place studies which will list all the profiles that mention that free-space page.

By adding research notes referring to the place study page to the profiles which require work and detailing that work, the whatlinkshere link keeps a listing of those profiles. By updating the research notes with any one of your personal categories will keep those categories updated.

Comments

Pat, would you explain this a little bit more? I'm not grasping what you are doing here and what the result is.

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Edie, Hope an example will help:

I have a space page for "Family of Adam Gren Come to USA" that mentions 7 family members, however, I only have 3 of them mentioning the space page. These three are listed on the what links here link for that space page.

If you notice on the whatlinkshere page there are two space pages that are listed. Look at "Fuller-Credit Family Mysteries" and search for "Family of Adam Gren Come to USA" and you'll find more research for this family and it references.

This can be used  to find pages which research the same people and to locate people whose profile does not mentioned the research from the free-space page.

Looks like the Rabbit Hole Society strikes again: I have 4 profiles to update and maybe more to add to the "Family of Adam Gren Come to USA".

Adam Gren's page refers to both Fuller-Credit Family Mysteries and Family of Adam Gren Come to USA

Each of these pages link to one of my personal categories which keep track of all my source pages,

This system works best using research pages that refer to small easy to handle groups. Some people/projects can handle more than others. I prefer to work with family size groups.

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Thank you for your response. That clarifies how you are using the free-space pages and why you link to some and not others.

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Sometimes I get distracted and forget about going back. Since many of my free-space pages are public and only the trusted list can edit I don't watch them as close as profiles. I should get a regular pattern to revisit those pages.

Answer 4

Adding a few words to "Explain your changes:" can help keep your place. Such as:

"adding sources ..." can be used the first time then add one source at a time making sure to add any data changes for BMD sources. Leaves a good edit trail!

Or add "editing bio ..." once an then make small edits for each secton.

Or add "adding categories ..." one at a time adding information about how that category applies to that person.

Once in the habit of these tricks there are fewer things to go back to fix.

corrected typo 11 Aug 2019

Comments

Pat, I think you are right.  Once I get into a pattern as a habit, I think it will go smoother.

I do need to clamp down a bit on my tendency to go off on tangents.  I tend to spot an interesting clue and follow it instead of making a note and staying on my current track.

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Welcome to the Rabbit Hole Society.

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Good luck with that ...

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Going off on tangents can sometimes be a refreshing distraction. The other day I got distracted by a g2g post that I thought about a profile that I should update: A young boy who passed away from a riding accident racing his cousin for $1.00. Not often to I get involved in making a profile really special and I spent far to long searching for just the right pictures, But it was really FUN. So fun that I did a second with this:

I found just the right picture for a girl that died young: I thought about the butterfly being her spirit returning from where it came. Then I added a peachy floral as a background. Now it's back to work - just go to my contribution list and find what I was doing before I was distracted.