Advice before editing this pre-1700 Hathaway profile?

Question

I have information to contribute to the profile of Jonathan Hathaway. This is what I can add:  location of birth and death, spouse's information, children's names and birth dates

These are the sources I am using: Mayflower Families Fifth Generation Descendants, 1700-1880 (Onlinedatabase: AmericanAncestors.org)

Should I contact one of the pre-1700 projects or know about any style guidelines before proceeding? Thank you!

Answer 1

Hello Joyce. The Mayflower Families Books are excellent secondary sources. Please feel free to add to any profiles from these books. Make sure to add your source. If you can write a bio and if you know how to create inline citations, that will be helpful down the road, but isn't necessary. Since Jonathan is a Mayflower passenger descendant born before 1700, I've added the project to the profile. Don't let that bother you. Just add away.

Comments

I just came across this handy bio maker

[https://apps.wikitree.com/apps/shipley1223/Bio.html

you can give credit to the maker of such a handy app by including this in the profile:

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.

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Hi, A word of caution: The bio makers are very handy for profiles that have no biographies already. However using them to rewrite already existing biographies  can cause problems. The Mayflower project has had trouble with their use before.

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that's good to know. I'm trying to find a completely free from text to try it out.  I can see why if you don't start with a free bio it could be complicated.

I also read that it's good to enter all the spouses and all the kids before you run it...

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I believe the bio builder generates lists of siblings, spouses and children. If they aren't already attached they won't be in the list.

Lots of Orphaned profiles, have minimal bios, and or gedcom junk. You could try it on some of those. See drop down menus in the top right corner under Find > Orphaned profiles.

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That's a good idea... thanks for mentioning it.