A History of the England Project!

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Welcome to a

History of the England Project!

A Timeline of WikiTree's England Project

Origins

• The England Project began as a sub-project of the United Kingdom Project, overseen by Maria Maxwell

2017

• November 2017: Launch of the present England Project. The project leader, Susie MacLeod, and project coordinator, Gillian Thomas, contacted each member of the UK Project about getting involved in the project. New members were invited to join on G2G and the project made its first appearance in WikiTree's weekly news email.
• November 2017: A Google Group was created for project members to collaborate with each other. All project members were invited to join. Early discussions focused on English categories, stickers and research resources.

2018

• February 2018: The Orphan Trail began, led by Ros Haywood. The first initiative of its kind on WikiTree, the Trail aims to give new members the skills to confidently contribute to the goals of the project. Its first graduate, Corinne Morris, completed the Trail on 17 February.
• April 2018: First England Project Newsletter (available to members here). The project was expanding and so far 42 members had taken up the offer to join the Orphan Trail.
• April 2018: Two new Challenge Teams formed for the 2018 Clean-a-Thon -- the Sandringham Strollers and Windsor Warriors -- replacing Team GB-Gen.
• May 2018: Launch of the first England Topic - English Authors led by Ros Haywood.
• June 2018: "England Project" badges began to be awarded to members. Up until this time, the project had been using the "United Kingdom" project badge.
• June 2018: The project expanded its project teams. It was the first WikiTree project to organise itself into teams. It began with three project teams: Profile Improvement Team, England Counties Team and Managed Profiles Team.
• July 2018: Vivienne Caldwell, project coordinator for project managed profiles, began offering help to project members wanting pre 1500 certification.
• November 2018: Expansion of the Orphan Trail. Lizzie Griffiths became the first Trailblazer, followed by Raewyn Vincent in early December.

2019

• January 2019: Discord began to be used by the England Project to facilitate closer collaboration among project members.
• September 2019: In the spirit of friendly competition, Windsor Warriors won the 2018 Source-a-Thon and Sandringham Strollers finished 4th. Each team had 24 members and between them they added sources to 16,678 profiles in total.

2020

• March 2020: The Orphan Trail was reoganised into three parts: OT1 for the period 1837-1957, OT2 for 1500-1699, and OT3 for members preparing to apply for pre-1500 certification.
• March 2020: The project hosted its first Boat Race Challenge, a virtual competition where members divided into teams to create, source and connect profiles of rowers from Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Mike Christmas developed the concept and other challenges followed, including the FA Cup Challenge (May), Ashes Challenge jointly with the Australia Project (June), Gilbert & Sullivan Challenge (August) and Halloween Challenge (October).
• June-July 2020: The Mighty Oaks was formed as the England Project's Challenge Team (merging Sandringham Strollers and Windsor Warriors). The project members decided the new name and Ros Haywood designed the logos. The new team topped the scoreboard at its first 'Thon, the 2020 Connect-a-Thon, adding 8,434 relatives in 3 days.
• November 2020: The England Project had grown to more than 300 active members.
• December 2020: The year's achievements were celebrated with an end-of-year virtual Pub Crawl Challenge.

2021

• The year in numbers. The total number of English profiles on WikiTree grew by 25% to 2.87 million. 74 members graduated from the Orphan Trail's OT1, guided by 21 Trailblazers, 13 graduated from OT2 and 3 graduated from OT3. The combined Mighty Oaks teams corrected 32,841 suggestions during the Spring Clean-a-Thon, added 13,171 profiles during the Connect-a-Thon, and found sources for 9,296 profiles during the Source-a-Thon.

2022

• Wikitree Day 2022 was a highlight for the England Project. In November, the project celebrated its 5th birthday and put together a 30-minute video presentation about the project: WikiTree Projects: England
  
• A full end of year wrap-up Newsletter, with news from the year and statistics, can be found here: December 2022 Newsletter.

2023

• New Tangled Families Team announced in June, formed by merging the Arborists Team, the Unknowns Team and Gedcom Team.

Project Leaders - past and present

Susie MacLeod	Nov 2017 to June 2020
Gillian Thomas	Jan 2018 to May 2018 | Sep 2018 to Sep 2019
Wendy Sullivan	Apr 2018 to Jan 2020 | Jun 2022 to present
Amelia Utting	Oct 2018 to present
Lizzie Griffiths	Oct 2019 to present
Joan Whitaker	Oct 2019 to present
Jo Fitz-Henry	Jan 2020 to Sep 2020
Ian Speed	Nov 2020 to present
Nic Donnelly	May 2021 to May 2022
Michael Christmas	May 2021 to Dec 2021
Maddy Hardman	Nov 2021 to present
Elizabeth Viney	Nov 2021 to present
Susie Officer	Sep 2022 to Aug 2023
Steve Whitfield	Apr 2023 to present

Project Coordinators - past and present

Gillian Thomas	Welcome and Integration	Nov 2017 to Jan 2018
Ros Haywood	Profile Improvement, Orphan Trail, Topics	Jan 2018 to present
Vivienne Caldwell	Managed Profiles, Styles & Standards	Jan 2018 to Feb 2020
Wendy Sullivan	Welcome and Integration	Feb 2018 to May 2018
Neil Perry	Sub-Projects/Topics	Apr 2018 to Jan 2019
Martin Allen	Categorisation	Apr 2018 to Mar 2019
Gilly Wood	Membership and Integration	May 2018 to Feb 2019
Joan Whitaker	Profile Improvement	May 2018 to Dec 2018
Frances Weidman	Orphan Trail, Membership, Project Challenges	Nov 2018 to present
Chris Weston	Counties	Jan 2019 to Aug 2019
Joe Farler	Profile Improvement	Jan 2019 to Nov 2019
Lizzie Griffiths	Membership and Integration, Counties	Feb 2019 to Nov 2019
Jo Fitz-Henry	Managed Profiles	Mar 2019 to present
Stephen Trueblood	Topics, Managed Profiles	Apr 2019 to present
Hilary Gadsby	Help Desk, Membership	Apr 2019 to present
Raewyn Vincent	Orphan Trail	Aug 2019 to Dec 2019
Becky Troth	England Counties, Orphan Trail	Nov 2019 to Feb 2020
Elizabeth Viney	Counties	Jan 2020 to Nov 2021
Nic Donnelly	Counties; Managed Profiles	Jan 2020 to May 2021; Sep 2022 to present
Maddy Hardman	Profile Improvement	Jan 2020 to Nov 2021
Janet Wild	Profile Improvement, 'Thons	Feb 2020 to present
Michael Christmas	Orphan Trail	Feb 2020 to Aug 2021
Ian Speed	Membership	Mar 2020 to Nov 2020
Marjorie Gibbon	Topics	Jul 2020 to present
Stephen Heathcote	Counties, Categorisation	May 2021 to present
Carol Keeling	Project Challenges	Jun 2021 to present
Heather Brannon	Membership	Jul 2021 to June 2023
Ann Browning	Orphan Trail	Aug 2021 to Sept 2023
Sarah Grimaldi	Orphan Trail	Aug 2021 to Jan 2022
Lois Tilton	G2G Coordination	Nov 2021 to Apr 2023
Dave Welburn	Counties	Nov 2021 to present
Susie Officer	Orphan Trail	Jan 2022 to Sep 2022
Malc Rowlands	Profile Improvement	Mar 2022 to present
Gill Whitehouse	Orphan Trail	Sep 2022 to Aug 2023
Steven Whitfield	Counties	Oct 2022 to present
Kathy Nava	Membership	June 2023 to present
Roy Walmsley	Categories	July 2023 to present
W Robertson	Membership (OT Graduations)	Oct 2023 to present

Last updated: 15 Oct 2023. For corrections, please contact Ian Speed. Thank you!