Biography Instructions and Checklist

Profile managers: Gisèle Cormier [send private message], Cindy Cooper [send private message], and Acadians Project WikiTree [send private message]

Instructions and Checklist

Basics

Acadian Standard Names

Use the Acadian standard last name in the Current Last Name field. Only profile managers or Project leaders have authority to change a surname (LNAB).

If a woman is married, she should have her own standard version of the LNAB, NOT her spouse’s last name. French women and then those who came to Acadie and Quebec kept their last names at least all during our time period.

Dit/dite names, follow the Project protocol: if they used a dit/dite name for the last name, put it in the Current Last Name. If they did not, you may include it in Other Last Names. If you can’t tell, put it in Other Last Names. If Stephen White provides it, use it in Current Last Name. If the dit name refers to the given name, put it in the Nicknames field.

No suffixes such as I, II, Jr, Sr, etc. These were not used during that period, unless you see an actual one on an original record. Mostly people on Wikitree have used them to keep generations straight, but the birth date should do that.

Scan the biography looking for alternate name spellings, and place these in Other Last Names field separated by commas.

If given names are hyphenated (Jean-Baptiste, Anne-Marie), remove the hyphen but leave both names (the "prenom") in the First Name field. Do not put a second name in Middle Name field. Acadians did not use "middle names" at the time. Double first names such as Marie Josèphe and Jean Baptiste were customary.

Location Names

Enter the standard location name for birth, marriage, death. A list is available on the Acadians Project Page. This list encompasses all the Acadian areas of Ile Saint Jean (now PEI) Ile Royale (now Cape Breton), Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and those that became Maine. Use only the old name used at their time, not the current name. The current name is in as a cross reference in case you come across one that needs to be reverted. For some villages there were several spellings – use whichever spelling the source used. You may add the current location name to the biography paragraph if you wish.

Also check to see if the location categories are added to the top of the profile. Use Edit, then in the category picker, type Acadie, and the list of choices will come up.

Status

Set all of the status buttons for confident/certain/uncertain that you are sure of. For example: if there's an original source for parents, mark them confident; if their names/dates/locations are well sourced, click certain. Check the marriage data also.

... ... ... died young.

If they died young (under 21) use template {{Died Young}} and mark No Children and No Spouse (if never married).

Tags/Categories

All project-managed profiles should have {{Acadian}} , the "project box," above the Biography heading, at the base of the categories stack.

Use the Migrating Ancestor Sticker if they came from France to Acadie (placed below the Biography heading):

{{Migrating Ancestor | origin = France | origin-flag = French_Flags-26.png | destination = Acadia | destination-flag = Acadie-1.png }}

Add this category [[Category: Acadia, Immigrants from France]], and this one [[Category: Acadian First Families]], to the top of the page if they were an Acadian first family.

Add a Location Category to the top of the profile. Click on the "category picker," the little box second from the right above the edit box (next to the C for citations shortcut). Type Acadie in the box that opens and pick the appropriate category.

Add Acadians Project Wikitree as profile manager, using wtacadians @ googlegroups.com.

Order of Sections

See WikiTree guidelines: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Biographies .

===ATTENTION! === and ===Discussion=== headlines are no longer used.

There is an Easily Confused box for people who can be confused, such as sisters who marry brothers, people born to different parents but with the same name on the same date, etc. This goes above the Acadian Project Box.

For Project Protected Profiles we add an Explanation before the Biography that says why it is PPP. It is indented with a : Please don't move or remove these.

Any discussion goes in the == Research Notes ==.

Biography

Biography, Research Notes, Sources, and Acknowledgments are the ONLY Level II headings, always (using 2 ==). See WikiTree guidelines: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Biographies. The main Biography and Research Notes are in English per longstanding project guidelines. The French version may be added after the Biography and DNA Research Notes and just before Research Notes, but only do this if you are a capable french speaker (don't use Google Translate).

Factual information is easy to start with the Autobio function: birth, parents, marriage, possible residences, occupation, death. It is not desireable to use sub-headers here. Bold titles can be nice. Try to get a full birth, marriage and death date and place. Acadie is accceptable if no specific location is known.

If there is no biography, please write one or use [the Wikitree Browser Extension Autobio : put all the info in the profile fact boxes first and Save it so the app can utilize it. Be sure to delete the old bio after verifying all the sources are connected to the proper facts.

Sibling list - don't use this.

Children list – if there is one, keep it very simple: name (linked, if they have a profile) and birth year. Very seldom is their birth location relevant but can be if the family moved and had children in different places. Move any additional info of the children to their own profile, delete it from the parent. If no child profile, please make one and move the information over. Often birth sources are included in the parents and these clutter up the sources section. The parents should only have their own sources (unless a child is needed to prove a parent marriage).

Census/Residence - If there is a list of residences, usually by census, then integrate that information into the life story of the biography: "they lived here<ref>citation</ref> and then by 17xx they were living here. Don't make a separate list.

Historical timeline - if there is one (usually a list and dates of important events going on around time of this person, but not all are specific to them). This is optional and mainly used for the earliest settlers. If there isn't one, it is not desireable to add it.

Stories from other sources - should be integrated into the life sequence of the person. edited with quotations and reference credited so it isn’t one huge copy from somewhere else (link source in inline citation). See WikiTree guidelines: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Quotations . If there is a source link, the entire story shouldn't be in there, just a small clip will do, in between <blockquote>s is helpful to offset it from the biography. Remove any repeating information. Feel free to edit heavily.

DNA Research - on haplogroup goes at the end of the English Biography and just before Research Notes. with the === DNA Research === headline. These are not DNA Confirmations which go in the Sources section.

French version of Biography - these are optional. This version of the bio goes last after the Biography and DNA Research Notes and before Research Notes. Do not write this if you are not a french speaker. Don't use Google Translate to make one.

'''== Research Notes ==''' heading is Level II, always (using 2 ==) and ALWAYS placed just above the Sources Section, if applicable. For example, "looked for xxx or YYY in abc, def, ghi, and didn’t find it." Add your name and date by using 4 tildes (~~~~) if you wish.

Sources - Move as many sources to inline references as possible. Use the Chicago style of citations. See http://www.citationmachine.net/chicago/ . Use "named references" (<ref name="xyz">) for those that have subsequent uses of the same citation.

Always place the <references /> tag just under == Sources == so the inline references are listed before the uncited source list. See https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Sources#Advanced_Sourcing https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Sources_Style_Guide Help: Sources Style Guide]

Replace all {{DGFA/SW94/ etc}} source templates with the actual citation (Wikitree wants to move away from these templates). Sample citations are available here. One exception: the template PRDH: Research Programme in Historical Demography: Error in parameters XXX: XXX is acceptable, and even preferred to the full citation. The Find a Grave template may also be used.

Replace all WikiTree space page source links with a citation and link to the actual source page. This is possible is nearly all sources. We don't want to rely on a space page that then redirects the reader to the real source. Let's go directly there. Most sources that are on a space page actual do have a real link (see Reliable Sources and Census pages for the citation and the links).

Eliminate any separate French sources section by integrating into Biography (in-line) or in the "See also" section of sources.

Eliminate any use of manual numbers for references (such as 1. 2. 3.). Integrate citations inline and the system will do it (and automatically renumbers if new information is added), or put them in the bulleted "See also" section, by listing with an asterisk beneath the cited references section.

Put other valid sources that aren't referenced in-line under a See also: heading. If you find Dépots-Repositories, correct it to "See also."

If there is a link to a profile in sources it can stay if it has actual information about THIS person. If the link goes back to THIS profile, then remove it.

Check all the links to see if they work. If you can’t reach the linked site, try to fix them (try googling the citation and finding a working link), or add a note (could not reach, dead link, etc), but leave them there in case something can be done about them in the future. If you’d like, use a color to distinguish your note: {{Lime|put the text you want to be colored in the brackets}}

Acknowledgements - delete these. Most are from 10-15 year old GED imports. They add clutter to the important information about the person of the profile.

Images - very few images are available for this time period. Very rarely a well known person might have an illustration. Maps are more often available. Make sure there is no copyright protection (you will need to explain this when you post the image). We never use any image as a background (clutters the profile and is distracting).

Family – make sure parents have profiles, as well as siblings and children. This is likely our main chance to make sure everyone gets entered. Make profiles for the missing family members. Use sources mentioned in family profiles, or any other sources you have. Or mark them {{Unsourced|Acadian}} if none available. Then someone can find and complete them. Add profile IDs to link to their pages (Autobio is really good for doing this quickly). If there are missing profiles, you can add the category for Acadian Needs Profiles Created (use the category picker drop down list to find and add it).

Suggestions list - check on the dropdown list under the profile ID in the uppermost menu bar and fix any errors. Take care of things like multiple lines, missing ref tags, potential duplicates, etc. Also correct any typos (do not edit any French sections unless you have the expertise).