TRACKS Program - Cemetery Categories

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The first step in the TRACKS program is to find and update, or create, a cemetery category for the cemetery we will be working in.

Background

Cemetery Categories serve as the page that group all of the profiles identified within a cemetery, and is generally where other researchers will run across your profiles and pages. This cemetery page can also serve as the roster for profile progress as you work through your transcriptions.

All profiles and cemetery free-space pages should be categorized as part of the overall category structure for the project. That overall structure looks something like this:

• Cemeteries
  • North America, Cemeteries continent
    • United States, Cemeteries country
      • Texas, Cemeteries state/province/region
        • Harris County, Texas, Cemeteries county/parish
          • Lynch Cemetery, Crosby, Texas cemetery name, location

Task 1 - Cemetery Name

Find the current official name for the cemetery. This is the name that is shown on the cemetery website (if one is available), the cemetery signage located on the grounds (most common), or as named through locally registered historical societies (try looking for <State Name> Historical Society in the United States or <County Name> Local History Society in England for example).

Document the Cemetery Name in your Tracker Sandbox. For example:

Cemetery Name: Lynch Cemetery

Task 2 - Cemetery Location

Once you have found the current official name for the cemetery, you then have to identify the proper location of the cemetery. The Category name will be created in <City/Town>, <State> or <County/Parish>, <State> format (the <County/Parish>, <State> format is applicable to cemeteries that are situated outside of City/Town boundaries or are situated in an unincorporated area of a County/Parish).

Document the Cemetery Location in your Tracker Sandbox. For example:

Cemetery Name: Lynch Cemetery
Cemetery Location: Crosby, Texas

Task 3 - Category Name

Now that you have identified both the current official name and the proper location of the cemetery, you can put it all together and create our category, in the format:

CEMETERY NAME, CITY/TOWN, STATE or

CEMETERY NAME, COUNTY/PARISH, STATE

Document the Category Name in your Tracker Sandbox. For example:

Cemetery Name: Lynch Cemetery
Cemetery Location: Crosby, Texas
Category Name: Lynch Cemetery, Crosby, Texas

Caretaker Check-in: Please wait for the Caretaker to review and approve the Category Naming before continuing on!

Task 4 - Creating the Category

Once you receive approval from the Caretaker, you can now create this category by copying the Category Name we entered earlier, and placing this within category brackets, in the format:

[[Category:CEMETERY NAME, CITY/TOWN, STATE]] or

[[Category:CEMETERY NAME, COUNTY/PARISH, STATE]]

On your tracker sandbox, add the Category Name in brackets and then save the page. For example:

Cemetery Name: Lynch Cemetery
Cemetery Location: Crosby, Harris County, Texas
Category Name: Lynch Cemetery, Crosby, Texas
[[Category:Lynch Cemetery, Crosby, Texas]]

When viewing your page, you should now see a Category Link at the very bottom of the page, shown in red. Clicking on this link will take us to the Category Creation page.

Task 5 - CategoryInfoBox Cemetery

Now that you have your new category page open, you can add our known cemetery information. The preferred text on a cemetery category is provided by the CategoryInfoBox Cemetery template. In order to keep things simple, we only require 3 to 4 parameters for this template; however, when more information is known, you should fill out as many parameters as possible. You can add this template using the format (feel free to copy and paste this code):

{{CategoryInfoBox Cemetery

|name=

|location=

|parent=

|spacepage=

}}

The |name= and |location= parameters should be self-explanatory, since you already identified these in your Tracker Sandbox. Just copy and paste that information to the template!

{{CategoryInfoBox Cemetery
|name=Lynch Cemetery
|location=Crosby, Texas
|parent=
|spacepage=
}}

The |parent= parameter is the name of the COUNTY/PARISH in which the CITY/TOWN is located. For example, Lynch Cemetery is located within the town of Crosby, and Crosby is located within Harris County, Texas:

{{CategoryInfoBox Cemetery
|name=Red|Lynch Cemetery
|location=Red|Crosby, Texas
|parent=Harris County, Texas
|spacepage=
}}

Last, but certainly not least, We can start the Cemetery Free-Space Page. To do this, you enter in the exact same name as the category name, in the format:

CEMETERY NAME, CITY/TOWN, STATE or

CEMETERY NAME, COUNTY/PARISH, STATE

{{CategoryInfoBox Cemetery
|name=Red|Lynch Cemetery
|location=Red|Crosby, Texas
|parent=Harris County, Texas
|spacepage=Lynch Cemetery, Crosby, Texas
}}

Now that our CategoryInfoBox Cemetery template is filled in, all you have to do is click the Save button!

Caretaker Check-in: Please wait for the Caretaker to review your newly created Category before continuing on!

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