England Project Monthly Challenges Page

Profile managers: Carol Keeling [send private message], Frances Weidman [send private message], and England Project WikiTree [send private message]

Welcome to the England Project Monthly Challenges Page!

May 2022 challenge: Members of Parliament

There are a large number of unlinked profiles for our Members of Parliament, they need family members added and then a connection found to our global tree.

The table below has been created showing their counties of birth, but most of the MP’s represented constituencies in different areas. So your investigation may lead you through many counties. Each MP has a link to Wikipedia, and very little else, so please spend a little time improving their bio before adding their family.

To get started: Simply add your name to the ‘Adding family’ column, and add some profiles for their parents, spouses, siblings or children. If you can find a connection, then also add your name to the ‘Getting Connected’ column, and mark it as Done when connected.

The most important part is adding the family members. Many of these MP’s came from wealthy and influential families, so there is a chance that close relatives already have profiles created.

This isn’t an easy challenge, but so worthwhile, as it will remove many profiles from our ‘unlinked’ reports, and both Fran, Carol and all our England connectors will be kept really busy helping with connections!

Most of these MP's were elected in the timeframe of 1885-1910. There were 8 general elections during this period, their unconnected lists can be found by selecting the links below. These figures are only for MP's who were born in England

1885 Election now has just 30 unconnected profiles remaining

1886 Election now has just 42 unconnected profiles remaining

1892 Election now has 73 unconnected profiles remaining

1895 Election now has 116 unconnected remaining

1900 Election now has 161 unconnected remaining

1906 Election now has 99 unconnected remaining

1910 January Election now has 73 unconnected remaining

1910 December Election now has 71 unconnected remaining

• Update 4 May 2022 - Tidied the table and removed 17 MP's who had bios and were connected. An excellent start, well done everyone

• Update 10 May 2022 - Tidied the table and removed another 18 MP's who had bios and were connected.

• Update 15 May 2022 - Tidied the table and removed another 10 MP's who had bios and were connected. 45 have now been completed, just 30 left to be worked on.

• Update 26 May 2022 - Tidied the table and removed another 9 MP's who had bios and were connected, just 21 left to be worked on.

March/April 2022 challenge: Where was I born?

There are still many thousands of profiles being added to WikiTree with no birth location, and this month we are looking at some of these profiles. So there's no connecting involved in this challenge.

Each of the individual surnames listed against a county has been taken from the 1881 census list of top surnames for that county. So there is a very good chance that they were born somewhere close to where they either married or died. We've kept it simple and only chosen 19th century profiles, so reliable free sources should be readily available.

To get started: Simply add your name to the last column, add a census source, (if there isn't one already) and if at all possible a birth or baptism source as well (one to corroborate the other), and most importantly, remember to update the birth location field, using the standard format of village/town, county, England. When you are finished, mark it as "done". Some of the profiles married after the 1911 census, in this case their entry on the 1939 register would give a date of birth.

If, after researching your chosen profile, you are unable to confirm their place of birth, then it's fine to make a calculated guess at a county of birth, based on their marriage, or the birth locations of their siblings or parents. In this instance please mark the birth location as 'uncertain', and add a small research note to explain why.

In column 2 we've included a full list and count of profiles from the 19th century who are missing birth locations. If you have time, why not work on a few more. They often don't take long to do.

Have fun everyone, and let's give these profiles a place of birth!

Update Week 1 We started with 115 profiles, there are now only 34 left. Some of these need sources added, some just need their birth location added. A big thank you to all taking part, especially those that are clearing the county profiles with no birth location. I've added updated totals where they have dropped this week.

Update Week 2. Just 16 left to do now.

Update Week 3. (data as at 20 March 2022) Just 4 left to do now.

Update Week 4. Just 1 left. So far, 3293 profiles have been given locations! GREAT WORK EVERYONE!!!

Update Week 6. All profiles are DONE! So far, 4277 profiles have been given locations! Huge THANKS to everyone working on these!

Update Final Week 8. In just two months, locations have been added to 4776 profiles! WELL DONE, TEAM!!

February 2022 Challenge - Hendy Profiles

There are two parts to this challenge. The first table has links to all unlinked Hendy profiles, split by county. They need to be built into family groups where possible, by linking them to their parents. Some parents may need to be created, some may already have profiles on WikiTree. There are quite a few fairly early profiles, so this task is not as easy as it sounds. Once you’ve built a small group, then please feel free to orphan any profiles that you’ve created.

The second table shows the top unconnected trees that contain 1 or more Hendy profiles, again they are split by county. Can we get some of these connected? The numbers of profiles shown in the tree may include private profiles, so you may have to work from the profile manager's pedigree chart.

To get started just add your name to the end column against any entry on either table, and start to build, source and connect.

At the start of this challenge we had identified 1,145 open unconnected Hendy profiles, and included in this total are 509 Hendy, or Hendy family members which are unlinked.

Week 2 Update: (data as at 6 Feb) Now only 1,067 unconnected and just 414 unlinked, so we've nearly cleared 100 unlinked in the first week. Well done everyone.

Week 3 Update: (data as at 13 Feb) Now only 993 unconnected and just 356 unlinked, so another very successful week for this challenge.

Week 4 Update: (data as at 20 Feb) Now only 783 unconnected and just 335 . We've been able to play 'Happy Families' to a huge number of these lost and lonely profiles.

We welcome any and all ideas for future Challenges!

Is there any particular theme you have in mind? Let us know! Simply leave a comment on this page with what you have, or what you would like to see in future challenges. Every month we will hold a different challenge :)