LDS Project Profile Standards

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: [unknown]

This is a work in progress, and needs to be discussed and approved by the members of the LDS Project.

The Latter Day Saint Project aims to develop the profiles of all the people connected to the Latter Day Saint movement with:

• A well-sourced biography using inline references.
• Appropriate categories and images.
• Research notes (if required)
• A connection to the global tree.

The Latter Day Saint Project follows Wikitree's Styles and Standards.

Contents 1 Names 2 Dates 3 Locations 4 Biography 5 Sources 6 Research Notes 7 Images 8 Categories 9 Project Box and Stickers 10 FamilySearch Profile Link 11 Family Members 11.1 Polygamous Spouses 12 Example Profiles

Names

• Make sure the names are spelled correctly.
• If you don't know the person's last name at birth (LNAB), use "Unknown".

Dates

• Dates should be as precise as possible. If you don't have an exact date, you can make an estimate and explain the estimate in the biography.
• Spell out the month in full in the biography. For example, "24 March 1888" instead of "03/24/1888" or "1888-03-24".

Locations

• Spell out the place name instead of using abbreviations. For example, "Utah, United States" instead of just "UT".
• If the place name is in the United States, use "United States" instead of "US", "USA", or "United States of America". This is the default in the location suggestions.
• If the most specific location is a county, use the word "County". For example, "Wasatch County, Utah, United States" instead of just "Wasatch, Utah, United States". Otherwise, exclude the word county. For example, "Provo, Utah, Utah, United States".
• Check the date to see if you should use the state name or the territory name. For example, "Utah Territory, United States" instead of "Utah, United States".
• Do not enter street addresses or cemetery names in the data fields. These should be noted in the biography.
• For locations outside of the United States, refer to the county's corresponding project for location standards.

Biography

• The biography should use inline sources to back up what is written in the biography.
• Try to stick to the facts. Unproven theories or speculation should be put in the Research Notes section.
• Try to write about religious topics as neutrally as possible. For example, we don't want people writing either "Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God" or "Joseph Smith was a liar and a con-man". If the information is important to the genealogical narrative, say something like "Joseph Smith claimed...".
• Use subheading to split up long biographies. Some examples:
• Do not copy large amounts of text from other sources. Link to it instead.
• If a transcription of a long document such as a will is needed, create a Free Space Page for it and link to it from the profile.
• If you mention another person who has a WikiTree profile, link to their profile in the text. This only needs to be done the first time they are mentioned.

Sources

• Inline citations are preferred to a bulleted list.
• Sources should be formatted according to the WikiTree guidelines.
• Do not use online family trees (Ancestry, Geni, MyHeritage, FamilySearch Family Tree) as a source. If a tree includes sources, cite those instead. If information in a tree might be helpful, you can link to it in the Research Notes section.
• Find A Grave pages without a gravestone photo are not considered valid sources.

Research Notes

• A research notes section should be used to write notes that don't belong elsewhere in the biography. Some things you might want to include:
  • Conflicting information.
  • Sources to research later.
  • Searches you made that resulted in no records found.
• Sign and date any research notes with four tildes ~~~~ so that others know who added the note and when.

Images

• Ideally, each person will have a portrait showing their head and shoulders as their primary image.
• Make sure images don't infringe copyright. Please ask permission before using someone else's picture they uploaded.
• Don't add unrelated images to the profile. For example, don't add graphics such as angel wings or patriot ancestor images.

Categories

• After you are done working on a profile, you may want to mark the work that still needs to be done with the project's Maintenance Categories.
• Ideally, location categories should be added for where a person was born, married, died, and lived.

Project Box and Stickers

• Don't add the Project Box to profiles unless the Latter Day Saints Project is the manager.
• If a person was an early member of the LDS Church, you can add {{}} somewhere in the biography.
• If a person was a pioneer who traveled from the Eastern states to Utah, you can add {{LDS Pioneer}} somewhere in the biography.
• If a person was in the Mormon Battalion, you can add somewhere in the biography.
• If you want to mark the profile as being a member of the Latter Day Saint movement, you can use the {{Religion}} template with the appropriate church name and image.
  • The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
  • Community of Christ
  • etc.

FamilySearch Profile Link

• If the person has a profile in the FamilySearch Family Tree, use this link to connect that profile to their WikiTree profile.

Family Members

• If you have done an exhaustive search and think you've found all of the person's children, mark the "no more children" box.
• If you have done an exhaustive search and think you've found all of the person's spouses, mark the "no more spouses" box.

Polygamous Spouses

• Do not add polygamous marriages if they were done after one of the people died.

Example Profiles