My cheat sheet

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

Contents 1 Inline Citations 2 Wiki Markup 2.1 Anchor Text 2.2 Fancy Text 2.3 Tables 3 Cool Features 3.1 Connecting Wiki to FamilySearch 3.2 Expand the edit box 3.3 Zoomable Images from Ancestry Shareable LInks 3.4 ALT Codes 3.5 WikiTree Library 3.6 WikiTree Art 3.7 Wayback Machine 3.8 Save a Thread on G2G 3.9 Create a Signature 4 Free Research Sites 4.1 All Countries 4.1.1 Internet Archive 4.1.2 Wikimedia Commons 4.1.3 FamilySearch 4.2 United States 4.2.1 NARA 4.2.2 Chronicling America (Digital Newspapers) 4.2.2.1 South Carolina 4.3 England 4.3.1 National Archives UK 4.3.2 GRO Index 4.3.3 FreeCen 4.3.4 FreeReg 4.3.5 FreeBMD 4.3.6 Find a Will 5 Sources 5.1 Examples 5.2 Source templates 5.2.1 Ancestry Templates 5.2.2 FamilySearch Templates 5.2.3 FindaGrave Templates 6 Project Standards 6.1 Wikitree 6.2 England Project 6.3 France Project 6.4 Black Heritage Project

Inline Citations

• Creating inline citations using ref tags
  • citations begin with <ref> and end with </ref>
  • Make sure you add the "/" which tells the program where your citation ends.
  • Your citations need to be between the 2 ref tags
    • example
    • <ref> Clipping from the Eagle Tribune, 1 Jan 1904, page 3, Obituary for Jane Doe, died 25 Dec 1903, born on 5 May 1850, parents John and Sarah Doe, she never married</ref>
• Creating Named Inline citations.
  • When you use the same source for several facts you don't need to add the entire citation. You can name the citation the 1st time it is used, and simply use the name to reference the citation.
    • example
    • <ref name="Obituary"> Clipping from the Eagle Tribune, 1 Jan 1904, page 3, Obituary for Jane Doe, died 25 Dec 1903, born on 5 May 1850, parents John and Sarah Doe, she never married</ref>
    • Now when you need to use this source again, you simply use <ref name="Obituary">
    • Be sure to add the "/" to create the end of the citation.
    • <ref name="Obituary"/>

Wiki Markup

Anchor Text

• Anchor text will hide lengthy links and helps keep your profile looking tidy
  • How to example:
  • Link: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS9H-W72D-C?i=1331&cc=2512859
  • Anchor text will be Birth certificate
• to create anchor text, for this birth certificate, take the link then add one space and then the anchor text, and put the whole thing in brackets,
  • In edit mode it will look like this:
  • [https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS9H-W72D-C?i=1331&cc=2512859 Birth certificate]
  • In the bio, you will only see the anchor text like this:
  • Birth certificate

Fancy Text

• To Center your text use <center> </center>
  • Looks like:

Centered Text

• To Bold use 3 apostrophes on each side ''' '''
  • Looks like: Bold text
• To Italicize use 2 apostrophes on each side '' ''
  • Looks like: Italic text

Tables

• Tables are great when organizing lots of information. They are great for census information or large amounts of research.
  • To start a table use {|
  • To end the table use |}
  • To create the border around the table use border="1"
  • so now we have the basic table, with nothing inside
  • In edit mode it will look like this:{|border="1" |}
  • In the bio, it will look like this:

Do you see the tiny tiny square? That's the table, once you start filling it will information, it will grow to fit what is inside.

• To start a line of text use |
• To create horizontal lines use |-
• To create verticle lines use ||
• Adding those looks like this in edit mode:
  • Start table and border: {|border="1"
  • Start line of text with text and verticle line: |Needs Birth Record||Needs Death Record
  • Start a Horizontal line: |-
  • Start 2nd line and text: |Grandma||Grandpa
  • Finish the table: |}
    • In edit mode it looks like: {|border="1" |Needs Birth Record||Needs Death Record |- |Grandma||Grandpa |}
    • In the bio it looks like this:

Needs Birth Record	Needs Death Record
Grandma	Grandpa

• Pre-made Table Templates

Cool Features

Connecting Wiki to FamilySearch

• You can connect the Wikitree profile to the FamilySearch profile of the same person.
  • Link: WT/FS
  • The link can be found on the Wikitree profile on the right hand side under the heading "Research." It will read: Here is a likely matching profile for _____ on the FamilySearch Tree

Expand the edit box

• You can expand the edit box to give yourself more room and make it easier to work.
  • In edit mode, look at the bottom right hand corner. You will see couple of very small diagnal lines. Click and hold these as you drag your mouse down and to the right. This will increase the box size.

Zoomable Images from Ancestry Shareable LInks

• Click on the Ancestry Shareable LInk
  • This will take you to a thumbnail image of the record
• Right click on the record image and a menu will pop up
  • Click on open image in a new tab
• Go to the new tab, and look at the URL and you will see &maxWidth=520 at the end of the link
• Delete &maxWidth=520, and the image will become it's original size and will be zoomable for viewing

ALT Codes

• You can use ALT codes to help create characters that are not on your keyboard.
  • Link: ALT Code List
    • To create the characters, press and hold the ALT button while typing the corresponding character number from the list in the link above.
• For example Alt 0163 will create £, great for Americans working on English profiles.

WikiTree Library

• Link: WikiTree Library

WikiTree Art

• Member downloaded art (photos and graphics) that can be used in your profiles. It's a great source for background images. and profile images.
  • Link: Images

Wayback Machine

• You can grab a snapshot of a webpage by saving it in the Wayback machine.
  • Link: Wayback Machine

Save a Thread on G2G

• At times an interesting thread comes across G2G that is filled with info, and you don't want it get lost in the shuffle.
  • In the top right corner of the question or thread, there is a faint blue plus mark. Click on that plus sign is it will darken up to mean it is now in your favorites.
  • To open your favorites, scroll to the very bottom of the G2G page, and there will be 3 tabs at the bottom, one of which is Your Favorites.
  • To remove the thread, click on the plus sign again.

Create a Signature

• When you leave a research note on a biography, leave your signature to let others know who left the note and when.
  • Create the signature by adding ~~~~
  • As soon as you save, it will become you Wiki-ID and the time and date you were there.
  • My signature when I left this post: (Mutimer-76 22:26, 11 March 2023 (UTC))

Free Research Sites

All Countries

Internet Archive

• Link: Internet Archive

Wikimedia Commons

• Wikimedia Commons is a great resource for domain free photos, books, and other materials.
  • Link: Wikimedia Commons

FamilySearch

• 70% of the information on FamilySearch is unindexed, which means it will not show up under a search. These records can be accessed, but it has to be a manual lookup.
• Here is a video that explains how to search these unindexed records: How to search unindexed FamilySearch records

United States

NARA

• Anytime you see an US National Archives (NARA) micropublication number in a source, you can look up the number in the National Archives, and they will tell you who has the digitized image. Sometimes it is available on a free site.
  • For example, here is a source from a paid subscription site, that has a Micropublican number:
    • "New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957"
      Year: 1851; Arrival: New York, New York, USA; Microfilm Serial: M237, 1820-1897; Line: 38; List Number: 1658
      Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 7488 #157217 (accessed 11 March 2023)
      Name: Benjamin Bayles; Gender: Male; Ethnicity/ Nationality: English; Age: 54; Birth Date: abt 1797; Place of Origin: England; Departure Port: Liverpool, England; Destination: USA; Arrival Date: 12 Nov 1851; Arrival Port: New York, New York, USA; Ship Name: Sir Robert Peel.
  • Search National Archives by Micropublication number Enter the number M237, and you will see that Ancestry and FamilySearch have copies of this image.

Chronicling America (Digital Newspapers)

• The National Archives offers several free digitized newspapers from across the country.
  • Link here: Chronicling America

South Carolina

• USC Libraries

England

National Archives UK

• Use Discovery to search the collections in the National Archives UK
  • Link: Discovery

GRO Index

• The General Registration Office, has information about births and deaths in England and Wales from 1837-present.
  • Create a free account and search their index. The birth index will hold birth name, year, place, and mother's maiden name. The death index will hold, name, year and place, and age at death, and in some rare cases birth date.
• Link: GRO

FreeCen

• Free site for census records
  • Link: FreeCen

FreeReg

• Free site for parish registers
  • Link: FreeReg

FreeBMD

• Free site for Birth, Marriage and Death
  • Link: FreeBMD

Find a Will

• Free site for wills and probate records
  • Link: Find a Will

Sources

Examples

• Source Examples
• Sourcing Citation Examples
• Ancestry Souces
• Sourcing Citation Examples for Australia
• Sourcing Citation Examples for England
• How to Cite a Death Certificate

Source templates

Ancestry Templates

• Ancestry Templates How To
• Ancestry Citation Builder

FamilySearch Templates

• For Records:
  • Use this link to the 1880 Census as an example: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M69Y-1FT
    • The bold code after the 2nd : is the code you need to use
  • In edit mode it looks like: {{FamilySearch Record|M69Y-1FT}}
  • In the bio, it looks like: FamilySearch Record: M69Y-1FT
• For Images:
  • Use the image link to the same 1880 Census as an example: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GYBG-TXH
    • The bold code after the 2nd : is the code you need to use
  • In edit mode it looks like: {{FamilySearch Image|33SQ-GYBG-TXH}}
  • In the bio, it looks like: FamilySearch Record: 33SQ-GYBG-TXH

FindaGrave Templates

• FindaGrave templates look like this: {{FindAGrave|1234}} The number should be the memorial # used on the FindaGrave website.
  • If I wanted to create a template for the FindAGrave profile of Elvis Presley whose memorial # is 9904 it would look like this in edit mode {{FindAGrave|9904}} and like this in the bio, Find A Grave: Memorial #9904
• If I wanted to add a memorial to a profile that was not the grave of the profile subject, you would need to add sameas=no to the template. So if I wanted to use Elvis' FindaGrave on his mother's profile, I would need to do this: {{FindAGrave|9904|sameas=no}} That let's the system know this is not his mother's FindaGrave memorial.

Project Standards

Wikitree

• Wikitree Styles and Standards

England Project

• England Project

France Project

• France Project Location Fields
• France Project Name Fields

Black Heritage Project

• US Black Heritage: How to create a profile for an enslaved person