New Zealand - Profile Standards

Profile manager: Fiona McMichael [send private message]

Thanks for visiting this page.

The purpose of this page is so that a group of people who actually take an interest in the New Zealand Project can comment on what WE would like as profile standards. It is not an official WikiTree page, but is merely a working document. It is based on the England Project page, but has been modified. Please feel free to add your comments or comment on an appropriate Discord channel.

The New Zealand Project aims to develop the profiles of all people associated with New Zealand to the highest possible standard with

• well sourced biographies using inline references,
• appropriate categories and images,
• research notes (if required) and
• connection to the global tree.

This page is intended as a guide for all Wikitree members developing New Zealand profiles. If you have a question about the specifics of New Zealand profile building, help is available at any stage from by asking a question on G2G - add the tag new_zealand so that New Zealand Project members see it. The New Zealand Project follows Wikitree's Styles and Standards.

Names

• When creating a profile ensure that names are correctly spelled, especially with respect to the Last Name at Birth (LNAB). The name field guidelines provide detailed information for each name field
• If the LNAB is truly not known, enter Unknown in mixed case
• Do not use the Middle name field or Other nickname field for descriptive placeholders (such as an occupation or location ) unless that person would have been well known by such a description and it is documented in a source. Do not add your own private codes for family members in this box

Prefix Field

• Do not enter Mr, Mrs, Miss in the prefix field. These titles may be used in the biography.
• Use Sir only when a man was knighted. Do not use Knight (or an abbreviation thereof) in the suffix field. (see "Suffix Field" below)
• Dame is the female equivalent of an English knight. The wife of a knight is styled Lady.
• Do not add temporary positions or posts to the prefix field.
• Enter the highest military rank attained

Suffix Field

• Only use Senior and Junior in the suffix box if the people themselves used that designation (rare in New Zealand families) and it is documented in a source.
• Do not use generational numbering for given names repeated in successive generations.
• Esquire (shortened to Esq.) is only occasionally used in New Zealand.
• Do not use the word Knight as a suffix when a man held that title. The word Knight is used after a man's name in legal documents. If a knight has an Award of Chivalry, the letters denoting the Award of Chivalry goes in the suffix field. See Titles and styles of knights and dames - Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
• The suffix field may be used for Honours bestowed by the Monarch (Crown Honours), military awards, academic awards and membership of professional bodies or learned societies. Here is the order of postnominals used in New Zealand.

Dates

• New Zealand date notation is day-month-year. Type the date as 1-2 digit day, 3 letter abbreviation Month, 4 digit year in the data fields. Spell out the date in full (including the full word for the month) in the Biography.-
• Dates should be precise when possible. If you are unable to confirm an exact date the exact year is the minimum expected with an estimate acceptable with an explanation in the biography.

Locations

• All New Zealand profiles must contain the words New Zealand (where appropriate) in the birth, marriage and death locations.
• Street addresses are not entered, but may be noted in the biography.
• Postal codes are not used.
• Locations of marriage: the name of the church should not be included before the other location data. Include this in the biography.
• Historically correct place names are actively encouraged in the "data" section at the top of profiles but are likely to require extra research although historic sources may indicate fuller location names.
• 1853-1876 - use the location name followed by the province. The animated timeline may assist with historical location names.
• 1876-1989 - administrative locations are problematic. Some sources such as wills provide the names of provincial districts e.g. Tauranga, Auckland; others such as newspapers suggest a geographic area e.g. Tauranga, Bay of Plenty. Either of these may be used for clarity with smaller settlements, but is not required for larger towns e.g. Napier.
• Post 1989 - the current region names should be used after the name of the settlement. e.g. Tauranga, Bay of Plenty

• The words province, district, county and region are rarely used in New Zealand locations.
• The New Zealand Geographic Board : Ngā Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa, New Zealand’s place naming authority, promotes the use of Māori place names; Māori place names use macrons. LINZ - Land Information New Zealand : Toitū Te Whenua publishes the official list of New Zealand place names in the New Zealand Gazetteer of place names. As time permits, current place names and categories on WikiTree will be updated to the New Zealand Geographic Board standard.
• Stickers and place name categories are created using the current regions not historical provincial locations
• Categories for New Zealand locations are added within the New Zealand sticker and are based on birthplace in New Zealand or places of residence. See here for formatting of region and place (town).

Biography

• The biography should be relevant to the profile, using inline sourcing to clearly identify the facts presented, and written in the third person.
• Do not add speculation or your own personal views to the biography. These can be written in a Research Notes section.
• The biography should be written in chronological order unless this would upset the description of a certain passage of events in that person's life.
• Use the Past tense (He married in 1940) rather than the Historical Present (He marries in 1940)
• Add interest to the narrative by quoting first hand contemporary descriptions of actions or attributes (with sources), but do not speculate or embellish.
• Use subheadings as waymarkers for important events.
• Use brief summaries rather than lengthy passage of descriptive text.
• Lengthy blocks of text should not be copied to a profile from any websites. See the help pages for copying text and copying from Wikipedia.

Citations

Campbell and co. - the England Project has a whole page about this. Do we want or need one? could we create a page with some guidelines and examples from NZ sources e.g. NZBDM (which we all do differently), Papers Past, Archives New Zealand etc.

• Citations (inline references) and sources should be formatted according to Wikitree guidelines.
• Inline citations are preferred. This is a guide to creating and using them.
• A long string URL may be shortened by using: ["URL" space "text to display"]
  for example: [https://books.google.com.au/books?id=sXFwOjmRCoAC Flora of Suffolk] will appear as Flora of Suffolk.