Team Virginia - Annual Source-a-Thon

Registration for the January 2025 Connect-a-Thon has opened. Here's the link for Team Virginia:

https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1828097/have-you-registered-for-connect-a-thon-xiii-yet?show=1828180#a1828180

Team Virginia's 2025 Connect-a-Thon page is at https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Team_Virginia_2025_-_Connect-a-Thon

Cheers, Liz

edited to update link to Team Virginia's registration answer in G2G

Hi! The following dates for 2025 WikiTree events have been posted in G2G - https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1810122/when-are-the-big-wikitree-events-in-2025

• Jan 17-20: Winter Connect-a-Thon
• Mar 6-8:RootsTech
• Apr 11-14: Spring Connect-a-Thon
• Jul 18-21 Summer Connect-a-Thon
• Oct 3-6 Source-a-Thon
• Nov 2-8 WikiTree Week

I'll be your Team Captain for the Connect-a-Thons... and I'm looking for someone to be the Source-a-Thon captain (I have a convention I'd like to go to the first weekend in October in 2025). Let me know if you're interested. Maybe you'd like to co-captain one or more of the Connect-a-Thons to get a feel for "captaining".

When I get the 2024 Connect-a-Thon page up & running, I'll let you know. The Source-a-Thon page (the page I'm sending this from) was set up a few years back to be used repeatedly - https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Team_Virginia_-_Annual_Source-a-Thon

Cheers, Liz

a bit after the fact, but I was just reading through WikiTree's G2G post "Do you have any 2024 Source-a-Thon questions?" and found an answer about where to find images for the bibs:

All the images are in a directory on the site, like this:

www.wikitree.com/images/source-a-thon/bibs/289.png removed "https://" from start so that URL shows, not the image

Anyone could find their image by changing the number in the URL.

commented 3 days ago by Chris Whitten G2G Astronaut

Cheers, Liz

Thanks, Liz, for all you do for Team Virginia! The "Thon"s are fun. I'm just sorry I had so little time to devote to it this weekend.

"L"

I wanted to do a special shoutout to our first-time thon'ers, and I hope I didn't miss anyone! Let me know if I did, and also - everyone - let me know what I (or WikiTree) could have made the thon more fun for you.

Personally, I could have gotten a new computer so the one I have didn't keep kicking me out of the Hangouts! I missed a lot of them, but I only saw one other team member commenting in a Hangout. Glad you made it Sarah! Did anyone else make it to a Hangout? New for this Source-a-Thon was they didn't draw bib numbers of those who were participating, but drew from the pool of people in the Hangout who entered the secret word. A holdover from when bib numbers were drawn was that winners then needed to go to the G2G prize post to claim their prize. If there is a list of those who did this, I've yet to find it.

But back to saying THANK YOU to our first-time thon participants:

• Mercedes
• Mark
• Carroll
• Sarah
• Kay

Was this anyone's first Source-a-Thon, but not first thon?

Hope to see all y'all back for the next thon (unless something changes, a Connect-a-Thon in January 2025).

Thanks to everyone for participating in the 2024 Source-a-Thon and for joining Team Virginia!

Cheers, Liz

Great job everyone! As of now, the final count is 54,527, of which we did 1,319. CONGRATS to everyone who participated - and to Terri for breaking 300!

I'll do a table with individual final counts in a bit, but for now, here are the numbers for our top 4 contributors:

• Rosetta Link - 464
• Terri Jerkes - 301
• Nancy Thomas - 150
• Bill Vincent - 101

Way to Go Team Virginia!

sorry to have been MIA most of Sunday y'all.

Congrats to Terri Jerkes for breaking 200 - now closing in on 300 (at 278) - and a shoutout to Rosetta who's approaching 500 (at 464).

So proud of all y'all!

Cheers, Liz

woo-hoo! we've cracked 1000 - 1,022 to be exact, as of 2 pm Eastern time.

Go Team Virginia! So proud of y'all!

This is interesting...just received it and I think it's some kind of scam...

---

The following was sent via the private messaging system on WikiTree.com.

Hi, I am writing to you today with an exciting opportunity that I believe will be of great interest to you, given your unique surname. However, due to the sensitive nature of the opportunity, I believe it would be best to communicate via email. Kindly contact my personal Email for details: [email address removed] This message is from Ray David Oliver [email address removed] . Click here for their WikiTree profile: https://www.WikiTree.com/wiki/David Oliver-1

Can we take a moment to shout out the person who has been giving all of us shout outs?!

Liz @Noland-165 !!

For being the greatest cheerleader and best, motivational Captain there is!

Congrats to Kay & Mercedes! We're now up to 18 out of 21 members participating!

Go Team Virginia!

Cheers, Liz

Yay! We now have 16 members participating (thanks Mark!) and Nancy is nearly at 100! (I'm off to fix dinner, but didn't want to wait on sharing good news :D )

Go Team Virginia!

Cheers, Liz

I'm working on Monroe County using one of the lists. But I keep getting stuck with messed up trees LOL. Sorry I'm slow going, trying to fix things and suggest merges.

Congrats to Terri A. Jerkes for breaking 100!

Go Team Virginia!

At 12:20, we're at an even 600, with Rosetta leading the way (233).

Congrats (and Thank You!) Rosetta!

Go Team Virginia!

Congrats Bill! We now have two members with 100+ ... and two at 50+

• Rosetta: 177
• Bill: 101
• Terri Jerkes: 70
• Nancy: 64

Still not at 100% participation though. Maybe tomorrow.

Go Team Virginia!

Cheers, Liz

Go Team Virginia! 15 of us are participating! Joining those previously mentioned are Terri, Ellen, Sarah, Carrol, Lawrence and Terry. As of 9:30, we've sourced 341 profiles:

1. Rosetta L. Link (Helm) - Helm-1294 - 130
2. Nancy A. Thomas - Thomas-29841 - 64
3. Bill Vincent Ph.D. - Vincent-18 - 58
4. Deena B. Cross (Smith) - Smith-18204 - 17
5. Anne B. Massey - Massey-4724 - 16
6. Linda P. Johnson (Boblett) - Boblett-43 - 10
7. Tim J. Boyer - Boyer-2855 - 9
8. Terri A. Jerkes - Jerkes-1 - 9
9. Liz L. Shifflett (Noland) aka Lavallee - Noland-165 - 8
10. Ellen M. Steger (Tiedeman) - Tiedeman-60 Virginia - 7
11. Deb A. McCarter (Burch) - Burch-1579 - 5
12. Sarah Shingleton - Shingleton-341 - 4
13. Carrol Fish (Duncan) - Duncan-12685 - 2
14. Lawrence E. Cunningham - Cunningham-4010 - 1
15. Terry West - West-25004 - 1

Way to go y'all!

Well, I made it to the 4 pm hangout, but my computer kicked me out before they posted the secret word, so I missed another opportunity to win a prize. However, I was there long enough to hear about a 15% discount for WikiTree merchandise...

Code WIKI15 (that's WIKI & the number 15), good till 30 November

https://wikitreers.creator-spring.com/ <- the WikiTree Store

When is the next hangout? I'll be home by 5 or 530 usually but I can probably leave work a little early.

Thanks!

Ack! I take it back... you DO have to be in the Hangout to be eligible for a prize. They show a "secret word" during the Hangout and only those who comment in the Hangout's chat with the secret word are included in the drawing for the prize. From the G2G post listing Prize winners:

Prize drawings are done during Live Hangouts. Participants in the live chat type in a word to be entered in the drawing and then a winner is randomly selected. You do have to present in the live chats to win these. Winners have until the next Live Hangout to reply (comment on the hangout post answer below) to claim their prize.

The posted answers are at https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1800652/did-you-win-a-2024-source-a-thon-prize

Just a quick shout-out to the early risers... we've got 6 members participating & have already sourced 55 profiles! Great job y'all! (I was a never-went-to-bedder, so I'm off for a nap)

1. Rosetta L. Link (Helm)
2. Bill Vincent Ph.D.
3. Anne B. Massey
4. Deb A. McCarter (Burch)
5. Tim J. Boyer
6. & me

edit - back from my nap and we're up to 9 participating members: Nancy, Deena, & Linda have now sourced profiles. Two more folks sourcing a profile and we'll be over half. My hope is that we'll be at 100% by the end of the thon.

And we're off! The Kickoff Hangout was well attended and informative - everyone was reminded that this thon, you need to use the Challenge Tracker. And I learned something! If you forget and lose the "Challenge Tracker" button for the profile, the dropdown menu for the profile's ID in the mini-menu at upper right has a "Challenge Tracker" that you can click on to get there (it's the first one too)!

Next Hangout is at noon. To be eligible for a prize, you don't need to be in the Hangout but you will need to have sourced at least one profile.

Happy Sourcing Y'all!!

The latest issue of the Appalachian News was posted today and if you're not familiar with WikiTree's apps - especially the Sourcer app - check out the "Bonus Tip from Hacktoberfest" at https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Appalachian_News for links to more information (I hear great things about apps, but I have an ancient computer and don't "do" apps, so I can't speak from first-hand experience with them).

Cheers, Liz

Registration is now closed. We have 21 members - see #Registered_Members.

For tips on finding Unsourced profiles, see #Finding_Unsourced_Profiles.

The tables for Unsourced VA, WV, & KY profiles are at #Unsourced_Tables.

Once the thon starts, I'll be periodically updating our stats at #Stats (currently #Stats (for during the thon).

The above links are on this page (you can also get to these sections from their links in the Contents at the top of the page).

Be sure to "tune in" for the Hangouts - starting with the kick-off at 8 am (Eastern Time) Friday morning, 4 October. I think that will be the only Hangout where a prize _isn't_ drawn. To win a prize, you don't have to be in the Hangout but you do have to have sourced at least one profile... AND clicked the Challenge Tracker after you save your edit, where you can record that you did.

• Help: Challenge Hangouts <- schedule for the Hangouts, with YouTube links
• Help: Source-a-Thon#Prizes <- for info about Prizes
• Help: Source-a-Thon#How to Participate <- includes info about the Challenge Tracker and links for additional information, including a tutorial and an instruction video

If you need help with a sticker (links to info on this page), give me a holler.

Cheers, Liz - your Team Captain

P.S. Hopefully all of the links will work first time. If a link or URL that you get via e-mail doesn't work as expected, check to see if I've edited this comment.

OK. Just went through the bib images at https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Source-a-Thon_Sandbox (says 156, but didn't seem like that many) & none of the bib numbers that I know have been assigned to Team Virginia members has been uploaded. I *think* that I can upload images to that page, so if you're not sure how to do it & would like to be able to use your bib in a sticker, let me know & I'll see if I can't upload it for you.

As I understand the steps -

1. go to the image of your bib in the G2G thread, right-click on it and select "Save image as..."
2. save the image to your device
3. go to https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Source-a-Thon_Sandbox & click "Upload Image" (I think this link might work)
4. fill out the information (source: "Created by Azure for the Source-a-Thon" is what other uploads have)
5. no idea what it should be titled... I'd think just Bib 045 would do (but with the bib # of the image you're uploading)
6. click the Upload Image button - et voila, you should be done.
7. Note the URL, which should be something like https://www.wikitree.com/photo/png/Source-a-Thon_Sandbox-1 - the file name to use in a sticker would then be Source-a-Thon_Sandbox-1.png

Happy September everyone!

The Registration for this year's Source-a-Thon is now open. To re-join Team Virginia, please post a reply under the Virginia Sourcers answer at https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1787994/register-now-for-the-2024-source-a-thon?show=1788057#a1788057

Cheers, Liz Captain, Team Virginia

For those that are new to WikiTree and/or Source-A-Thon, please take a few minutes to review this Source-A-Thon help page, starting with Item #5. Mindy put it together and it is great at explaining sourcing.

Although the Source-A-Thon is a race to see how many Profiles we source, quality sourcing is the name of the game. :)

Some tips:

1. If you add 5 sources to 1 Profile, it only counts as 1 point. Why? Because counts are by Profiles not by the number of Sources.
2. Please do not add Ancestry.com or Geni.com sources if at all possible. Instead use the actual source document citation.
3. Please do not upload a document from Ancestry.com since they consider copyright infringement.
4. 95% of the time, Ancestry.com sources can be found on Family Search for free. If you do not have a FamilySearch account, sign up here. It is free and very trusted. FamilySearch is a goldmine for sources and they provide the correct citation to copy.
5. Try to add at least one source that is not Find A Grave. The Cemeterist Project has monthly challenges for adding sources to Profiles that only have a Find A Grave source. So, if you only add a Find A Grave source during Source-A-Thon, guess what.... you made additional work for the Cemeterist Project. Find A Grave is a valuable source and especially more powerful when added with another source such as death record, census, etc.
6. Avoid derivative sources.

Want more understanding of "Uncertain Sources", check out this help page that explains derivative sources. And, for a little more explanation of derivative sources from the Southern Colonies Project (of which MANY WikiTree Virginia Profiles are included).

Want to live chat with other Team Virginia members? Install Discord and accept this invitation. Ask to be verified for the Source-A-Thon. Verification is manual and not instant so the sooner you ask, the better. :) It is a lot of fun and great way to collaborate.

Good luck and have fun! See everyone at 8am EST on Friday!!!!!