US Black Heritage Project Maintenance Categories

Profile managers: Christy Melick [send private message] and US Black Heritage Project WikiTree [send private message]

US Black Heritage Project
USBH Profile Improvement Teams

Purpose of Maintenance Categories

The purpose of the US Black Heritage Project's maintenance categories is to facilitate collaboration between project members in order to accomplish the project's missions to (1) create the largest online public database of connected African-American families and (2) improve all profiles of ancestors with Black heritage, which may include biography building, sourcing, and making correct connections.

We would like each project member to work in areas that they enjoy and where they are skilled, working together to create and improve profiles. So some members enjoy working on connecting profiles to the main tree, creating profiles quickly. Other project members enjoy fully sourcing profiles, writing biographies or improving profiles in various ways to honor and recognize military veterans or notables. Maintenance categories help us work together so, for example, a biography writer can find one of those profiles a connector created quickly so that they can add a biography for it. Or someone who is skilled with military stickers can find profiles that need them.

The maintenance categories can be thought of as falling into several different groups:

1. The profile creation cycle: easy starting points for project members who want to add profiles, source, or write biographies
2. Identifying profiles with problems
   • Unsourced profiles: profiles that don't have any sources
   • Genealogy problems: profiles that may have incorrect family connections
   • Significant formatting problems: formatting problems that make it difficult to understand or find the genealogical information and sources on the profile (i.e. GEDCOM junk, etc.)
3. Special profile enhancements needed: profiles that need some type of enhancement that may require special skills (i.e. military stickers) or are the focus of a specific team (i.e. the Notables team)

These maintenance categories are NOT intended to be used on profiles of enslaved ancestors that so far have only been identified in documents like a slave owner's will. Collaboration on those profiles is facilitated using the structure put in place by the Heritage Exchange Team - see the Documenting Enslaved People page for more information. Once an enslaved ancestor has been identified in a traditional genealogical source (census, vital records, etc.), the general USBH project maintenance categories can be used on their profiles.

Courtesy when adding maintenance categories

We encourage WikiTreers to add maintenance categories on profiles they create or manage and on any orphaned profiles they work on. In these cases, maintenance categories can be seen as an invitation for other WikiTreers to collaborate on these profiles so that we can all work in the areas we enjoy and are skilled in. That being said, please be considerate if you add maintenance categories to profiles managed by other WikiTreers. Adding multiple maintenance categories to a profile managed by someone else can be seen as a criticism of the work they have put into the profile or unnecessary pressure for them to hurry up and work on the profile. Since there are thousands of orphaned profiles for project members to work on, please prioritize adding maintenance categorize to orphaned profiles and profiles you manage and would like help on.

Categories for the Profile Creation Cycle

The "Needs Sources", "Needs Biography", and "Needs Profiles Created" maintenance categories are used to facilitate the profile creation cycle shown above. In this cycle, we create a profile with at least one source, then add sources, then write a biography, and then add profiles for family members from sources. Once you've added a family member profile, the cycle starts again for this new profile. This cycle can potentially be carried on infinitely, only ending when you run into brick walls, living persons, or places where a family line ends. So these maintenance categories can be used to mark points where you're temporarily stopping the cycle and where it will be easy for you or someone else to start working from.

We want these categories to be easy starting points for sourcing, writing biographies and profile creation - they are not for brick walls or when a source cannot be found after a thorough search.

Also note that these categories are intended to get each profile to the point where they have the "basic genealogical sources" that are available and a "basic biography". You're of course welcome to add more than the basics, but the goal of these maintenance categories for the profile creation cycle is to get each profile to a point where the basics are complete.

US Black Heritage Project, Needs Sources

[[Category:US Black Heritage Project, Needs Sources]] should be added to profiles that have at least one source, but need more. It can be removed once all basic genealogical sources that are available online have been added to the profile. If some sources are not available online or cannot be found after searching for them, please remove the "Needs Sources" category and leave a research note. This research note can be something simple like "Mississippi death records for this time period are not available on Ancestry and FamilySearch as of [date]. Last known record for this person is the 1920 census." or "This person was not found in the 1910 census in a search on Ancestry and FamilySearch on [date]." This lets readers know why the sources are missing and if more sources become available in the future, someone else (perhaps a state team) can add them at that point.

The basic genealogical sources we'd like to see on each profile if they're available are:

1. Vital records (birth, marriage, and death)
2. Census records
3. Burial/cemetery records

You're of course welcome to add more sources if you find them, but as a bare minimum, we want each profile to have the basic genealogical sources listed above if available.

US Black Heritage Project, Needs Biography

[[Category:US Black Heritage Project, Needs Biography]] should be added to profiles that have adequate sourcing but need to have a basic biography added. A "basic biography" would include a statement for each of the following facts, if known from available sources:

• date and place of birth, marriage(s), and death
• names of parents and spouse(s), preferably with links to their profiles
• burial location
• Optional: names of siblings and/or children, occupation, locations where they lived for a long period of time

Since a biography cannot be written until there are sources for these facts, it is best not to add this category until the profile has sources for as many of these facts as possible. Remember, we want this to be a category where it is easy for someone to find a profile to write a biography for. If they want to write a biography, they don't necessarily want to search for sources first.

The WikiTree Browser Extension has an AutoBio feature that will generate a biography for you that contains this information if it is available in the profile. There are many options for how the biography is generated, so be sure to read the documentation and adjust the options to your preferences. The AutoBio feature is also able to do several other things to improve the profile, including adding location and cemetery categories (if the cemetery category already exists and a Find a Grave memorial is cited). The AutoBio will rewrite the entire biography. Before deleting the old biography, please check for any biography or notes that might get deleted.

US Black Heritage Project, Needs Profiles Created

[[Category:US Black Heritage Project, Needs Profiles Created]] should be added to profiles that have a source like a census that can be used to create the profile of a deceased family member. It is intended for situations where you have a record like a census or a marriage record that names other family members and could be used as the one source required to create a new profile, but you don't have time to create the profile(s). It is not supposed to be used for brick walls. Again, this category should be a place where people can easily find profiles to create.

We don't assume that people born less than 100 years ago are deceased unless we have found a death source for them. Some people prefer to use born 105, 110, or even more years ago as their benchmark for creating profiles. So we don't assume people in the 1920-1950 census records are deceased because this is often not the case. Therefore, the Needs Profiles Created category should not be used if the only family members who don't have profiles yet were born less than 100 years ago. The only exception to this would be if a death record for the person is cited on the profile with the category.

Categories for Identifying Profiles with Problems

Unsourced Profiles

There are two categories we use for profiles that have NO sources:US Black Heritage Project, Unsourced Profiles and US Black Heritage Project, Unable to Identify.

US Black Heritage Project, Unsourced Profiles

[[Category:US Black Heritage Project, Unsourced Profiles]]: This is the basic unsourced category that should initially be added to any African American profile that has NO sources.

If you search for sources for an unsourced profile but cannot find any sources, please add a research note about the search you performed. After two experienced researchers have looked at a profile and have not found any sources, it should be moved to the "Unable to Identify" maintenance category. This keeps the Unsourced category for profiles that we may more easily be able to find sources for.

US Black Heritage Project, Unable to Identify

[[Category:US Black Heritage Project, Unable to Identify]]: After two experienced researchers have looked for sources for an unsourced profile and are unable to find any direct sources, the profile should be moved from the Unsourced category to the Unable to Identify category. A "direct source" would be that person's own census record, death record, etc. Sometimes profiles are created when a person is only mentioned in their child's death certificate, but none of their own sources can be found.

These profiles should have research notes regarding what has been searched and where the name came from if known.

Please do not add the categories "US Black Heritage Project, Unsourced" or "US Black Heritage Project, Needs Sources" to these profiles since a search for sources has already been completed.

As a project, we intend to occasionally take another look at profiles in this category in case new sources have become available.

Genealogy Problems

We have three categories for profiles that have problems that indicate that they may have incorrect family members attached or have conflated information from two or more people:

• US Black Heritage Project, Data Problems
• US Black Heritage Uncertain Family
• US Black Heritage Project, Conflated Profiles

Data Problems

This category is for use on any profiles of African-Americans where the data needs to be resolved. This might include finding sources to prove attached relationships, names, dates or locations. This category can be considered the "first step" in identifying a data problem and profiles should stay in this category until enough research has been done to solve the problem or determine that it cannot be resolved with currently available sources. If the problem cannot be resolved at this time, it will generally be moved to either the " US Black Heritage Uncertain Family" category or the "US Black Heritage Project, Conflated Profiles" category as outlined below.

Common uses for this category:

• One or both parents are too young or too old to be parents.
• Both attached parents appear to be white.
• No sources have been provided for attached parents or children.
• An unlikely attached relationship.
• Possible conflation of two people.

Please leave research notes on the profile explaining the problem when using this category.

To work on profiles in this category, begin by researching and sourcing each profile and individual involved as fully as possible. Then determine if the relationship/information is definitely correct, definitely incorrect or if the problem cannot be resolved with currently available information.

• If the relationship/information is correct, remove the Data Problems category and if appropriate, add a research note explaining why it is correct. If new sources have been added that clearly show the information is correct, research notes may not be necessary.
• To resolve conflated profiles, create a profile for each individual involved in the conflation. If possible, keep the original profile for the individual with the most correct attached family members and/or the individual who is related to (or of interest to) the profile manager(s). On each profile of a previously conflated individual, leave research notes with links to the other profiles and briefly explain the work that has been done to resolve the conflation. Once the second profile is created, set them as rejected matches to help keep people from trying to merge them later or conflate them again.
• Remove any information and relationships that are incorrect. If appropriate, add a research note explaining the changes - if the incorrect relationship/information occurs in many online trees, these research notes are especially important so that the same mistake is not added back into the profile at a later date.
• In cases where the problem cannot be resolved with currently available information:
  • When resolving uncertain family relationships, follow the guidance on the Uncertain Parents help page. The same principles from the Uncertain Parents help page can be used for uncertain spouses. Anywhere the guidelines say to use the {{Uncertain Family}} template, use {{Uncertain Family|US Black Heritage}} to put the profile in the " US Black Heritage Uncertain Family" category. Once a profile has been moved to the Uncertain Family category, the Data Problems category can be removed.
  • If conflation cannot be resolved with currently available sources and/or after a significant amount of work has been done, you can remove the Data Problems category and add the "US Black Heritage Project, Conflated Profiles" category.
  • Any other uncertain information should be explained in the biography or research notes and if the uncertain information is a date/place/name in the data field, mark it as uncertain.

This process and the use of the three maintenance categories related to genealogical problems is summarized in the chart below.

Flowchart summarizing process for resolving genealogical problems and use of the maintenance categories for these problems.

Uncertain Family

This category is used when family attached remains uncertain after significant research. The template {{Uncertain Family|US Black Heritage}} places profiles in this category (see Template:Uncertain Family for more information) and adds a research box to the profile. Profiles in this category should be revisited occasionally to determine if additional sources/information have become available that can resolve the problem.

Conflated Profiles

This category is used when a profile is suspected to have conflated information from two or more individuals and the conflation has not been able to be resolved after significant research/work. Profiles in this category should be revisited occasionally to determine if additional sources/information have become available that can resolve the problem or to continue working on complex cases of conflation involving research into large family groups.

Significant Formatting Problems: US Black Heritage, Needs Formatting

We have one category for profiles with serious formatting problems: "US Black Heritage Project, Needs Formatting".

[[Category:US Black Heritage Project, Needs Formatting]] can be used on profiles in which the biographies need general formatting help. This may include GEDCOM cleanup or any other formatting issues that make it difficult to read/understand the biography.

Categories for Profiles that need a Team's Attention

Several maintenance categories are used to flag profiles that need special attention (research, stickers, etc.) from specific teams that have experience in that area. If you know how to deal with the issue yourself, even if you're not a part of the team, please feel free to do it yourself.

Categorization

US Black Heritage Project, Pending Categories

[[Category:US Black Heritage Project, Pending Categories]] is used when a project category needs to be created for a page or profile.

US Black Heritage Project, Needs Cemetery Category Created

[[Category:US Black Heritage Project, Needs Cemetery Category Created]] should be placed on the profile of a person who was buried in an African American cemetery that does not yet have a category on WikiTree. Members of the USBH cemeteries team monitor this category and will add the cemetery category when time allows. Please make sure the profile has a Find a Grave citation so that the cemeteries team can find the information they need to create the category. If you need a category created for a cemetery that is not an African American cemetery, please ask in G2G.

Connectors

US Black Heritage Project, Family Tree Size One

[[Category:US Black Heritage Project, Family Tree Size One]] should be placed on profiles that have NO family member profiles linked. Having at least some family members linked to each profile is a high priority, so we use this category to identify profiles that most need family added. After creating at least one family member profile, please remove this category.

Like with the other maintenance categories, this is NOT intended to be used on profiles of enslaved ancestors that so far have only been identified in documents like a slave owner's will. Collaboration on those profiles is facilitated using the structure put in place by the Heritage Exchange Team - see the Documenting Enslaved People page for more information. Once an enslaved ancestor has been identified in a traditional genealogical source (census, vital records, etc.), the general USBH project maintenance categories (inlcuding Family Tree Size One) can be used on their profiles.

Other

US Black Heritage Project, Needs Military Sticker

[[Category:US Black Heritage Project, Needs Military Sticker]] should be placed on profiles that need a military sticker. Please help the USBH Military & War team by adding sources for the person's military service and adding military information in the biography or a research note. If available, the following information is helpful:

• War served in
• Military Unit
• Rank
• Enlistment & discharge dates

US Black Heritage Project, Needs Native American Source

[[Category:US Black Heritage Project, Needs Native American Source]] should be placed on the profile of African-Americans with rumors of Native American heritage without a primary source for it listed on the profile. Sources such as a Native American census or tribal roll need to be found before adding Native American stickers or categories.

US Black Heritage Project, Notables Maintenance Categories

We have a set of maintenance categories specifically for notables. If you're working on a profile for a notable, please check these categories for equivalents of the general project maintenance categories (i.e. there is a general "US Black Heritage Project, Needs Biography" category and a notables-specific category "USBH Notables, Needs Biography"). There are also some maintenance categories specific to notables that don't have general project equivalents (i.e. "Needs Succession Box" for politicians).

US Black Heritage Project, Needs LNAB

[[Category:US Black Heritage Project, Needs LNAB]] is for profiles of people whose Last Name at Birth (LNAB) is not known yet. This is NOT for profiles of enslaved ancestors who are using a placeholder surname (most often a slave owner's surname) according to the Naming Conventions for Slaves - those profiles have a separate Heritage Exchange category called "USBH Heritage Exchange, Needs LNAB".

The "US Black Heritage Project, Needs LNAB" is used by project members who work with the Unknowns Team to easily find profiles of African Americans with an unknown LNAB to work on.