Wales Connectors How-To

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Wales Profile Improvement Teams; Wales Connectors Team

Contents 1 Introduction 2 Procedures 2.1 Working on a Time Period 2.2 Working on a Surname 3 Tips and Tricks and Do’s and Don’ts

Introduction

Thanks to Frances Weidman for creating most of this information for the England Connectors Team and for sharing it with the Wales Connectors Team. Consequently, the images shown here were created for England.

Methods for Connecting: There are different methods of connecting and this is just one. There is not any right or wrong way - it's whatever works best for you. It is not necessary to create hundreds of profiles to make a connection.

Confirm – Unconnected: After selecting a profile (see Procedures below), confirm that it is unconnected. If a profile is connected, you will see the connections to Henry VIII at the bottom of the profile, like this:

If you do not see King Henry's name, then that means the profile is unconnected.

If you have the Connectors Badge, you will see this yellow icon next to profile's person name.

Procedures

Let’s get started. Remember you are concentrating on Wales profiles, so check the locations on the profile as sometimes the list contains errors. Go to the Unconnected List for Wales which includes both unconnected and unlinked profiles. The report is updated weekly.

Unconnected can include members of a single family but is not connected beyond that level. Unlinked is a subset of unconnected which refers to a profile not connected to any other.

The list will look similar to this image for England:

Working on a Time Period

You can work on profiles from a certain time period, for example 1800-1899, by clicking on a link as shown in the red circle:

That will display the individual profiles, as well as the trees they are connected with in the column on the right.

Working on a Surname

You can work on a specific surname. Go to the primary page of the report (as shown on the first chart image above) and you will see at list of surnames as shown below. The surnames can be sorted by the size of their respective trees by clicking on the double-arrow box beside the heading “Tree Size.”

For demonstration purposes, look at Parfitt-181 as the tree size is only 118 profiles.

If you click on the “S” (at the end of the “T S”) behind the surname, a list of every profile in that tree will display. Any part of the list may change weekly when the report is updated due to connections that are being made. Sometimes, as this chart shows, the PM did not include any locations.

Again, look for profiles that have Wales listed in either or both the Birth and Death Locations.

Suggestion: A simpler approach would be to select a profile with a less common surname. This avoids the possibility of sorting through hundreds of profiles. In the following example, Charles Thomas Panther was chosen. Remember, the sample charts and images were created for the England team.

When you open Charles Thomas Panther’s profile you see his birth place is Warkton, Northampton, England and he was born in 1839:

WikiTree+ is a great tool to use. In another window on your browser, open WikiTree+. (Ignore the preloaded text.) Click on “Search” as shown in this example:

Type in what you would like to look for in the text box. In this example: "connected panther Northamptonshire" was used (it doesn't have to be case-sensitive). This will bring up all of the connected profiles for that surname/location. If too many results pop up, the search could be narrowed down to "connected panther warkton northampshire". After you've done that, click on "Get profiles":

In the result below is the name David Frederick Panther, born about 2 years earlier than Charles, and in the same location. This is a good choice to further investigate. So open his profile.

David looks like a viable lead. Again, further investigation is needed.

Next, do a search in FamilySearch, or use another available family tree web site. In this example, FamilySearch reveals David shares the same parents as Charles which gives us the sought after connection.

At this point, go back to Charles’ profile and click on his father George:

Now go into Edit and add the connected David Frederick Panther as a son:

Adding David as a son to George connects him to his father and brother, Charles. That resulted in connecting 118 profiles in the WikiTree Global Tree.

It can take about 24 hours (or until the next system update) for the changes to take effect. Then you will see the puzzle piece is gone and this Panther family is now connected. SUCCESS!

Tips and Tricks and Do’s and Don’ts

• A simpler approach would be to select a profile with a less common surname. This avoids the possibility of sorting through hundreds of profiles.
• Sources: Always find and use sources on the profiles you connect (or create).
• Look for merges. Occasionally you will come across an unconnected profile and find a merge is pending which could help with the connection.
• One thing I find very useful are the FamilySearch Trees can be very useful. Use them for clues. It can be helpful to see all of the family members at a glance. If you come across a record and you see that it's attached to someone, go ahead and click on it - it may save you hours of searching, and if the tree is well-sourced and goes back in time far enough, you will often see that there are already early family members who have (connected) WikiTree profiles:

• Don’t give up! The more you work on unconnected/unlinked profiles, the easier it will be to get them connected.</font>