FamilySearch Wiki:WikiProject New York



Wiki community members, and member of US/Canada Reference at the Family History Library will work to improve the New York related pages on the FamilySearch Wiki from September 2011 through January 2012 to help educate genealogists how to find ancestors who lived part of their lives in New York State.

Schedule
2011 26 Aug begin recruiting WikiProject New York members 7-10 Sep invite FGS Conference to join the WikiProject New York 21 Sep show and tell US/Canada Reference WikiProject New York plans 22 Sep initial Project NY Meeting to


 * approve overall agenda
 * select future meeting times
 * choose a project leader
 * approve a Wiki site for Project NY meeting agenda and minutes
 * approve a tentative Project NY schedule
 * approve or begin approving proposed project rules
 * approve or begin approving a proposed project model county style page


 * In subsequent meetings finish any business from above, and:


 * adopt the existing task list for modification, or create a proposed alternative task list
 * approve a project completion measuring tool (possibly modeled after the one for Illinois)

2012 31 Jan WikiProject ends

Overall Agenda
Improve or create New York related Wiki pages:


 * Top New York introductory page
 * Statewide topic pages
 * County pages
 * Repository pages
 * Migration pathway pages
 * NYC passenger arrival list search strategies page(s)
 * NYC big city research strategies page(s)

First Meeting Agenda

 * First meeting: Thursday 22 September 2011 from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. (Mountain Time) MeetingPlace ID 7717. Contact David Dilts for details.
 * Format: MeetingPlace Meetings ID 7717.


 * 1) New York Moderator (DSammy) remarks (5 minutes)
 * 2) Proposed adoption of the FamilySearch Wiki:WikiProject New York page as the project home page (5 minutes)
 * 3) Choose a time and place for the next three WikiProject New York meetings (5 minutes)
 * 4) Choose a project leader (10 minutes)
 * 5) Take time to have each participant "register" by adding a project logo to their User page (10 minutes)
 * 6) Discuss and delegate someone to set up a section of the home page telling how to reach each WikiProject New York member. (10 minutes)
 * 7) Discuss and adopt a tentative preliminary project schedule including sprints (phases), if any (10 minutes)
 * 8) Tentatively prioritize project task list (10 minutes)
 * 9) Discuss WikiProject New York Progress Chart
 * 10) Discuss and define the first task for project participants (10 minutes)
 * 11) Discuss and adopt project rules (25 minutes)
 * 12) Discuss and adopt project model New York county style page (20 minutes)

Remaining business:


 * Either adopt the existing task list for modification, or create a proposed alternative task list
 * Set up project meeting agenda area
 * Set up project completion measuring tool perhaps modeled after the one for Illinois

Next Scheduled Meeting and Proposed Agenda

 * Next meeting: Thursday 29 September 2011 from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. (Mountain Time)
 * Format: MeetingPlace Meetings ID 7717. Click to Attend or Dial in Number: 801-240-2663. MeetingPlace ID 7717.


 * Contact David Dilts telephone 801-240-3477 for details.

See the Next Meeting's Agenda for the previous meeting's minutes and the next meeting's agenda.

Progress Chart
See WikiProject New York Progress Chart.

Framework
Proposed subject to community approval: The following rules will be adopted by the WikiProject New York members until end of the project tentatively schedules for 31 January 2012.

1A. Project Goal: Concentrate on adding new content that teaches readers how to use well New York genealogical search strategies, records, or repositories. 1B. Benchmarks: Create content for New York Wiki pages with a balance of these four hierarchical factors in mind:


 * a. Genealogical Pedagogical Purpose. Be able to explain what the reader can do genealogically that they could not do before reading your words or seeing your images or tables.
 * b. Clarity. Make sure everyone understands your meaning and the pedagogical purpose of your words.
 * c. Brevity. Be succinct as possible without sacrificing pedagogical purpose or clarity.
 * d. Documentation. Footnote(s) revealing the source(s) of the content you are creating.

2. Vetted content. Before you add similar words to more than one New York Wiki page your words must be vetted and approved by any two other team members who are guided by rule #1 and agree with you on that way of presenting it.

3. Style. The first few days of the New York project we will agree on a model style, and create at least one example page of it. Team members must follow that style during the project. After that agreement NO style changes will be allowed for the remainder of the project (tentatively until 1 February 2012). No discussion of changing the style will be allowed. Style includes but is not limited to:


 * Words used in headers (anything that would appear in the table of contents if there were one) Match with FHL Catalog subject headings as much as possible.
 * Heading levels three, four or five; avoid one and two
 * order of presentation
 * Table of contents style or position (or lack of TOC)
 * image, table, or template positions or size; prefer sharp images relevant to the topic on the page
 * font
 * bold
 * italic for titles of published books
 * underline
 * indentation
 * bullets
 * numbering
 * citations in footnote style
 * Please use the full Chicago Manual of Style footnote style (modified):
 * - Author(s), followed by a comma
 * - Title (book titles in italics)
 * Publication data in parenthesis:
 * - Publication place, followed by a colon
 * - Publisher
 * - Year of publication
 * - comma, and the the page number(s) followed by a period
 * Access information:
 * - link to free online copy, if any. IF a free online copy is available no further access data needs to be added. IF NO free online edition is available, then add:
 * - WorldCat template:.
 * - FHL template:.
 * - Brief annotation explaining the content, or why, or how a reader would want to use the source.
 * image, table, or template style
 * internal link style
 * external link style including brief annotation. Prefer http:// links over https:// links.
 * use, or lack of use of standard templates

4. Wording changes. Before changing the saved wording of another team member who followed these rules you must get their consent (except for obvious minor typos).

5. Links with purpose. The Wiki is not a links repository. It uses links to support the genealogical educational purpose of a page or section of a page. Show and explain links with an educational purpose in mind. Annotate each external link briefly but well enough for the reader to realize what they will be getting if they click that link.

6. Seek out local and unique genealogical search strategies, records, or repositories and explain them to readers.

7. Describe each edit in the Summary field before clicking the Save button.

8. Non-compliance will result in work being reverted, or changed to follow these rules.

Proposed Model New York County Style Page
Proposed, subject to community approval.

See Albany County, New York. _______________________________________________________________________________

Welcome
Welcome to the New York WikiProject! We welcome contributors here. We are focusing on the county pages for the 62 current counties of New York. We have built a foundation for a county page, with record type headings.

We are in process of adding town (city) pages. Some of larger cities and towns now have their own Wiki page. We will be adding information about records specific to those towns and cities, as well as cross-linking to larger cities and towns and to the counties where additional records for the residents of those localities may be found.

In a few cases, we will add pages for towns of historical interest which may no longer exist (ghost towns). For the most part, that is a future part of the project, but you are free to add information you may know about such localities and their records.

We invite you to add whatever you know about the records of the county or counties and/or the towns or cities in which you are interested. Working together, we can all benefit from the knowledge of community members on the Wiki.

If you have questions, or need some guidance on what to add or how to do so, feel free to contact the project leader or other team members.


 * W. David Samuelsen, moderator

The Tasks
The tasks as of 8 June 2011:


 * 1) Correct the subject headings: In progress
 * 2) Search for potential duplicate pages already existing.
 * 3) Fix attributions/sources to italic style.
 * 4) Locate county courthouse address. Will be absorbed into Infoboxes, time permitted. - In progress.
 * 5) Create and install locality templates for each county. - in progress
 * 6) NY Gen Web in progress
 * 7) NY Gen Web Archives in progress
 * 8) Rootsweb Not started
 * 9) My New York Genealogy Not started
 * 10) Cyndi's List (Scroll down or search for county name on the page) Not Started
 * 11) ancestry.com (Need ancestry.com US subscription) Must add this style Ancestry ($)
 * 12) US Gen Net (Only some counties, also many regionial societies)
 * 13) D'Addezio.com Not started
 * 14) Find a Grave Cemetery Map by County Not used at county level. List at town/village/city level.
 * 15) Honetownlocator New York Gazetteer Not to be used any more as Infoboxes are being developed for the town/city/village with Coord template included. Contact the moderator for assistance.
 * 16) Linkpendium - check further sources, list at subject heading at appropriate level (county, city/town/village)
 * 17) Images of records and localities: in progress
 * 18) Check the Unassigned Links for new sources to add to county/city/town/village pages as needed.
 * 19) check New York Gravestone Photo Project for cemetery listings. Contact the site admin if you believe there is/was a cemetery but not listed for direct record link.
 * 20) Create list of towns/villages/cities and list of counties for each of the routes as listed in New_York#Migration Routes
 * 21) Add attractive images to most NY topic pages
 * 22) Add a list of National Archives and FHL film numbers to NY Passenger Arrival Lists, Jason
 * 23) Create good pages for extinct NY counties (red links)
 * 24) Create good pages for NY major repositories (red links), NY State Archives Patsy
 * 25) Create good pages for NY migration routes (red links), Chambly Canal David
 * 26) Create a page showing NY Soundex National Archives and FHL films, Tim