FamilySearch Wiki:WikiProject Utah Community Meeting 2012 May 16

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Agenda
Anyone new to this meeting?

Meeting Participants: James, Jana, Lois, Marilyn, Pat, Patsy, Wilma Excused: Liz Snow

News and Events

 * May 17 (tomorrow night) Your Head in the Cloud and Your Feet on the Ground presented by Bret Petersen, UGA Board Member. This is the UGA Virtual Chapter meeting which occurs every 3rd Thursday, 7:00 p.m. (Mountain).
 * June 9 (Saturday) Murray Family History Fair Saturday, June 9th. Click on Classes.
 * June 16 (Saturday) Mormon History Bus Tours of Echo Canyon and of East Canyon.
 * July 31-Aug 3 BYU Conference on Family History &amp; Genealogy
 * August 18 (Saturday) UGA Regional Conference Cedar City
 * September 21 and 22 (Friday and Saturday) UGA Regional Conference Sandy


 * 1940 Census Help UGA's project with FamilySearch Indexing.
 * Creation of Utah Wiki Project Forum (date to be announced- but soon Forums were changed yesterday -- there is a thread for Wiki Projects. There is a new subforum. Put up a page in the wiki and thread in forums.

Review of last meeting

 * Wednesday, 9 May

Progress reports

 * Tip icon template : Asked Steve about this yesterday (Tuesday)
 * Newspapers task: Lois did the task on Duchesne County. Adjustments suggested to the instruction: The Alt+Tab is only one way to do the task, yet is treated like the only way. Allow more flexibility, as this way may actually be confusing to some.
 * Final review of wording for the county newspaper page
 * One change suggested and implemented same day
 * Vital Records progress review today.

Vital records (BMD, Div)
Birth section, Experimental County page.

Talk page of Pulaski County, Kentucky.

Dutchess County, New York example

Summary of minutes (and of thoughts by Jana)


 * Universally liked the timeline breakdown. One person said privately that Jana should be so pleased. She has presented this in a way that people will understand immediately.
 * Chart can be uniquely adapted to each county.
 * Most of chart should be specific to the county, then refer to state/alternative sources
 * Birth info could be in any type of record -- and a very long list
 * Which alternative record is most effective at getting me the birth date?
 * Don't make the table too long
 * What do we do when there are several "gap" dates? That in itself makes the table longer. But also more valuable to the user.
 * Don't overwhelm with too many resources listed
 * Point to a state page that can give a long list of alternatives
 * Where do we draw the line on alternative sources? On the state page, on the county page?
 * And when do we link to that page with sources that offer hope and supplemental info?
 * "When [birth] records don't exist" area -- at the top or bottom of the chart
 * Preferrably linkable from within the chart
 * Pat is cleaning up the state VR page. Please don't work on it until she has finished.
 * May be a need for a separate county page for VR when it gets to be too long.

Discussion:


 * Pulaski Co talk page review:
 * Alternative records: Unique about chart it can be uniquely adapted to each county.
 * Pat: Point on vr page for Utah entries on the page for newspapers;
 * Are we putting alternative sources in? Where do you draw the line?
 * To resolve: alternative sources
 * Length of table
 * Under VR charts we should put only Pulaski birth sources, and then refer to state/alternative sources.
 * Records that give birth info could be in any type of record
 * Which of the alternatives is most effective at getting me a birth date?
 * And when do we go to another page with other sources that offer hope and supplemental info?
 * Are we going to teach, offer soft guidance? Cannot have an endless thing.
 * Focus more on links, balance, but don’t get to a point where it is never finished.
 * Not too overwhelming on the county page, we should be developing a state page for the more in-depth ideas for getting info when the main resources did not work.
 * Two viewpoints, give only birth-related records, while others wanted basic sources that give birth information.
 * Where do we stop?
 * Refer to resources that give birth information, but make a general statement at the bottom
 * Maybe not break those resources down by date.
 * The most likely records to help when there are no records.
 * Link them back to the other sections of the county pages.
 * Jana: what about general at the top, then specific to the county in the rest of the chart.
 * Someone else: Or specific to the county first Don’t want to see too much. We do want soft guidance.

In an after meeting, some ideas were input in the Pulaski County talk page. Wilma was given the assignment to adapt the Pulaski table on the Experimental County page.

"Short Tasks"
Topics that may need less discussion: Leader/assistants do examples, get suggestions and approval: Liz and Jana have volunteered to be assistants.

Obituaries Some progress. Not ready for review. Much needs done on the Utah Obituaries page.

Future "quick" tasks:


 * Probate
 * Land and property
 * Court
 * Funeral home records

Future meetings
Meetings will be held on Wednesdays at 9:00 a.m.

Next week:


 * Progress reports
 * To be determined by the group

To discuss soon:

Tasks for:


 * Vital records setup: making ready for items to be entered
 * Cemetery records
 * Church records
 * Funeral home records
 * Land and property
 * Probate
 * Court


 * Provide context continued
 * Tip Bank continued.