FamilySearch Wiki:WikiProject Washington

Overall Objectives
The purpose of the Washington Wiki Project is to help readers find and use Washington resources and records for genealogy and family history. The project will update and improve:


 * Washington county pages. Example Pierce and Okanogan counties
 * Washington main page.
 * Statewide topic pages. Example Vital Records
 * Other Washington-related pages

Guiding Principles

 * Task Difficulty Tasks are rated for difficulty. Within each phase task table look for 1, 2, or 3, with 1 being the least difficult and 3 being the most difficult.


 * Highlight important and relevant items. Long lists of every website or every publication would bury, rather than highlight, what's important.


 * Tell readers what to expect when they follow a link or search a suggested record.


 * Balance content with these four factors in mind:


 * a. Genealogical Value. Does this help Wiki users further their research?
 * b. Clarity. Make sure everyone understands your meaning and the purpose of your words.
 * c. Brevity. Be succinct as possible without sacrificing purpose or clarity.
 * d. Documentation. Use footnote(s) to identify the source(s) of the content you are creating.

The purpose of the topics in the counties is to help users know how these records can help them. This includes:
 * Intro paragraphs: These are "templates" or form paragraphs that explain:
 * Dates of the records: This tells people whether those records existed when their ancestor(s) lived there.
 * Contents of the records: This helps people know if the records have the information they need.
 * Where the original records are stored.
 * Specific records for the county are mentioned using bullet lists and include:
 * Links to online resources FOR THAT COUNTY: indexes and/or images of records or how to use those records.
 * For a few topics, Links to catalogs such as the Google books, WorldCat, Family History Library Catalog, among others, are appropriate.

For more style and guidelines for the Washington Wiki Project.

Washington Wiki Project Phases - Explanation

 * Task Difficulty Tasks are rated for difficulty. Within each phase task table look for 1, 2, or 3, with 1 being the least difficult and 3 being the most difficult.

Easy: Cut and paste tasks
Copying the templates (form paragraphs) below to the topics for each county is very easy. Yet completing this task will be very fulfilling for you, as the templates hold a great deal of information that will be useful to the readers.

Templates have the added benefit of being easily changed, the information updated. When a template is changed, updates automatically appear on every county. Easy tasks. 1) For each task, copy the template from this page; 2) Use Wikitext to paste to the county page; 3) Type the heading and the word "Intro" to edit Summary (Example: "Cemeteries intro"); 4) Save page, and go to the next task listed below.

Sign up for 1 county to do 12 cut-and-paste tasks in that county. When completed, sign up for another.

Note: in some counties, the template is already posted in the correct place. Simply bypass that heading for that county. Several of the intros below are new, so no county (except Okanogan) will have them all.


 * 1. Copy the following immediately below the Cemeteries heading


 * 2. Copy the following immediately below the Census heading


 * 3. Copy the following immediately below the Church Records heading


 * 4. Copy the following immediately below the Court Records heading


 * 5. Copy the following immediately below the Guardianship heading


 * 6. Copy the following immediately below the History heading


 * 7. Copy the following immediately below the Land and Property heading


 * 8. Copy the following immediately below the Naturalization and Citizenship heading


 * 9. Copy the following immediately below the Newspapers heading


 * 10. Copy the following immediately below the Obituaries heading


 * 11. Copy the following immediately below the Probate Records heading


 * 12. Copy the following immediately below the Taxation heading

Copy and paste, then adapt to county
Easy tasks. 1) Copy the text (but not the number). 2) Then use Wikitext when pasting, and 3) change the county name.


 * 1. Copy the following to two places in each county: 1) immediately below the Boundary Changes heading and 2) immediately below the History Timeline heading
 * Historical County Boundaries from Newberry Library


 * 2. Copy the following under the History Timeline heading, then adapt the essay #, author and county from History Link.org
 * Emphasis for this timeline is on events that affected migration, records, or record-keeping. Unless otherwise mentioned, the events below were gleaned from Wilma, David. Okanogan County -- Thumbnail History, History Link.org Essay 7608.


 * 3.

Tasks requiring image and template experience

 * 1. Huge maps have been placed under the Maps heading. Please put those into templates and make them a more viewable size.


 * 2. A small portion of the map in task 1 can be extracted, made clickable for neighboring counties.


 * 3.

Repositories Tasks
The first set of tasks includes adding content to each Washington county page. Content will be added by completing written tasks which will apply to each county. These tasks will have written instructions giving guidance on how to enter information, format the information, and how to cite the information, when applicable. Some of these tasks entail specifically:


 * County headings - additional county headings will be added to each county page to make them uniform and cover more research topics users may have questions on
 * Infoboxes - adding dates concerning major resources for each county and giving information regarding important Washington statewide indexes
 * County repositories (libraries, archives, museums) - contact information for repositories that hold original and compiled records for individuals that lived in that county including links to the repositories' websites with additional information
 * Locate Family History Centers

Vital Records Tasks
The second group of tasks focuses on the following record type:


 * Vital Records

Each record type above will include what records are available, time period the record covers and how they can be accessed including links to databases, images and references to books and microfilm and information to repositories.

Probate and Land Records Tasks
The third group of tasks focuses on the following records types:


 * Probate Records
 * Land Records

Each record type above will include what records are available, time period the record covers and how they can be accessed including links to databases, images and references to books and microfilm and information to repositories.

Newspapers and Church Records Tasks
The fourth group of tasks focuses on the following records types:


 * Newspapers
 * Church records

Each record type above will include what records are available, time period the record covers and how they can be accessed including links to databases, images and references to books and microfilm and information to repositories.

County Histories Tasks

 * County histories - list of county histories available with links to online books and references to libraries

Cemetery Records Task

 * Links to major cemetery websites that contain cemetery transcriptions for the county
 * Difficulty level 3. People trained specifically for this task.
 * Copy the colored table
 * Adapt the websites to current county
 * Check the links

Schedule
Beginning 1st Quarter 2013

Washington Wiki Project Tasks
Before beginning any tasks please review the Washington Project guidelines.

FIRST TIME WIKI USERS: For instructions on how to edit the wiki use the following:


 * Online and Video Instructions
 * Editing on the Wiki written instructions

The following are tasks to be accomplished for the Ohio Wiki Project. Each task has step-by-step instructions to accomplish it. '''SOME TASKS ARE NOT YET COMPLETED. WHEN TASKS ARE LINKED (typed in blue) THEY ARE READY FOR PARTICIPANTS TO WORK ON THEM.'''


 * Task Difficulty Tasks are rated for difficulty. Within each phase task table look for 1, 2, or 3, with 1 being the least difficult and 3 being the most difficult.

Background and Repositories Tasks
Verify neighboring counties.

Examples of Washington County Page
Note: The sample county started out as Adams when Marilyn Markham was using the FamilySearch Library missionaries, but became the Okanogan page when the Wiki Content team took over.

Adams County; Okanogan County

Style and Guidelines
Style and guidelines for the Washington Wiki Project

Registration
If you are interested in participating in the Washington Wiki Project, click here to register as an Washington FamilySearch Wiki Project Volunteer. As soon as you are registered, you may begin to add information to any of the tasks typed in blue in the tables above.

Community Meetings
To be determined

Online meetings with focus on Wiki pages for Washington.


 * Share ideas, suggest improvements
 * Get news and progress reports.

Attend from home, at a library, or wherever you have an internet connection and a telephone.

Current Meetings
None are scheduled at this time.