Help:Adopt-a-page

What is page adoption?
Societies, archives or other family history organizations who wish to adopt a page will have their society logo and links to their society web page prominently featured on the page they adopt. You can see an example of what an adopted page might look like here.

What does my society/organization have to do?
While anyone can contribute to any page in the wiki, societies/organizations who adopt a page provide oversight to ensure that the content on that page is a) comprehensive (they add information and links to other resources that might be missing) and b) accurate (they correct anything that might be wrong).

When your organization is accepted as an adopter, the contact person in your group will be asked to enroll in the FamilySearch Wiki Contributors' Corner. (Anyone else in your group who contributes to the Wiki is also welcome to join independently.) Through this forum, best practices and additional ideas for content will be shared. Discussions leading to community decisions will also take place about issues that affect you and about roles, rules, and processes—all with YOUR engagement as part of the Community.

How can adopting a wiki page benefit my society/organization?
The FamilySearch Wiki will help over 2 million people doing genealogical research in the next year. By adopting a page your society can…


 * Provide a place for your members and others to share what they know with others who are doing research in your area (we all know something that can help someone else).
 * Improve conclusions reached by others by providing them with the most accurate information and methodology for your area.
 * Create awareness (and ideally new members) for your society, your resources, and specializations.
 * Drive additional traffic to your society’s website (the FamilySearch Wiki has over 1 million page views every day!)

Ready to adopt-a-wiki page now? It's easy...

 * 1) Select one or more pages in the FamilySearch Wiki that you'd like to adopt. At this time, page adoptions are accepted on a first come/first served basis. Also, at this time, only one society or organization is allowed adopt any given page. Please be aware that pages may be adopted by more than one organization in the future.
 * 2) Once your organization has selected a page you want to adopt, e-mail a page adoption request to [mailto:Support@FamilySearch.org Support@FamilySearch.org].
 * 3) Please submit the following information to allow us to evaluate and process your request:
 * 4) *Contact information: The name and email address of the primary contact who we can contact with any questions about the content on the pages that you’d like to adopt. We also recommend providing at least one additional contact name.
 * 5) *Logo: A thumbnail sized logo for your society/organization that you’d like to appear on your adoption sign (please submit your file in one of the following formats: .png, .jpg or .gif).
 * 6) *Adoption Sign Wording: The sign will read: “This page adopted by [the organization name] and its members.” Let us know if you have any concerns with that wording.
 * 7) *Link to your website: Wiki users who click on your adoption sign will be re-directed to the URL you provide us.
 * 8) *Pages you'd like to adopt: Identify the specific Wiki page(s) you’d like to adopt. Please include a total number of pages requested. For example, you may want to adopt only one locality page ("I'd like to adopt the South Korea page."), or that broad locality along with its smaller localities ("I'd like to adopt the Missouri page and all of its county pages - 115 pages total."). NOTE: Currently, you can adopt as many or as few pages as you’d like, provided that the page hasn’t already been adopted. Limits to the number of pages one organization can adopt may be set by the Community in the future.
 * 9) *Username: The Wiki username of the main contact person for the adoption. (If you haven't created one yet, click Sign In in the upper right hand corner and it will walk you through the registration process.)
 * 10) We will notify you when your adoption sign is ready. We will place it on one of the pages you adopt and teach you how to add it to other pages you wish to adopt.

Other frequently asked questions...

 * Q. Wait, isn’t this a wiki? Can’t anyone add content to a page in the wiki?
 * A. Yes! Anyone can add content to any page in the wiki, however, page sponsors help to ensure that the content that gets added is accurate, complete, contains links that are updated, etc. Even though someone has sponsored a page doesn’t mean you shouldn’t contribute what you know about that area.


 * Q. Can anyone ‘adopt a page?’
 * A. Anyone can add content to a page and watch that page for updates. Currently, adoption opportunities are limited to Genealogical, Family History, Archival and other Historical Societies and related organizations.


 * Q. Can my organization adopt more than one page?
 * A. Yes! Your organization can adopt as many pages as you like provided that the page hasn't already been sponsored by another organization. Page adoptions are accepted on a first come/first serve basis. Also, at this time, only one society or organization is allowed to adopt any given page. Please be aware that pages may be adopted by more than one organization in the future.


 * Q. I’ve adopted a page. Do I have to “police” and check the page every time a change is made?
 * A. No. We encourage you to check the page on a regular basis to ensure that the latest information regarding information, records and resources that your society is aware of is updated on the page and that the overall content is as accurate as possible so as to benefit others who may be doing research in your area. That said, it’s not necessary to review every change made to the page by others as community members at large can also correct inaccuracies as they are recognized.


 * Q. I want to know how many people are coming to a particular page (so that I can get a sense of which page(s) I want to adopt and/or know how much referral traffic might come to my site).
 * A. The page view count can be seen at the bottom of each page. In addition, in the near future, we will be adding a “rating” section to each page where you can see user feedback as to whether the content on the page helped them solve their research problem.


 * Q. Help! I have more questions that weren’t answered here.
 * A. You can post your questions to the FamilySearch Contributor Forums; or contact [mailto:hasletonee@familysearch.org hasletonee@familysearch.org] for additional help.

Now that you have adopted...
Getting Started -   The first steps to getting established.

Quick Start Links   List of links to Help pages you will need to get started editing your pages.

Developing a U.S. County Page  Resource suggestions for the topics on county pages.

The fine print...
The "Adopt-a-Wiki page" program has been created by FamilySearch for the benefit of societies, organizations and patrons of the FamilySearch.org Research Wiki for the sole purpose of completing family history research. The "Adopt-a-Wiki Page" program operates in accordance with the existing FamilySearch wiki policies and guidelines unless specifically stated otherwise in this disclaimer. FamilySearch reserves the right to modify or discontinue the program and/or its terms at any time without notice. Page adopters/sponsors may be removed or changed at any time at FamilySearch's sole discretion without cause or notice. Page adoption/sponsorship does not constitute a contract, either written or implied, between FamilySearch and any other organization. All contributions made by page adopters/sponsors are done on a strictly volunteer basis.

© 2010 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc.

Page adoption sign example