FamilySearch Wiki:Wikiproject Glean from FamilySearch Historical Collections

Project Purpose and Description
This project makes Wiki users aware — especially at the county level — of online collections which are available for free at FamilySearch.org.

Project contributors find, describe, and link from the Wiki to the collections at FamilySearch by posting to county or state pages under appropriate topics.

Prep

 * 1) Open a state page in the wiki so you can navigate to the needed counties or state topics found as you go through the Historical Collections.
 * 2) Be sure to sign in so you can edit
 * 3) Please use wikitext


 * 1) Navigate to Historical Records of a state • at FamilySearch.org [[Image:Gotoarrow.png]]  Search  [[Image:Gotoarrow.png]]  Records  [[Image:Gotoarrow.png]]  Click the US map  [[Image:Gotoarrow.png]] select the state

Indexed Historical Records
Statewide items need to be posted to the appropriate state topic page. They don't need to be posted to county pages. (See Phase 2 (Optional) for exceptions.


 * 1) Click Show all [56 for Arkansas at the time of this writing]
 * 2) Bypass all United States collections.
 * 3) For each state collection:
 * 4) Click to the collection in Historical Records
 * 5) Open the appropriate state topic page in the wiki and click the edit box for a section.
 * 6) Post the link and description to the state topic page.
 * 7) It is the same process if this is a county indexed collection.

Preferred format:
 * Start with a bullet (*), then copy and paste the RecordSearch template (which is below these bullets)
 * Copy the number from the URL for this collection, and paste it in the RecordSearch template
 * Paste the title and years of the collection to the RecordSearch template.
 * after the template, type (space) " at FamilySearch Historical Collections. (Free, indexes)" or (Free, indexes and images). You may prefer to have this on a StickyNote or word processor, so you can just cut and paste.

Wikitext of a completed entry:
 * * at FamilySearch Historical Collections. (Free, indexes and images)

The entry displays as:
 * 1861-1865 - one of the [Arkansas Collections] at [FamilySearch.org. (Indexes and images)

Image Only Historical Records

 * Navigate to Historical Records of a state • at FamilySearch.org [[Image:Gotoarrow.png]]  Search  [[Image:Gotoarrow.png]]  Records  [[Image:Gotoarrow.png]]  Click the US map  [[Image:Gotoarrow.png]] select the state
 * Slide down to [State] Image Only Historical Records
 * Bypass all United States items
 * Statewide items: add them to the topic wiki pages for the state. See example Arkansas Confederate Pensions, 1901-1929
 * Most collections will be posted to a Wiki county page under the appropriate topic(s). • In most cases, the county is identified. • If only a town is mentioned, use Wikipedia to identify the county. • Otherwise, just put it on a state page for that topic.

One county, one record type

 * Arkansas, Oakland and Fraternal Historic Cemetery Records, 1867-2013, Little Rock, at FamilySearch Historical Collections. (Free, browse unindexed images)

This post consists of several parts, as explained in the box below:

Multiple counties
Many of the image only collections at FamilySearch cover several counties. We want users to get directly to the page with records for that county.

Please link to the "waypoint" to one county's portion of the collection. Users can get to the full list of counties by clicking the collection name given in your post.

Example:
 * 1873-1974 - Cleveland County Probate Records 1873-1974, part of at [FamilySearch.org] - Browse images

This post consists of several parts, as explained in the box below:

Multiple types of documents
Some records have many types of documents and researchers want to know the documents they will see if they click to the collection.

Here's an example:
 * 1819-1924 - Arkansas County Probate Records 1819-1924, part of at [FamilySearch.org] - Free, browse images; Includes Administrations, Guardianship, Wills, and more.

Phase 2 (optional)
Indexed statewide collections

Do they need to be posted to county pages? The "Intro" templates on the county pages will link to the state topic page. This almost eliminates the need to post directly to each county.

EXCEPTION: When a few counties have more entries than most, they can be posted to those counties. A "coverage table" if it exists for this collection, will tell the number of entries for each county.
 * 1) See if there is a "coverage table" for this collection. From the main page for the collection, click Learn more, and look for a link to a coverage table.
 * 2) If no coverage table, let the Intro template suffice.
 * 3) Is the coverage pretty consistent county to county, based on the coverage table?
 * 4) Yes. Let the Intro template suffice.
 * 5) No. If the coverage seems spotty, post it to the state topic page AND to only the few counties with high number of entries. Do not post to counties with little or nothing.