WikiProject New York Meeting Minutes

Table of Contents
WikiProject New York Meeting Agendas  Meeting Minutes

Minutes 22 Sep 2011
Thursday 22 September 2011


 * 1) New York Moderator (DSammy) remarks
 * 2) Proposed adoption of the FamilySearch Wiki:WikiProject New York page as the project home page (approved)
 * 3) Choose a time and place for the next three WikiProject New York meetings (Every Thursday 1:00 p.m.)
 * 4) Choose a project leader (David Dilts approved)
 * 5) Take time to have each participant "register" by adding a project logo to their User page (discussed)
 * 6) Discuss and delegate someone to set up a section of the home page telling how to reach each WikiProject New York member. (Danielle Batson approved, telephone numbers disapproved)
 * 7) Discuss and adopt a tentative preliminary project schedule including sprints (phases), if any (discussed possibility of three week sprints)
 * 8) Tentatively prioritize project task list (discussed)
 * 9) Discuss WikiProject New York Progress Chart (discussed)
 * 10) Discuss and define the first task for project participants (discussed)
 * 11) Discuss and adopt project rules (approved with modifications)


 * To be called "Framework" rather than "Rules"
 * Prefer term "teaching" to "pedagogical"

12. Discuss and adopt project model New York county style page (approved with modifications)


 * Request to review possible flat or flatter structure next week
 * All headings approved from top down to Taxation with these notations
 * Considerable discussion about "Ethnic, Political, or Religious Groups"
 * Repositories approved as header, but decided to remove sub-headers by turning them into bold words rather than level 5 headers:
 * Archvies, Libraries, and Museums (bold)
 * Courthouses (bold)
 * Family History Centers (bold)
 * Societies (bold)
 * Decided to place "Social Groups Online" as a separate header outside repositories heading

Minutes 29 Sep 2011
Thursday 29 September 2011

1. This week's agenda approved 2. Last week's minutes approved. "Historical Fact" confirmed again as header in place of "Organizational Facts" 3. Insert the following in your User page:   4. Multiple access numbers: approved:


 * In WikiProject NY citations cite library access numbers in the following order:
 * Online copies (up to 3) with the best first, like this, "Internet Archive online copy; Google Books online copy; Geronimo online copy;"
 * WorldCat template listing like this, "At various libraries (WorldCat);"
 * FHL template listing like this, FHL Film xxxxxx; Book xxx.xxx xxx.
 * Separate each type of access number with semi-colons, but end with a period.

5A. We are mostly following precedents set for Illinois project. 5B. We encourage greater use of template for wording that will be repeated on multiple pages approved. Beth accepted assignment to create a page listing such templates and explaining how to create and use them. 6A. Images of courthouses have been removed from info boxes. Request that we use smaller images about 200px to save space for text. 6B. "Record Loss" section will be removed only AFTER a diligent search fails to find any record loss approved 6C. We will remove stub templates from pages approved 6D. Cramped look of info box, Random Acts box and pictures. David will figure out a way to make it look better. 7. Chicago Manual of Style citation style reviewed (see Albany County Bible Records citation)


 * Name of author in spoken order, followed by a comma,
 * Title in italics – no period at the end
 * Publication data in parenthesis - where published, colon, publisher, comma, and year of publication – close parenthesis, comma (if page number follows, but period if NO page number)
 * Page number(s) followed by period
 * Access info. Up to 3 online copies (best first), WorldCat, and FHL Film; Fiche, and Book numbers if available, each separated by a semi-colon but ending with a period
 * Annotation which explains why a genealogist would use that item

8. Bullets, indentations, dated list - be consistent through the whole page


 * prefer indented bullets approved
 * items in a series should get bullets. Items NOT in a series should not get bullets.
 * addresses will not be indented (but we will look at examples next week before a final decision)
 * start dated lists with the dates first and in bold

9. NY will have both neighboring counties lists, and maps of neighboring counties approved Beth will create neighboring county maps, hopefully with links the counties. 10. Towns in a County maps. Dsammy will create a map showing the towns in each county for NY. 11. Repositories. approved


 * IF 4 or fewer repositories/county, give each repository name its own level-5 header like:
 * ===== Albany County Courthouse =====
 * ===== Albany New York Family History Center =====
 * ===== Rensselaerwijk Historical Society =====
 * ===== Yankee Pioneer Museum =====
 * IF 5 or more repositories/county, group the repositories under the appropriate level-5 category-headers like:
 * ===== Archives, Libraries, and Museums =====
 * ===== Courthouses =====
 * ===== Family History Centers =====
 * ===== Societies =====

12. Danielle will write instructions for Repositories, begin work on Vital Records

ACTION ITEMS


 * David will find a way to relieve clutter after info boxes.
 * Beth will create a page with growing list of templates to be used on New York county pages.
 * Beth will add links to neighboring county maps for each county if someone else draws the maps.
 * Sammy will add town maps for each county.
 * Danielle will write instructions for working on Repositores in NY counties.
 * Each participant will select two or three counties and work on repositories; report next week.

Minutes 06 Oct 2011
Thursday 6 October 2011

1. Review agenda. Pat wishes to discuss other repositories. Item 7 2. Minutes approved from 29 September 2011 3. Lise asked about italics in wiki – she heard it was not a good idea. David explained that the information she heard wasn’t correct and that italics are ok for the purposes of the Wiki. 4. David explained the Wiki Progress Chart and asked us to sign up for a county. Assignment: All sign up for a County to work on. 5. Lise wants to leave out the word “phone.” Discussion about this. Jason mentioned we need to decide if we are putting Fax numbers in first. Decision was to not include Fax numbers. Vote as to whether or not to put in the word “phone.” We voted to keep the word phone. We also decided to use the word phone as opposed to telephone or ph. We decided to capitalize the “P” on Phone. Decision: No fax numbers. Use the word Phone (with capital P) 6. Cite your sources. Always tell where you found every piece of information. Reminder: Cite your sources 7. How was our experience of adding of repository information? Pat mentioned Hamilton County, New York and how they not only had a county site, but town historians. Lise brought up the point that we should make sure the information is current for contact people. Pat wants to know if this is a good use of her time. David indicated that in the case of New York, this is worthwhile. Question is raised about why the need for duplicate addresses on town page. (I kind of got lost with the continuing discussion). 8. Adoption of Albany County page as model.


 * a.Headings. DSammy has a problem with headings and thinks Level 5 is too small. David wondered if the engineers could change the color or make them bold so that people can read it more easily. The purple is too light. David would like to keep Level 5 until we find out if the engineers are not able to do anything about it. Lise suggested we also ask the engineers about the white space
 * b. Vital records. Looked at Madison County, NY Vital records as example.
 * c. Green arrow and breadcrumb trail. Is there a reason for the green arrow in the introductory paragraph of vital records. Lisa will take it out. Nathan likes the green arrow sometimes at the beginning the subject when referring to something else on the county page. Leave green arrows for the breadcrumb trail and not in the middle of a paragraph. Michael Ritchey said to not build anymore breadcrumb trails because the system is going to build them. DSammy said that Michael said we can keep using them until the system changes it. The new way will be like a real bread crumb trail which tracks where we have been. David thinks we should be able to have both. David is going to ignore the instruction to discontinue our bread crumb trails.
 * d. Places part of the model. David suggests we have a “Places” section which would be above the template “Municipalities and communities” DSammy would like References to be the last item on the page so that the “Municipalities and communities” template and the “Links to NY-related articles” template are together. Danielle thought that the “Links – related articles” template is meant to be at the bottom of the page because it doesn’t really have anything to do with the page. DSammy would at least like to have the templates together. We can do an example and discuss it on the page and then discuss it at the next meeting. DSammy said to look at Orange County, NY because that is how he wants it. Discussion about this. It sounds as though DSammy would like the “Muncipalities…” template and “related articles” template together at the bottom.
 * e. Delete Neighboring Counties in the “Municipalities” box since it is already in the top “Historical Facts” section? DSammy will discuss it with David.
 * f. How about leaving the “Municipalities” open all the time rather than a closed box? Vote was taken. What about the “Related articles” template? Vote was taken.
 * g. Reminder to put a category on EVERY page.
 * h. Social Groups online
 * j. With the exception of the bottom templates (for “Municipalities” and “Related Articles”, do we agree the Albany page is the example to use for the other counties.

SUMMARY of discussion item 9 Reminder: Every page needs a category

Decisions:


 * Voted to leave the Municipalities” and the “Related Articles” nav boxes open
 * Agreed that the Albany County page structure is the example to use.

Assignments: 


 * David to talk to engineers about Level issue (change color or bold) and the block of white space between header and text. David will also talk to Michael Ritchey about the breadcrumb trail issue.
 * Lisa will take out the green arrow in the vital records paragraph.
 * Diane to explain how to find the item number for the FHL template for film etc. Have DSammy review it.
 * Danielle responsible to add the New York facebook page to the Social Groups Online section task page.

10. Chicago Manual of Style states it is ok to put in the url in the references. In the text you can hide the url, but not in the footnotes. Reminder: You must put the whole url in the footnotes, but can hide it in the body of the text. 11. Danielle talked about the “tasks” for the categories under “Repositories.” Task page for Vital Records will be done soon. The question was asked as to whether or not we should put in the closest FHC if there is not one in the county. Decision: To keep the FHC section the way it is unless there are several FHC’s and then we will bullet them with links.

Minutes 13 Oct 2011
Thursday 13 October 2011

1. Review agenda - approved. 2. Approve minutes for last week – David asked to write in the minutes his assignment to contact engineers regarding level issue. 3. Progress Chart discussion – thank you for working on NY and listing progress on this chart. 4A. Town pages are now being created in preparation for Vital Records. What is the appropriate format for breadcrumb trails and categories on town pages? In pages for cities/towns/villages/communities should we put “Town of…” as part of the breadcrumb trail, or just the name of the town? DSammy likes “Town of…” If there are two (city and town) with the same name, leave it without “Town of…” Laurie proposed we do it like Wikipedia in which they put the name, i.e. Lockport, and put (town) or (city) in parenthesis. Decision:


 * Normally will put the name of the city without "City of . . ." in breadcrumb trail. For example:
 * United States [[Image:Gotoarrow.png]] New York [[Image:Gotoarrow.png]] Albany County [[Image:Gotoarrow.png]] Watervliet
 * Normally we will put “Town of . . .” (or Village, or Community) in the breadcrumb trail.
 * United States [[Image:Gotoarrow.png]] New York [[Image:Gotoarrow.png]] Albany County [[Image:Gotoarrow.png]] Town of Bethlehem
 * United States [[Image:Gotoarrow.png]] New York [[Image:Gotoarrow.png]] Albany County [[Image:Gotoarrow.png]] Village of Altamont
 * United States [[Image:Gotoarrow.png]] New York [[Image:Gotoarrow.png]] Albany County [[Image:Gotoarrow.png]] Community of Alcove

4B. Town page categories. Decision: We will put two categories at the bottom of each city/town/village/community page:


 * Category:NAME OF COUNTY, for example, Category:Albany County, New York
 * AND
 * Select the most appropriate one of the following:
 * - Category:Cities in New York
 * - Category:Towns in New York
 * - Category:Villages in New York
 * - Category:Communities in New York

Assignment: David needs to talk to Steve about how to stop the automatic category creation.

5. If a missing town is found for the Municipalities and Communities template, tell or e-mail User:BatsonDL. Danielle will coordinate with Lisa and DSammy to identify missing towns that need to be added to the template. Sammy says, there aren't any missing towns so far. He has updated all the lists to Sullivan. The rest is expected to be completed by end of the week.

6. Referring to request last week of instructions for finding item/title number in FHL template. The instructions have been written and will put them on the instructions for FHL template on the Wiki. Open the Template:FHL to view the instructions.

7. Add footnotes to every paragraph or section you add to the Wiki.

8. Use appropriate punctuation in footnote citations, specifically semi-colons and periods in the access data about online copies; WorldCat; FHL Films; Fiche; Books.

9. Add a "Summary" to everything you add to the Wiki before you push Save.

10. Should the Rootsweb message board be under Genealogy or under Social Groups Online? DSammy should be under genealogy. What should be on Social Groups online? Just facebook? Or are there other social groups? Sometimes facebook has message boards so where would that particular facebook page belong? Where would blogs go? Under genealogy? i.e. Dick Eastman’s newsletter. Laurie feels that would go under genealogy. Bottom line is to determine their mission or purpose and categorize it according to that.

Decision: Most Facebook pages go in Social Groups Online. All message boards and mailing lists and some facebook pages go under the category of Genealogy. Pay attention to the purpose of a blog, facebook page, message board, or mailing list to determine its topic category.

11. Redouble efforts to get repositories done. David asked us to share things we learned on repositories. Diane told about how fun it is learning about the towns.. David added a paragraph to the counties explaing about the different jurisdictions. He has also moved the template so that it is under “Places” and is also cleaning up some things in the counties. DSammy says something needs to be “killed off” – the Websites at the bottom of the page. We can move them to different categories.

12. DSammy: The group decided to remove the New York stub, correct? YES. Can we remove it for the whole United States? He wants us to think about it as we progress along. We agreed to wait before removing stubs from all over the United States.

ACTION ITEMS:


 * David to talk to engineers about Level issue (change color or bold) and the block of white space between header and text.
 * David needs to talk to Steve about the automatic category and get it turned into a manual situation.
 * Danielle will work with Lisa and DSammy to identify places that need to be added to the Municipalities and Communities templates for each county.
 * Work on Repositories!

Minutes 20 Oct 2011
Thursday 20 October 2011

1. Reviewed and approved agenda 2. Reviewed minutes from last week - approved 3. Template FHL – do not use the version of the template with the phrase title-id in it. Always use the phrase item in the template. Use the Need to warn Marilyn and her group as well as the engineers (through Steve Cottrell) or other missionaries. Assignment: Let Marilyn and her group as well as the engineers (through Steve Cottrell) or other missionaries about the correct way of doing the FHL template. 4. Town Records will be given its own section (and be added to the Table of Contents) in each county which would have a paragraph about town records including a book by Gordon Remington. See Albany County, New York for the sample to copy and paste in. Should we have this town records info in each county? YES Do we want to copy and paste or template it? Nathan states it needs to be customized for each county so should be copy and pasted, but David solved that issue. Since that is fixed, we chose to template it. Decision: Create a category “Town Records” on each county and include the town info David created under Town Records. Assignment: David will create a template for the Town Records paragraph. 5. Issue with Westfield in Richmond County and Chautauqua County. DSammy will fix the title of the Westfield, Chautauqua County, New York page and David will fix the Richmond. As a general rule when two towns with the same name occur, on the second one we will put the name of the town, the name of the county with the word County, New York. i.e. Westfield, Chautauqua County, New York. Linda asked if Westfield is actually a town and DSammy stated that Westfield used to be a town in Richmond County. DSammy said he fixed the Westfield page and created one for Richmond. 6. Nathan brought up the difficulty of large pictures on Albany County. David said it happened within the past few hours. Could be an engineer problem since the maintenance issue this past week. 7. Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness issue. The site is going down because of the illness of Bridgett Schneider and her computer problems (see Dick Eastman’s blog). We will see if it is possible to leave in the code for the RAOGK badge, but change the template itself so that it doesn’t appear visibly until the final status is decided for RAOGK.com. David said that a part of the badge disappears from time to time. Assignment: Don’t eliminate badges until a decision is made about RAOGK.com. Bring it up in future meetings until it is decided. 8. What have we been doing this week on New York project? Nathan wanted to be sure those who assigned us to do New York meant the counties and not the city of New York. Sammy said he has finished the municipalities templates. Lisa is working on tasks for Vital Records and Diane and Linda C. will be helping. Diane and Linda are trying to set up the town pages with the categories. 9. No more comments. Finish up repositories and keep up the good work.

SUMMARY of ASSIGNMENTS • Let Marilyn and her group as well as the engineers (through Steve Cottrell) or other missionaries about the correct way of doing the FHL template. • David will create a template for the Town Records paragraph. • Don’t eliminate RAOGK badges until a decision is made about RAOGK.com. Bring it up in future meetings until it is decided.

Minutes 27 Oct 2011
Thursday 27 October 2011

1. Wiki maintenance is encountering problems--they are working on it. DSammy. 2. Review Agenda - approved 3. Review minutes of last week – approved. All the towns DSammy needed to fix are now fixed. 4. Progress Graph - 8% of tasks done. David showed Jason's progress graph. Jason will update the progress chart weekly. Jason: Wiki difficulties last week probably reduced percentages this week. 5. Kudos. Danielle has written instructions for Vital record tasks. She also included Linda, Lisa and Diane. Others are doing things that are helpful and important as well. 6. Invite others. This is an open meeting and we are encouraged to invite others to this meeting. Suggestion to invite Peter Bush from Rochester FHC (volunteer at the FHC–but recently retired lawyer) 7. Stub template. DSammy asked us to read the discussion on Forums about the stub template. David asked if DSammy (as moderator) would be responsible to move and deleting stub templates. DECISION: Move stub to the bottom and leave them there for now. DSammy (as NY moderator) would like to think about it before deciding when to remove the stub. 8. Report maintenance problems. Report problems at the Wiki Forum for Feedback and Suggestions or by phone at 801-240-1830 or 801-240-2584. Problems discussed in the meeting:


 * Signing into any part of FamilySearch, but usually the Wiki
 * Saving often has to be done several times before it sticks
 * E-mail notices re: page changes, and Chat DSammy

9. Use the Template:FHL (for example,  ) for NY Wiki links to the FHL Catalog. Also, Steve Cottrell has created a new version for links using the FHL Catalog's Place Search. For example,   links to all FHLC entries for the town of Albion 10. Historical Facts vs. History. There is a difference. Historical Facts is an organizational type heading with the headings such as Parent County, Neighboring Counties, Boundary Changes and Record Loss. The History section is about the history of the county. Beth was a little confused because history of the county” is not a record or a resource. She feels the history of the county should be up higher on the page before outside of the “Resources” category. It is something a researcher may want to read about right away and not be buried under the category of “history.” She feels (and others as well) that the history of the county should not be under “Resources.” Beth’s position is that the history of the county should be under Historical Facts or somewhere other than “History.” David said we will continue this discussion next week. 11. RAOGK badges. Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness (RAOGK) has ceased operations, but the Wiki still shows thousands of badges suggesting RAOGK can help. We could:


 * Change the badges to send readers to Dick Eastman's blog and attendant comments describing RAOGK's status. See example at User:Murphynw/Sandbox.
 * Hide each badge. The badge template would be dormant in WikiText, and unseen on Wiki pages. If RAOGK returns it will be easy to restore the badges. For example, you cannot see the hidden badge between the heading "Contributors" and word "Top" at User:Murphynw/Sandbox

DECISION: We'll hide RAOGK badges after a notice on Forums and e-mailing interested parties.

Minutes 03 Nov 2011
Thursday 3 November 2011

1. '''Review agenda. ''' Nathan added Cyndislist.com discussion to agenda. He also asked about Random Acts on wiki and David asked him to go ahead and do what had been decided (to hide them) '''ASSIGNMENT: Nathan to hide Random Acts on Wiki.  2. Review minutes. ''' Accepted 3. Progress Graph. It is on the WikiProject page and will change each week. We've done 10% of tasks. 4. '''Kudos. ''' Diane said she could take minutes from home after she “expires” next week. 5. '''Multiple breadcrumb trails. ''' DSammy brought up that he has three bread crumb trails on Geneva, New York. Diane felt there only needs to be two bread crumb trails with the words Geneva and Town of Geneva as the bolded part which are both from Ontario County. Danielle thought we could create a page for Geneva of Seneca County and explain that it sits on two counties and to access the other page. David asked if there are several in this situation where there is a city, town and community with the same name. 6. '''How to add Templates. ''' David explained that we are not required to use the templates, but to look at them and see if they are useful. But, we may use other text if it is more appropriate for the county we are working on. 7. '''FHL Catalog entry template. ASSIGNMENT: Diane will add a place search example.  8. USGenWeb entries. ''' DSammy wants to be sure that we know how to type in USGenWeb properly in Wiki when referring to it. XXGenWeb with the XX standing for the appropriate abbreviation of the state. DECISION: Use NYGenWeb for references to US Gen Web for New York. 9. '''Vital Records task page. ''' Danielle asked some people who haven’t used Wiki much and refined the task page. Went ahead and put a bullet in front of all references even if there is only one. Divorce is moved as a subheading under marriage and “substitute” phrases are now italicized. Beth mentioned we don’t need periods when there is not a complete sentence. ''' 10. Old postcard images. '''Jane Colmenares’ old postcard images to be put on the Wiki. David thought Jane might be able to upload the pictures into the Gallery of Images. DSammy has a concern about permission but David said they were prior to 1923. Beth suggested that Jane upload them into an internet place where we can look at them before uploading them. Beth will contact her and arrange this. '''ASSIGNMENT: Beth will contact Jane about uploading pictures into a general area.  11. Cyndislist.com ''' Nathan talked to Cyndi about adding our pages to her list. We started with South Carolina, Tennessee, Indian pages. Sister Moss is going to help us send information to Cyndislist regarding what we have ready on the Wiki. DSammy suggested we send information to linkpendium and he will send linkpendium the information we have on New York. Beth said that she noticed linkpendium is already linking things to the Wiki. For example: Alexander County, New York “introductions and guides” refers to the Wiki. 12. '''Individual reports. '''What we have been doing on the Wiki.


 * DSammy had email problems and is waiting on the engineers.
 * David has been adding Central New York Genealogical Society and another society.
 * Pat gave Nathan a list of libraries and he put them on New York counties that weren’t claimed yet. Pat is unclaiming her counties because of the 1940 census project and other responsibilities.
 * Patsy created a page for all the libraries of Greene County, New York so that they can be linked to the county page and town pages.

13. '''Unassigned links. '''DSammy brought out an issue with unassigned links. He suggested we see if there are any that have to do with our county. Patsy would like to see an explanation for links.

SUMMARY  ASSIGNMENT: Nathan to hide Random Acts on Wiki. ASSIGNMENT: Diane needs to add the place search example ASSIGNMENT: Beth will contact Jane about uploading the pictures into a general area. DECISION: Use NYGenWeb for references to US Gen Web for New York

Minutes 10 Nov 2011
Thursday 10 November 2011

1. '''Review agenda. ''' Accepted. 2. '''Review minutes. ''' Accepted 3. Progress Graph. The WikiProject graph shows this week we went from 10% to 19% of tasks done 4. '''Kudos. ''' Diane and Linda thank you for work on NY that raised our graph this week. Diane thank you for adding the "place search" example to the Template:FHL. Thank you DSammy for the links to your NY probate page on each NY county page like this one for Oneida County. 5. FamilySearch Learn page top has been changed from a Wiki search box to a link to online videos about genealogical research. 6. Contributors' reports:


 * Lisa worked on Oneida County. She found adding repositories to the town records went faster using Bentley's Genealogist's Address Book also available with an more up-to-date 2009 online edition. It is a Google Book so you can only view about one county at a time.
 * David showed the Clinton County neighboring counties map he added.
 * Nathan reported he hid all Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness (RAOGK) badges.

7. Research Wiki Forums business: DSammy reported that e-mail notification is still not working. Problems with saving and oversize picture s are diminished. Return to top of page.