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.

Preparation

 * 1) Open a state page in the wiki. This lets you get to the needed counties or state topics you find as you go through the FamilySearch Record Collections.
 * 2) Be sure to sign in to the Wiki so you can edit
 * 3) Please use wikitext
 * 4) Navigate to Historical Records of a state at FamilySearch.org  [[Image:Gotoarrow.png]]  Click Search [[Image:Gotoarrow.png]]  Select Records [[Image:Gotoarrow.png]]  Click the US part of the world map [[Image:Gotoarrow.png]]  Select the state  This is the list of records to be posted to the Wiki. [[Image:Gotoarrow.png]] Copy the URL of this "State List" to a Sticky Note or other file — you will be needing it again.

Indexed Historical Records
Statewide items need to be posted only to the appropriate state topic page. County or city/town items need to be posted to the county page under the right topic.
 * 1) Click Show all ... [# of items for the state you selected]
 * 2) Bypass all United States collections
 * 3) For each state or county collection:
 * 4) in Historical Records, click to the collection
 * 5) in the wiki, open the appropriate state topic page or county page and click the edit box for the right section. NOTE: You may need to add an "Online" section to a state topic page. Many were written before the Internet and online collections were prevalent.
 * 6) Post the link and description to the state topic page — preferred format below

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:
 * *1861-1865 —, one of the Arkansas Collections at FamilySearch.org — 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.

Examples
The examples below show how to post FamilySearch record collections that:
 * Focus one specific place for the entire collection, such as one county or the state
 * Are subdivided, most commonly into several counties

Some record categories have just one type of document. However, many record categories have several types of documents. Marriage records, for example, could include Licenses, Marriage Returns, Registers, or Consents. Users will benefit when the posts include that information.

Interestingly, FamilySearch record collections will have 3 links:
 * 1) The link to the collection for the specific place
 * 2) A link that goes 1 step back: To the entire collection if it has subdivided into several counties or to the list of all FamilySearch collections for that state
 * 3) The link directly to FamilySearch.org

The examples below show the preferred format for each type of post. A table below each example shows the exact wikitext with explanations.

One place, one record type
one of the Arkansas Collections at FamilySearch.org — browse images
 * 1867-2013 — Arkansas, Oakland and Fraternal Historic Cemetery Records, 1867-2013, Little Rock, at FamilySearch Historical Collections. (Free, browse unindexed images)

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.