Help:Wiki University Purpose of Wiki

What is the Purpose of the Wiki?
FamilySearch Wiki is a tool people can use to learn how to find their ancestors by searching in geographical areas.

The FamilySearch Wiki is about finding records that may have been generated about your ancestors and the places in which the records might be found. It is a vast record depository of the paper trail that people leave behind long after they are gone. When you search in the Wiki, you search for places your ancestors lived and records you think they may have been in. You will not find a Wiki page about your ancestor, but you may find a database that contains your ancestor's death record!

The Wiki has records from the United States as well as from 244 countries. Here you will be able to find documents such as census records, marriage records, birth records, death records and much more.

Types of Records in the Wiki

 * Pages in the Wiki are generally organized around the following areas:
 * Family History Centers
 * Organizations/Societies
 * Geographical (drilling down by State, County, city or equivalent)
 * FamilySearch Publications
 * Census Pages (descriptions)
 * Historical Record Collection Pages (descriptions)
 * Research techniques and tools

Think of the Wiki as a Google for Family History Research. We can never have enough articles in the Wiki!
 * Some typical types of content for the wiki are:
 * Links to online sites that can be used to search for ancestors' names (see an example of an online record page)
 * Instructions on how to find, use and analyze records that are genealogically useful
 * Historical definitions of legal terms, occupations and other terms that are useful to genealogists
 * Images of records used as examples of the kind of information a type of record will contain
 * Translations of genealogical terms

Try these out
 Quick Quiz
 * The Wiki is only for beginners in genealogical research.
 * True
 * False


 * Links are limited only to other articles in the Wiki
 * True
 * False


 * Images of records can be displayed.
 * True
 * False


 * Articles about specific individuals can be contributed.
 * True
 * False


 * Essays on the purpose of Temple work can be contributed to the Wiki.
 * True
 * False


 * New genealogical programs can be reviewed.
 * True
 * False


 * Inquiries about ancestors are not allowed in the Wiki.
 * True
 * False

Check your answers