FamilySearch Wiki:Wiki Project Country Histories

Instruction
Task List

Step One: Open Page in Wikitext

 * From the Task List, select a country.
 * Click on the first available province. This will take you to the country page.
 * If there is a link to the History page in the sidebar, open the page. If the link to the History page in the sidebar is red, click on it to create the page.

Step Two: Locate Corresponding Page in Wikipedia

 * In a separate window, open Wikipedia.org
 * Search for the country.

Step Three: Extract Historical Information

 * NOTE: if there is already information on the History page, and you have more to add to it, add the information wherever it fits.
 * From the introduction and the history section (and other sections if need be) of Wikipedia, find the following type of information:
 * The date the original area was founded.
 * The date the location was created.
 * What jurisdiction it belonged to at different periods of time.
 * Historically significant events (fires, earthquakes, battles) that may have damaged genealogical records.
 * Rephrase the historical information whenever possible so we are not directly copying Wikipedia.
 * The histories should be written in paragraph form, with each piece of information you find in a sentence right after each other.
 * The last sentence should give the population of the province. The basic format is already provided.
 * Fill in the name of the location
 * Fill in the population number, (usually stated in the sidebar), rounded to the hundred.

Step Four: Create Timeline

 * Based on the information in the History section, compile a timeline, organized in chronological order by year.
 * Use  to separate each event in the timeline.
 * For an example of how a timeline is supposed to look, see the Hong Kong page.

Example Page
The following link is the completed history page for Hong Kong.