FamilySearch Wiki:WikiProject Montana Links

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1. This task involves checking links and finding replacement links for broken one.

2. Go to the Task List and sign out a section of counties to work on.

3. Check all external links on the page to make sure they are working. The easiest way to do this is to use two browser windows. Open the first on the county page. Then when you come to an external link, right click on it and select "Open Link in New Tab" and this will open a second browser window with the link open in it. Be sure it works.

4. If the link works, go on to the next link on the page.

5. If the link is broken, copy the broken link and go to: https://archive.org// This website has what is called a Wayback Machine. The Wayback Machine has a history of what a URL used to contain.

6. In the Wayback machine URL field at the top of the screen, paste your broken link in. Then press the enter key.

7. You will now see a calendar that lists when the webpage was archived. Choose a date that has a blue circle around it to see what the page looked like. It is suggested to try a day in the previous year. If the page shows up as a broken link, then try a date 6 months earlier until you see a web page.



8. If the Wayback machine does NOT have an original version of the page, try CachedPages.com to see if it contains a copy. Go to: http://www.cachedpages.com/

Delete the http:// in the Enter URL field and paste the broken URL.




 * Once you find the old webpage, go to Google and searching for the new URL. Try taking the beginning portion of the URL to locate a possible page. Also try googling some key words on the old page along with the first part of the URL. '
 * For the broken link: http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/marriage.html from the Wayback Machine you see the words: the name of the website: Illinois State Archives and the database it’s linking to: Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, 1763-1900
 * Type in google: Illinois state archives statewide marriage index 1763-1900
 * Try out each of the URLS until you find a good match. For this example, the correct match is: http://www.ilsos.gov/isavital/marriagesrch.jsp


 * a. If you find a new URL or resource for the link, correct it and move on to the next link.
 * b. If you cannot find a new URL or resource for the link, remove it from the page.  Be sure if there is any writing associated with the link such as
 * a description, you will need to remove that as well.
 * c. Once you have finished correcting or removing that link go on to the next one.

9. Once you have finished all the links on the page, go back to the Task Lit and enter the date you completed your pages.