FamilySearch Wiki talk:WikiProject FamilySearch Historical Records/Guidelines for Articles

Change to the Cite Your Sources section
I am in the process of creating a page or a section of a page that will replace the current link in the Cite Your Sources section of the guidelines. Please send feedback about both the content of the page and where you think I should place it. Here is what it looks like:

Family Search Collection Citations

It is recommended that you cite the sources of information added to your records. Citing sources will allow you to avoid duplicate searches later and share your sources with other researchers. A citation should allow yourself or others to easily find the source document at a later time.

A suggested format for citations created to document information found in FamilySearch Record Search is:

Creator or owner of the database. Database title. From URL, date accessed or downloaded. Digital identification number (if any), Item of interest, digital identification numbers.

United States. Bureau of the Census. 12th census, 1900. FamilySearch Internet (www.familysearch.org): date accessed or downloaded.

Items of interest may include: Name of person; file, folder or jacket numbers; locality, page number, line number.

Examples: United States. Bureau of the Census. 12th census, 1900. From FamilySearch Internet (www.familysearch.org), September 29, 2006. Arizona Territory, Maricopa, Township 1, East Gila, Salt River Base and Meridian; sheet 9B, line 71.

Texas Deaths, 1890-1976. FamilySearch Internet (www.familysearch.org), April 8, 2010. Death notice of Dorthy Mae Cavender Dec. 9, 1929, Harlingen, Cameron, Texas, image number 3524, reference number cn57436.

Dorothy Horan 14 Apr. 2010

Reason for Move
I have moved the text that was in this talk page to be the main page. This then allows this talk page to be used in discussing the development of the guideline. --Steve 11:18, 14 April 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, Steve! You saved me from trying to move the page today. I will finish up the page today and then what happens from there. I also love the template. I thought there might be an appropriate one, but hadn't gone looking yet. Thanks also for the feedback. -- Dorothy Horan


 * Might want to move further to correct url names. "FamilySearch Historical Record Collections" asap. Few straggling pages left with old url name "FamilySearch Collections" in the urls. dsammy 06:41, 2 May 2010 (UTC)

Comments on the guidelines
Have a few comments and suggestions I would like to make. --Steve 11:25, 14 April 2010 (UTC)
 * 1) I think the Images section is best placed either as part of or directly before the Record Contents section.
 * 2) Using the phrase click here for links is not recommended practice. See FamilySearch Wiki:Linking

Order of contents
I think that when a person comes to the wiki to learn more about a collection of records they would like to get straight to the specific information about the article subject.

Does the new Style guide section warrant being place before the Foreign Language Title and the Record Description etc.? Would it not be possible to include information about the style guide in the new Contributor invite template

For example:



--Steve 16:38, 5 August 2010 (UTC)

Image Availability
I'm currently serving as a FamilySearch Support Missionary and as we get questions about the collections in beta.familysearch.org many of them deal with access to the indexes (extraction) and to the images. Would it be possible to include in these pages some statement regarding availability of images for the collection? Even a simple: By contract with the record custodian, images for this collection are not available in FamilySearch.org. It would help, I think. Laralee 22:31, 12 October 2010 (UTC)

Confusing Headings
It's probably late for a suggestion like this, but I'll make it anyway.

I think the heading "Citation for This Collection" is confusing. It sounds too much like the heading "Citing FamilySearch Historical Collections" and its subheading "Citation Example for Records Found in This Collection". I would suggest changing the heading to "Source Information for this Collection".

I think the headings as they are confuse many people, me included. I've even seen pages describing records where the contributors for the project have gotten confused themselves and reversed the content in them. Lotje 22:11, 28 April 2012 (UTC)

Update 5 June 2018
I made updates to this article to reflect the current guidelines set out by the User Guidance unit in their Instructional Template 20180516. Jeff Svare 18:25, 5 June 2018 (UTC)