FamilySearch Wiki:WikiProject Fixing Broken Links on U.S. State and State Topic Pages

Current Projects page Fixing Broken Links on U.S. State and State Topic Pages

Purpose
This project will help locate and fix broken links found on U.S. State pages and their State topic pages. Using a spreadsheet, the team member will first check the page for broken links, then fix any broken links found on the page.

Project Contact
Jane Colmenares

Task Page
Task Page

Step 1
1. Go to the Task Page and select a state that has not been assigned to work on. You will be checking the state page and all subsequent state topic pages listed in the sidebar listed on the left side of the state page. For example, if you signed up for Arizona, you will check the state page of Arizona. After you have completed that page, you will go to the first topic page listed on the Arizona state page, "Introduction" and check and fix all the links on that page. After checking and fixing that page, you will go to "American Indians" and so forth.

Step 2 - Find and Record Broken Links
1. Go to the state page you signed up and click on each link to make sure it goes to the correct page. You can use the link to the page from the Task List page.

2. Next click on the Google doc link beside the state page you signed up for on the task list. This is where you will:


 * a. List your name (only once is necessary)
 * b. List the name of the page you are working on, such as Arizona or Arizona Directories (list it only once)
 * c. List the broken link from the wiki page
 * d. List the new link that will replace the broken link

3. If the link you click on takes you to a working page with information on it, please take a quick look at the page and see if it matches what is described on the wiki page.


 * Example: If I click on the link Tennessee Births and Christenings 1828-1939, I find the page on the FamilySearch website that is titled Tennessee Births and Christenings 1828-1939, so it is the page I would expect. If instead I went to a page that said Tennessee Obituaries, I would know that that this link is probably misdirected and I would add it to my list.

4. Be sure to look at the linked page to be sure it doesn’t say something like “the page you are visiting has moved.” It may or may not redirect you after 5-10 seconds. If it does redirect, 1) list the old link as the incorrect link and 2) copy and add the redirected link to the spreadsheet.

5. If you click on the link and get any error message from the site, or a “404” message, then you know the link is bad and include it on your list by copying the broken link onto the spreadsheet.

Step 3 - Locate the Correct Link
1. You can either check the whole page first for broken links and then fix them or fix them as you find the broken links.

2. To find the correct link to replace the broken link, copy the broken link and go to: https://archive.org/web/ This website has what is called a Wayback Machine. The Wayback Machine has a history of what a URL used to contain.

3. In the Wayback machine URL field, paste in your link. Then press the “Browse History” button



4. 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.



5. 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.



6. Once you find the old webpage on the Wayback machine or Cached Pages websites, go to Google and search 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. '

7. Example: 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

8. To find the correct link for this website, type in google: Illinois state archives statewide marriage index 1763-1900

9. Or, 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

Step 4 - Add New Link to Wiki Page and onto the Google Doc
1. With the correct new URL, go back to the wiki page and replace the broken link with the new one you have found. Be sure to check the page once you have saved the page to make sure the new link you added works.

2. Next add the new link to the Google doc beside the broken version of the link. This is used for quality control purposes.

3. If you are unable to locate a new link for the broken one, go to the county page and remove the information pertaining to that link (the URL and any description) AND add a note to the Google doc under the "Notes" column.

Step 5 - Check the Next Topic Page
1. Once you have checked and fixed the links on a wiki page, move to the next topic page. Use the same Google doc to record the links and type the new page name in Column B.

2. After you fix all the topic pages for a state, be sure to go back to the Task Page and put in the date you completed the task.

3. You can now choose another state.