FamilySearch Wiki:WikiProject Finding broken links on U.S. county pages

Current Projects page Finding broken links on US county pages

Purpose
The purpose of this project is to locate broken external links on a county page. When doing this task, it is not necessary for you to know anything about genealogy records for a specific locality. It is not even necessary that you be comfortable with editing links on the wiki. It is a great way to become familiar with the wiki.

Contact
Jane Colmenares

Task Page
Task Page

Project Instructions
Video Instructions for project

Step one: The first step is to go to the project page task list and sign up for a state to work on. After you finish checking each county page for this state, you will return to this task list and enter the date you completed the task. The task list page also will give you a link to the spreadsheet you will use to track broken links.

Step two: Once you have picked a state, you will need to keep a list of any links on the page that might be bad (broken). You will keep this information in the Google spreadsheet (see information below on completing the Google spreadsheet).

Step three: The best way to check the links is to simply click on each link that has an arrow at the end of it. This indicates it is an external link. You do not need to check links that go to other wiki pages (links with no arrow). The following link is an example of an external link: Rhode Island, Births, 1636-1930


 * If the link takes you to a working page with information on it, please take a quick look at the page and see if it looks like it does have the records we described on the county 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.


 * 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 this is the case, include this link as bad on your list so it can be fixed.


 * 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.

Step four: Record broken link on the Google Spreadsheet. See directions below.

Step five Once you have completed all counties in your state, return to the Wiki task page and put the date you completed the state. Finding broken links on U.S. county pages/task list

You are now ready for a new locality!!

Completing the Google Spreadsheet
Step one: Go to the Finding Broken Links on U.S. County Pages Task List and select a state that you signed up for.

Step two: The first two columns on the spreadsheet are for your name and your wiki username. You only  need to put your name once.

Step three: The third column is State. You can enter the state name once, and then don’t worry about re-entering it on each line.

Step four: The next column is County. You can enter the county once and then don’t worry about re-entering it on each line. You would only need to edit this column when starting a new county.

Step five:  The next column is the URL for the county page. You can also enter this once for each county and not worry about re-entering it on each line.

Step six: The next column is Header. This is the name of the section on the county page where you found the broken link, such as Biographies, Maps, etc.

Step seven: The next column is Link Name. This is the wording that shows on the county page line where the link is broken.

Step eight: The next column is URL. This is the actual URL that is broken on the page. To find the actual URL of the broken link, hover over the blue wording on the page and then right-click your mouse. Choose “Copy Link Location” and it will automatically copy the URL for you. Then just click in the URL column on the spreadsheet and paste by pressing the Ctrl and V keys together.

Step nine: The final column is Notes. If there is anything special you feel that you need to add, enter it here.

You do not need to save the Google Spreadsheet because it is automatically saved.