FamilySearch Wiki:Wiki Project Country Histories
Instruction
Step One: Open Page in Wikitext
- From the Task List, select a country.
- Click on the link in the task list. This will take you to the country page.
- If there is a link to the History page in the sidebar (usually under the Background section of the sidebar), open 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 <br> 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.