FamilySearch Wiki:Wiki Project Country Histories

Instruction

Task List

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

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.