WikiProject:Ancestry and American Ancestors Books

From FamilySearch Wiki



Purpose[edit | edit source]

Adding books from Ancestry and American Ancestors to wiki pages.

Project Leader[edit | edit source]

Caileigh Oldroyd

Video Instructions[edit | edit source]

Video Instructions

Task List[edit | edit source]

Instructions[edit | edit source]

1. Open up the link by clicking the link in the "Link" column on the task list.

2. Check the page to see if it is for an online book.

  • It will say something like "Online version of book in Hathi Trust Digital Library" or "Online version of book from Internet Archive" for an American Ancestor's Database

  • For Ancestry, it will have a "Browse this collection" on the right hand side of the page and a "Table of Contents" that you can click on to view pages.

  • Skip any that aren't available online

  • See video instruction for how to tell if it is a book

3. If it isn't a book, leave it unchecked in column D and put a date next to your name. If it is a book, move on to the next steps.

4. If the book is cataloged on American Ancestors, take the online link (copied from the URL after you've opened it) and put it in Column K

  • If the book is on Ancestry, just copy the URL of the page

5. Enter the information from the cataloged information to the corresponding yellow columns on the task list.

  • You may need to look at the front cover and first few pages of the book. Depending on the site the book is at, you should be able to click in to the book and go forward or backward.

  • Add the information found on the cover page of the book and the details portion of the page to the corresponding columns on the task list. The example below is taken from this page.

  • Name of Book is: A Comprehensive History, Ecclesiastical and Civil, of Eastham, Wellfleet, and Orleans : County of Barnstable, Mass., from 1644 to 1844 Copy the title directly from the cataloged information.
  • In instances where there are multiple subtitles, you can shorten it to the main title. For example:
  • "The war between the Union and the Confederacy : and its lost opportunities : with a history of the 15th Alabama Regiment and the forty-eight battles in which it was engaged ... the war between the United States and Spain" can be shortened to "The War Between the Union and the Confederacy"

  • Author is: Enoch Pratt. This information is usually next to " Author," "Author Pratt, Enoch, 1781-1860." If the name isn't in first name, last name order, please put it in that order.

  • Publishing Place is Yarmouth, MA. This information is found next to "Publication Info." or usually at the bottom of the title page of the digital book.

  • Publisher is W.S. Fisher and Co. This information is found next to "Publication Info." or usually at the bottom of the title page of the digital book.

  • Publish Date is 1844. This information is found next to "Publication Info." or usually at the bottom of the title page of the digital book.

Do your best to be thorough and add the correct information to the template. If the information you are looking for is not on the details area or within the first few pages of the digital book, follow these guidelines:

  • Missing author: leave it blank and move on to the publisher information.
  • Once you complete Step 7, you will need to remove the "By ." from the link. This would make the link flow from book title to publishing information.
  • Missing publication date: use n.d.
  • Missing publication place: use n.p.
  • Missing publisher: use n.p.

Once you enter in the information it should populate a code in the "Code for Page" column like this: *''A Comprehensive History, Ecclesiastical and Civil, of Eastham, Wellfleet, and Orleans : County of Barnstable, Mass., From 1644 To 1844.'' By Enoch Pratt. Yarmouth, MA: W.S. Fisher and Co., 1844. '''''Online at:''''' [https://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.32044010485654 Hathi Trust]

  • You may need to adjust the prepositions to not be capitalized.

7. Find the subjects either in the title of the book, or if on American Ancestors, look in the subject to see some clues as to where this link will go on the Wiki.

  • In this example, the catalog page says: 
Eastham (Mass.) -- History.
Wellfleet (Mass.) -- History.
Orleans (Mass.) -- History.
  • Paste this information, or type the different cities and topics mentioned in the title in to Column N

8. Use the information you gathered in Column N to guide you where to put the links in column L on the Wiki pages. In the example above, we can see that it should go on the Eastham, Wellfleet, and Orleans town pages under the "Local Histories" subheading. There may be multiple subheadings and/or town pages it needs to go on. If you're unsure, just message Caileigh. Most of these books will go under:

  • Local Histories
  • Compiled Genealogies
  • Biographies

9. Copy the link from the "Code for Page" column on the task list.

10. Paste the code under the header(s) you found in step 8.

11. Click "Show Preview" and make sure everything looks good.

12. Enter 

American Ancestors and Ancestry Books Project

as the Summary and click save.

14. Start over on the next link on the task list.


Example Page

Retrieved from "https://integration-ru.familysearch.org/en/wiki/index.php?title=WikiProject:Ancestry_and_American_Ancestors_Books&oldid=5263144"