WikiProject:Fixing Historical Records URLs

Current Projects page

Fixing Historical Records URLs

Purpose

Change Historical Records collection links URLs on the Wiki to the RecordSearch template.

Contact

Danielle

Task List

Task List

Instructions

Step 1: Sign up

1. Go to the Task List and sign up for a Wiki page to fix.

Step 2: Find the Link

1. Find the Historical Records collection link on the page by first duplicating the tab (or copying the URL and opening a new tab in your browser). You will use one tab to edit and one to check the links on the page.

2. On the first tab, click on Edit Source so you can review the Wikitext.

3. Find the first URL on the page by doing Control+F at the same time (for PC) and paste in:

familysearch.org/search/collection/

• NOTE: some links start with https://www.familysearch.org and others start with https://familysearch.org. Thus, you should search for the link above and not one with www in the beginning as you may miss a link that needs to be fixed.

4. Hit enter and it will bring up the first URL on the page.

Links you DO NO Fix

• Browsable Images: You will only be fixing historical records collections NOT browsable images collections or catalog entries.
  An example of a browsable collection link is: https://www.familysearch.org/search/image/index?owc=https://www.familysearch.org/service/cds/recapi/collections/1925446/waypoints.
  An example of a NON browsable collection link is: https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1417695
• Catalog Links: Be sure you only fix links with the "collection" in the url. If it says, https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/1417695, you do not need to change the link. It goes directly to the Catalog and is a completely different template.
• URLS with LIST: Disregard all links that have the word "list" in them. For example, you would not fix a link that starts like this: https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list
• England Parish Table Links: Do not change any parish table links. They are to remain as is on the page.
• Historical Records pages: Do not change any links on a Historical Records page. Those are being completed in another project.

Step 3: Check the link

1. Go back to the other tab to find that particular link on the page and make sure the link works.

2. IF THE LINK IS BROKEN: Try to locate the correct link. If you think the collection is no longer available, remove the link from the page and put the old link and the name of the wiki page on this Google form. If you think it's more complicated than just removing the link, send a message to Danielle.

3. IF THE LINK WORKS: You will now create the new template to replace the old ULR link in Step 4.

Step 4: Create the RecordSearch Template

1. Copy the following Wikitext and paste it just above the current link on the page.

{{RecordSearch|NUMBER|NAME OF COLLECTION}}

2. Go back to the tab with the Record Collection and copy the number at the end of the URL. This is the collection ID number.

3. Go back to the Wiki Page tab and paste the collection number replacing NUMBER in the template.

Example:
{{RecordSearch|2381996|NAME OF COLLECTION}}

4. Go back to the tab with the Record Collection and copy the title of the collection and replace NAME OF COLLECTION.

Example:
{{RecordSearch|2381996|New York, New York City, Police Census, 1890}}

Step 5: Preview and Save the Page

1. On the Wiki page, Preview the page to make sure the link works.

2. In the Edit Summary field type, fixed link, and save the page.

• More detailed instructions are found in the Wiki University.
  

NOTE: DO NOT CHANGE ANY LINKS THAT GO TO THE INTERNATIONAL GENEALOGICAL INDEX (IGI)

International Genealogical Index (FamilySearch) - free