FamilySearch Wiki:WikiProject Ohio

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Overall Objectives

The purpose of the Ohio Wiki Project is to help readers find and use Ohio resources and records for genealogy and family history. The project will update and improve:

Ohio county pages, such as Hocking County
Ohio main page.
Statewide topic pages. Example Vital Records
Other Ohio-related pages

Guiding Principles

Highlight important and relevant items. Long lists of every website or every publication would bury, rather than highlight, what's important.

Tell readers what to expect when they follow a link or search a suggested record.

Balance content with these four factors in mind:

a. Genealogical Value. Does this help Wiki users further their research?

b. Clarity. Make sure everyone understands your meaning and the purpose of your words.

c. Brevity. Be succinct as possible without sacrificing purpose or clarity.

d. Documentation. Use footnote(s) to identify the source(s) of the content you are creating.

Ohio Wiki Project Phases

Phase 1

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The first phase includes adding content to each Ohio county page. Content will be added by completing written tasks that will apply to each county. These tasks will have written instructions giving guidance on how to enter information, format

the information, and how to cite the information, when applicable. Some of these tasks entail specifically:

'County headings - additional county headings will be added to each county page to make them uniform and cover more research topics users may have questions on
Infoboxes - adding dates concerning major resources for each county and giving information regarding important Ohio statewide indexes

'County repositories' (libraries, archives, museums) - contact information for repositories that hold original and compiled records for individuals that lived in that county including links to the repositories' websites with additional information

For each section containing information regarding resources and records, the following should be included:

Links to online resources: indexes and/or images of records or how to use those records.
Links to catalogs such as the Family History Library catalog, Google books, and WorldCat among others.

Phase 2

The second phase focuses on important record types available on the county level in Ohio. Each record type will include what records are available, time period the record covers and how they can be accessed including links to databases,

images and references to books and microfilm and information to repositoriies.

Vital Records (county only) -
Probate Records -
Land Records -

Phase 3

The third phase focuses on compiled sources and cemeteries.

County histories - list of county histories available with links to online books and references to libraries

"*Cemeteries" - links to major cemetery websites that contain cemetery transcriptions for the county

Phase 4

To be determined.

Schedule

To be determined

Ohio Wiki Project Tasks

Before beginning any tasks please review the Ohio guidelines

Phase 1

Phase 2

Phase 3

Ohio Wiki project tasks

FamilySearch Wiki Videos

See product demos for the FamilySearch Wiki, including: searching, editing, making links, watching pages, and more.
Each video lasts about 5 minutes.

The following are tasks to be accomplished for the Ohio Wiki Project. Each task has step-by-step instructions to accomplish it.

Tasks ready for volunteers

**Ohio county/topic interest list**
Topics
Standardize County subject headings.
County Courthouse Info Box: Locate uncopyrighted photos of courthouses and upload. Add contact information with link to county website.
Add neighboring counties in the County Headings Box.
Add parent counties in the County Headings Box.
Locate county societies. Add contact information, weblink, and significant collections.
Locate county archives and libraries. Add contact information, weblink, and significant collections.
Add US GenWeb links to the appropriate county record types.
Add Family History Centers.
Add FamilySearch vital records.
Create Family History Library topic link for vital records.
Add Ancestry vital records.
Add FamilySearch church records.
Create Family History Library topic link church records.
Add Ancestry land and property link.
Create Family History Library topic link for land and property.
Add FamilySearch probate records.
Create Family History Library topic link for probate records.
Add County Cemetery links to databases and transcriptions specific to the county.
Create Family History Library topic link for cemeteries.
Add FamilySearch tax records.
Create Family History Library topic link for tax records.
Add available historical newspapers.
Add Linkpendium links to the appropriate records types.

Tasks not yet ready

These are not yet ready, but you may want to know what is on the horizon.

Links to topics in the Family History Library Catalog This allows only the best items to be highlighted in the Wiki while informing users of other records or resources that are available. This also makes it so the Wiki won't have to be updated each time new things are added to the sites included.
Fix Starting Dates for records in the Top Table on each county.
Top Table in the counties Copy and adapt the table (from the Experimental County) to each county. NOTE: This was a very innovative accomplishment made possible by the community meeting.
County GenWeb Links Link to databases on county GenWeb databases, with information to help users decide to click or not.
County Headings 2 Comments on the Discussion page for county headings have prompted some changes that need to be made to each county. *County Headings The genealogical community has given careful consideration to the headings and their arrangement in each county. The Utah county headings were created some time ago, and now need to be "remodeled," so to speak. That is the purpose of this task. It requires attention to detail, but is otherwise an easy task to accomplish.
County History List by year historical events that affected the records and the record-keeping in each county, such as settlement and migration, or natural events, such as flooding, drought, or fires.
County Courthouse Find uncopyrighted images of the courthouse (historical or current) and upload them. List their contact information (address, phone, email), including a link to website, addresses, etc.
History section of the counties Link to online histories of each county.
Cemeteries in the counties Link to websites that can be linked specifically to the counties.
Family Associations/Societies Links to organizations based on descendency (e.g. Jared Pratt Family Association)
Newspapers by county
Repositories in the county: libraries, museums, etc. Phase 1: Add contact information for local libraries, societies, and other record holders in each county.
State repositories: Utah State Archives, DUP, SUP, State Historical Society, state libraries, etc.
Church records Phase 1.
Major websites: statewide and county-by-county.
Migration: Railroad, trails, etc.
Native American records)
Links to topics in the Family History Library Catalog This allows only the best items to be highlighted in the Wiki while informing users of other records or resources that are available. This also makes it so the Wiki won't have to be updated each time new things are added to the sites included.
Fix Starting Dates for records in the Top Table on each county.
Top Table in the counties
County GenWeb Links Link to databases on county GenWeb databases, with information to help users decide to click or not.
County Headings The genealogical community has given careful consideration to the headings and their arrangement in each county. The Ohio county headings were created some time ago, and now need to be "remodeled," so to speak. That is the purpose of this task. It requires attention to detail, but is otherwise an easy task to accomplish.
County History List by year historical events that affected the records and the record-keeping in each county, such as settlement and migration, or natural events, such as flooding, drought, or fires.
County Courthouse Find uncopyrighted images of the courthouse (historical or current) and upload them. List their contact information (address, phone, email), including a link to website, addresses, etc.

Schedule

Project Guidelines

The following guidlines will be followed by the WikiProject Ohio members until end of the project, tentatively scheduled for TBD 2012.

Style

The first few weeks of the Ohio project we will agree on a model style, and create at least one example page of it. To keep the project moving forward, NO style changes nor further discussion of changes will be allowed after that for the remainder of the project (tentatively until TBD 2012). Participants are expected to follow that style during the project.

Style includes but is not limited to:

Use of standard Ohio templates
Headings (anything that would appear in a table of contents) match with FHL Catalog subject headings as much as possible
Heading levels: use levels three, four or five; avoid levels one and two
Order of presentation
Table of contents style or position (or lack of TOC)
image, table, or template positions or size; prefer sharp images relevant to the topic on the page
font
bold
italic for titles of published books
underline
indentation
bullets. Items under headings on county pages will be bulleted lists. Information describing the headings themselves will not be bulleted.
numbering
citations in footnote style
- Please use the full Chicago Manual of Style footnote style (modified):

Author(s), followed by a comma

Title (book titles in italics)

Publication data in parenthesis:

- Publication place, followed by a colon

- Publisher

- Year of publication

- comma, and the the page number(s) followed by a period

Access information:

- link to free online copy, if any. IF a free online copy is available no further access data needs to be added.

- IF NO free online edition is available, then add:

- WorldCat template: {{WorldCat|#####|disp=At various libraries (WorldCat)}}.

- FHL template: {{FHL|####|item|disp=FHL Film ###; Fiche ###; Book ###}}.

- Brief annotation explaining the content, or why, or how a reader would want to use the source.

image, table, or template style
internal link style
external link style including brief annotation. Prefer http:// links over https:// links.

Wording changes

Before changing the saved wording of another team member who followed these rules you must get their consent (except for obvious minor typos).

Links with purpose

The Wiki is not a links repository. It uses links to support the genealogical educational purpose of a page or section of a page. Show and explain links with an educational purpose in mind. Annotate each external link briefly but well enough for the reader to realize what they will be getting if they click that link.

Seek out local and unique

Seek out local and unique genealogical search strategies, records, or repositories and explain them to readers.

Describe each edit

Describe each edit in theSummary field before clicking the Save button.

Non-compliance

Non-compliance will result in work being reverted, or changed to follow these rules.

Templates

It has been decided to use templates for wording that will be used over and over in county, town, or other pages. This will allow changes to be made across all pages simultaneously.

If you wish to edit an existing template page, please post your proposed changes to the discussion page for that template before making changes. Please place a watch on templates you have written or edited. If no responses within 1 week, contact the team member(s) who created the original.

Before creating a template, click on the what templates already exist.

To create a new template that will be used on several pages for the Ohio WikiProject:

1. Create a new page with the following name: Template:UtahCo[record type]
2. Type the text for your template. Make sure that all concepts, sentence structure, and grammar are independent and can stand on their own if need be.
3. Add the category to the new template page using the following wikitext: <noinclude> [[Category:Templates for Utah pages]] </noinclude> . (Be sure to include the <noinclude> . Otherwise the category will also appear on all pages that merely have the template placed on them.)
4. Approve the wording with administrators of the Ohio WikiProject Team.
5. Add the template to county pages using {{template page name}} Otherwise those pages will be added to the category Templates for Ohio project.

To see a list of current existing templates for this project, click the category below "Templates for Ohio project."