A Collaborative Genealogy Reset: Part 2
Showcasing the power of Wiki categories
In my last post, I shared an overview of how I organize my volunteer genealogy work - with WikiTree being a core part of that strategy. In this post, I would like to share for you how I implement my strategy onto the site and how it helps me be a good citizen genealogist. Perhaps this will spark ideas for you too!
WikiTree, as a wiki, has features that are inherent to the wiki structure - including the use of categories. Each profile can be assigned more than one category and these categories serve a variety of functions, such as:
1) navigation - makes browsing topics easier
2) categorization - groups related concepts together
3) indexing - helps "catalog" profiles by topic & is great for search engine optimization
4) maintenance - makes it easy to track what work needs to be done
5) automation - bots can look for specific categories and take specific actions
WikiTree is no exception! We get to use categories for all of these purposes and it is because of categories that I absolutely use WikiTree in combination with FamilySearch Family Tree as part of my open, collaborative genealogy strategy. Each WikiTree user gets "personal categories" which start with your WikiTree ID (in my case, "Koonce-10").
Now, let me show you how I organize my categories on WikiTree; they fall into 5 groups:
1) profile-related (prefaced with Koonce-10 Profile)
2) specific to my projects (prefaced with Koonce-10 Project)
3) WikiTree events (prefaced with Koonce-10 WT Events)
4) WikiTree Link Building (prefaced with Koonce-10 WT Links)
5) WikiTree projects (prefaced with Koonce-10 WT Projects)
And it is proving to be extremely efficient! I can quickly:
- determine how many profiles for which I need to add more records
- keep count of how many profiles I've linked to a FamilySearch Family Tree profile
- determine how many profiles need connections - this prepares me for events such as our upcoming WikiTree Connect-A-Thon!
- count the number of profiles for which I've added headstone photos
and more! I truly feel like my system cannot be beat! (I may be biased LOL).
Importantly, I can look at any profile I edit and immediately key into the actions I have taken/and are needed for that profile. In this example, this is a profile I added to WikiTree as a result of participating in a “weekend sprint” activity for the US Black Heritage Project. I created her profile, added her birth sticker indicating she was born in Tennessee, I need to add more family members to her in order to build our her tree further. While I’ve added some records, I need to add more. I’ve linked her profile to FamilySearch Family Tree and added links to her WikiTree profile from Find a Grave and FamilySearch Family Tree. I am “tracking” her profile so I can monitor updates from others over time and/or revisit her profile to continue improving it. The beauty of it all is that all of the actions are now documented per my personal categories - I love it!
So...here's your takeaway tip: when using WikiTree and doing collaborative genealogy, set up personal categories in an organized way -they help make your contributions to the shared tree more efficient and make it easy for you to keep track of all the actions you can take to further improve and grow the tree over time.
In my next post, Part 3 of this series, I will share my first quarterly “report” of my genealogy goodwill activities based on these categories. Stay tuned!
I am increasingly using categories on WikiTree we use them extensively in the England and Wales Projects. I have a personal category I created for profiles that I have Orphaned and would like to go back to update with more information and better citation. I used this to find more profiles that needed adding. When I find that members of a family who are going to be deceased are missing I use the maintenance categories for their birth county to ensure they don't get missed. During a Connect A Thon I go to these categories and add the missing family profiles. The one thing you need to remember is to remove the category when no longer required. I also am adding link back sources in Family Search Tree and the Family Search ID to the WikiTree profile. Connection is important if someone sees the link they may take the cousin bait.
Thanks so much for this post; I will link to this series for my Wikitree User Group for my local genealogy society. Can you explain how you use the (+) (-) in your categories?