familysearch wiki: finding records for your research

FamilySearch Wiki

Finding Records for Your Research

Getting and Giving Advice

Do you…• want to know where to find an ancestor?• want to know where the best, cheapest records

are? • ever tell people the stuff you’ve learned?

You can do it on FamilySearch Wiki!wiki.familysearch.org

Today’s Lesson

• What’s a wiki?• Focus of FamilySearch Wiki• How people use the wiki• How edits spur quality• Projects & great content• Contributing

What’s a Wiki?

What’s a wiki?

• A Website anyone can edit.• In Hawaii, “wiki wiki” means “quick”

Wikipedia: Community authoring

Wikipedia: Community Authoring

1. 9th most popular Website2. Content written by community3. 3,000 new entries per day4. Most errors corrected in 5 mins.5. 11 edits per article

About FamilySearch Wiki

FamilySearch Wiki’s Main Focus

• Where to find records • How to use them

How people use FamilySearch Wiki

• Get research guidance• Help others avoid my mistakes• Make friends• Leave a legacy• Gather information for a class• Reach a wider audience• Be part of something bigger than myself

Organization: Locality Approach

1. Select a country.• Information about records for that country• States, counties, or parishes

2. Search• “United States”• “New York birth”• “[county] cemetery”

Growth & Quality

1. Page edits spur quality2. Top contributors have 10k-15k edits/person3. 59,000 edits in 2009 (as of 7/29/09)

4. 7,500 characters/edit on average5. Top pages have 300-500 edits6. FHL research consultants investing 22,000

hours/year7. 2009 edits = 535,000,000 characters8. Don’t blink – you might miss something

ContentWhat’s really great on the wiki?

U.S. projects

1. Current projects (for all 50 states)• Federal and state Census• Vital (birth, marriage, death)

2. Other 2009 projects • Land • Probate• Church or military

International projects

1. Norway2. Sweden3. Chihuahua, Mexico4. Schleswig-Holstein5. Wuerttemberg6. Copenhagen, Denmark7. Sachsen (Saxony)8. Netherlands

British Isles projects

1. Probate records for England counties2. Principal Probate Registry & Estate Duty

Registers3. Build England county pages 4. Ireland county pages5. Guidance page for East India Company

Great content: some examples

1. Maryland History2. Burned Counties Research3. United States History

ContributingEver tell someone else the stuff you’ve

learned?

Your knowledge is valuable!

Are you good at…

• Spelling? • Grammar? • Bridging ideas? • Finding cool Websites? • Finding local collections? • Linking between

articles?

• Documenting processes step by step?

• Governance? • Recruiting talent?• Organizing volunteers?

It’s easy on the wiki!

Reach a wider audience

1. Over 600,000 unique visitors in the last year2. Hit counter on each page

Track traffic on the pages you create

Track traffic on the pages you create

Your contributions will last

1. FamilySearch is big • If Michael gets hit by a bus, the wiki won’t go away

2. Creative Commons license• Pages can be copied to other sites with CC license

3. History page• See every draft of every article

Finding ProjectsYou can contribute to projects in progress!

Where to find projects

Where to find projects

Where to find projects

Where to find projects

How to create a project

1. Create a page describing the project.2. Link to your project from the list on the

Community Portal.

What We Covered Today

• What’s a wiki?• Focus of FamilySearch Wiki• How people use the wiki• How edits spur quality• Projects & great content• Contributing

Getting and Giving Advice

Do you…• …want to know where to find an ancestor?• …want to know where the best, cheapest records

are? • …ever tell people the stuff you’ve learned?

You can do it on FamilySearch Wiki!wiki.familysearch.org

The community needs your knowledge!

1. While researching, you’ve learned something that can save someone else time! We need you!

2. Volunteers• We need people of all faiths, ethnicities, &

backgrounds• Call me 801-703-3580 or see me after class!

3. Missionaries• Full time or part-time• @ Church Headquarters or @ home• Call me 801-703-3580 or see me after class!

4. Interns• Any school, anywhere. Call me or see me after class!