Project:Help

This page documents the conventions and templates used on this wiki. For help regarding the underlying software and editing code, see mw:Help:Contents.

These conventions document current best practice, they don't define it. It's okay to ignore them when they're problematic. Every contributor is trusted to contribute in good faith, and any conflicts can be resolved through discussion.

Articles

 * subjects
 * Each article should primarily document a single person. Other persons should only be documented in so far as they affect the subject of the article.
 * Only family members should have articles. This includes spouses, but there is no need to separately document their ancestors if they had no children (and therefore did not contribute to the family tree).


 * title
 * Articles are titled after their subjects, preferably in the form "first name surname" (if the first or surname is unknown, replace it with "?"). Disambiguation between multiple persons with the same name should be in the form "first name middle name(s) surname", or if no middle name is known "first name surname (birth year)".


 * content
 * The article should generally follow the following template (replacing UPPERCASE with regular-cased details). The introduction briefly summarises their genealogical place (parents, spouses, and children), followed by further details and life story in the body. Photographs of the subject are listed in a gallery section using the special 'gallery' tag. Finally, relevant categories (by subject, surname, and date of birth) are added at the very bottom of the page.
 * Optionally, a representative photograph of the subject can be added to the right side, by adding " " at the very top of the article.

NAME was born of FATHER and MOTHER at PLACE on DATE. (S)he married SPOUSE at PLACE on DATE and mothered/fathered CHILD1 (YEAR), CHILD2 (YEAR), and CHILD3 (YEAR).

Further details in any structure appropriate here.

Image transcription

 * location
 * Transcribed text is added in the "transcription = " parameter of the template (replace "na" in the preloaded text).


 * formatting
 * The template will respect indentation and new lines. For example, the following text will be formatted correctly:


 * uncertain or missing words
 * Text can sometimes be difficult to transcribe. You can mark uncertain or unknown words in text using the template. The uncertain text should be wrapped in the template. For example:


 * transcription notes
 * You can add notes about the text or your transcription using the template. The notes will appear when the mouse cursor is placed above the text. This can be used for any notes (not only spelling corrections), but should be kept as short as possible (many browsers will not display more than a short sentence). For example:

Special features
The wiki has some scripts and extensions installed to simplify and speed contributing, and more can be added or developed at need. Below are the main ones:

JavaScript

 * Upload form
 * preloading: When you upload a file, the description box is automatically filled with the correct template to use. Some explanations also appear above the textbox.
 * subject sorting: click "sort subjects" in the explanation text to automatically sort the subjects you've added to the 'subject*' template parameters. Click "add & sort subjects" to add three extra parameters, if there are more subjects to note.


 * Categories
 * highlighting unarticled files: A file is "unarticled" if it hasn't been integrated into its subjects' articles. This is marked on the image page using the template's paired "subject*" and "done*" parameters. When you view a person's category, any file that has not been integrated into that person's article will be highlighted with a red border and the text "[unarticled]".
 * one-click category descriptions: When creating or editing a category page, you can click links on the left sidebar (under "scripts") to automatically generate the description. Current scripts:
 * cat:Images by subject
 * cat:Images by year
 * cat:Copyright perm


 * regex search & replace: for more technical users, the "Custom regex" link at the bottom of the left sidebar when editing allows the use of regular expressions. Documentation also appears when you click the link.

MediaWiki options

 * image renaming
 * This wiki allows experimental file renaming, which is not supported on most wikis. You can rename a file by clicking the "move" tab along the top of the article box.


 * extensions
 * See Special:Version.