familysearch wiki: why i participate

FamilySearch Wiki

Why I Participate

The presenter: Mike Ritchey

• FamilySearch employee since 2000• Community Content

manager within the Community Services team• Professional genealogist• Former family history center

director

Rules of the classroom

• During class, ringing devices may evoke a psychotic episode• Camera flashes will be

rewarded with a drink from a miscellaneous vial• Questions will be

welcomed after class

The road we’ll travel today

• What is a wiki• Introduce FamilySearch Wiki• U.S. Census project & American

Indian project Community contributors Questions they answer Old way of research Project samples Results & Learnings Help wanted What contributors like about wiki

• Questions @ end

What’s a wiki?

• Wiki: Hawaiian for “quick”• Anyone can contribute -- no

programming or html required• Writing: Easy as MS Word• Write an idea now; add more

later• A gathering place to collect

group knowledge

Jan '08

Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan '09

Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec2,000

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FamilySearch Wiki overview

• Scope: Research advice (how to find, use, & analyze records)• Does not contain records of

individual ancestors• Began Jan 2008

• Originally seeded with 800 paper publications• Now 32,000 pages

(don’t blink)• Covers 100+ countries

U. S. CENSUSA community wikiproject

Questions the U.S. census project answers

• How do I begin a census search?• Where are census records for my

ancestor’s state?• Which colonial and state censuses

are available?• Where do I go if I can’t find my

ancestor on the couple major online indexes I know of?

U.S. Census project contributors

Old solution for census research

Learn where the records are…• Five places in the library

catalog• Five registers• Many Websites• The Dollarhide/Thorndale

missing census table• “We’re talking a dozen to

forty census references”• Better talk to an expert

Census team’s results & learnings

“Even though I had been working in census records for thirty years… I found that wow, there’s a lot more than I realized.”

Census team’s results & learnings

“I had not realized that there were so many state and colonial censuses…. For instance, one great book on state censuses wouldn’t touch colonial censuses.”

Census team’s results & learnings

“When I started the project… I didn’t know that you can find a competing index most of the time.”

Census team’s results & learnings

“When most people do census research, they pick and choose from only a few sources. But we put the whole buffet in their face to show what records are there.”

Help Wanted: U.S. census project

• Add information about printed indexes• Add pictures and document

examples

What contributors like about the Wiki

“I particularly enjoy the directness. Seconds after I put it on there, I could have a reader.”

- David Dilts

AMERICAN INDIANSA community wikiproject

American Indian project contributors

Questions the Indian project answers

• Which Indian tribes lived in the areas where my ancestors lived? • What records exist for those tribes

and what do they contain? • Where can I access those records?

Old solution for American Indian research• Find tribes in ancestor’s area

Local histories & reference books

• Study tribal histories to find… When the tribe was there Tribal history and cultural background Likelihood of tribal member marrying a non-

Indian Whether part-blood could be tribal member

• Search several reference books for… Reservation Bureau of Indian Affairs agency Location of agency records

American Indian team’s results/learnings

• None of the reference works are complete

• We are unearthing facts that are not easily found

• We are compiling it all in the wiki• Now we can find information easier

without going to a library or building a personal collection

Help Wanted: American Indian project

• Pages for additional tribes• Brief tribal histories & timelines• Records at:

Agencies Tribal offices Archives Historical societies Universities

• Special need for volunteers who are… Tribal members BIA employees Tribal office employees

What contributors like about the Wiki

“I have collected lots of material over 40 years of research on American Indians. It does no one any good sitting in my filing cabinets. By entering this information into the Wiki, it is accessible to anyone who wants to access it, worldwide.”

-- Jimmy Parker

The road we traveled today

• What is a wiki• Introduce FamilySearch Wiki• U.S. Census project & American

Indian project Community contributors Questions they answer Old way of research Project samples Results & Learnings Help wanted What contributors like about wiki

• We all know something that can help someone else• Want to help? Call Mike Ritchey 801-703-3580• Questions?