|
__________________________
this page is badly in need of updating---some of the concepts discussed here, such as Geogroups, have been transformed so much that the original idea has all but dissappeared. We're working on it. Q 08:21, 29 March 2011 (EDT)
A series of "special project pages" are being developed to support the The Tapestry. These include:
Surname Tapestry Pages: The Surname Tapestry Page is intended to provide a quick way to see what is generally known about the presence of a given surname in various areas. These pages were once referred to as "GeoGroup" pages, a term being phased out. A representative example is found at Walker Tapestry
Notebook Pages: Notebooks are intended to collect information either about a specific individual, or about a given family in a specific location. These pages are not usually intended to discuss the information collected, except perhaps in passing. Some notebooks support analysis of specific individuals, but others are surname specific for specific areas (GeoGroups), and are designed to collect information about all individuals of a certain surname in a certain area.
Analysis Pages: Analysis pages are intended to provide a detailed discussion of some particular problem in family genealogy. The resulting conclusions can then be pointed to from the appropriate person or family page, without cluttering up the narrative with the detailed discussion. An example is found at Analysis:James Edmiston of Augusta County. In some cases, conclusions (if any) reached in such analysis articles may be only "working ideas"; these should not be regarded as polished presentations, but an expression of evolving thoughts on the subject at hand. A work in progress, as it were.
Disambiguation Pages: This term is being phased out. Disambiguation pages are designed to identify person specific articles that have been created on this site using the same given name and surname. Specific personal data is given for each such person page: Name, DOB-DOD, Parents, Spouse, and original creator/user. In part this is intended as a mechanism to facilitate "capture" of information developed by others on this site about the same person, and in part is intended to foster collaborative efforts. An example is found at Disambiguation:Robert Edmondson. The effectiveness of WeRelate's search engine makes the use of Dismabiguation pages less essential than it once was. While the "Disambiguation" concept still has its uses, the effort needed to create these pages is more than the benefit is worth. Disambiguations will probably remain for surname tapestries where they have been started, but more will not be added
GeoGroups: This term is being phased out in favor of "Surname Tapestry Pages". "GeoGroups" originally referred to pages describing persons sharing a given surname in specific areas. Originally, these pages employed a system of colored bullets to show the level of completeness for research on a given surname within the Tapestry. This proved entirely too cumbersome in practice, but the idea has some merit for future development. The following discussionis being retained because this idea may come back into play as the Tapestry develops---and to explain the meaning of the remaining pages that still use this color coding system.
In some cases there may be multiple unrelated lines in the same area using the same surname. While it is usually clear where members of multiple and unrelated lines are present in an area, it is not always easy to tell which members belong to which lines, especially when they share similar given names. A major goal of Location Specific Family Pages is to aid in distinquishing these families. The TOC header for GeoGroup pages for Southwest Virginia includes a listing of person articles for the earliest settlers in the area. Articles are marked with color-coded "bullets" to indicate the approximate level of completion:
 Stub Status
 Substantive work has been done on the article, but additional work needed
 More or less complete articles; no article is probably ever fully complete, but these have considerable detail.
 Essentially complete articles, but with minor genealogical issues that need to be resolved; targeted for additional work
 Essentially complete articles, but with significant genealogical issues that need to be resolved; targeted for additional work
An example of this coding is found at Edmondson Family of Southwest Virginia
Register pages: Initially, register pages were designed to show immediate ancestors and descendants of early male settlers in Southwest Virginia. An example of such a register is found at Register:Buchanan. While registers like this are commonplace in genealogy, in practice, on WeRelate, the formatting of the register table proved to be overly complex. As a result, registers are currently being created as simple lists of persons examined as part of the Tapestry, with links to the corresponding person pages. The register concept, as its applied within the Tapestry, is still evolving.
Stub Warnings: Stub warnings are insert on pages that are intended as the start of a complex article. Usually these pages are intended to store limited information, collected in passing, until a formal article is developed.
|
