Help:Surname in Place

Contents

Description

Surname in Place pages are articles covering individual Surnames that are located within particular locations.

Titles for Surname in Place pages

Titles for Surname in Place pages consist of the relevant surname, followed by the word "in", followed by the relevant place (Phillips in Texas). It is important to remember to avoid abbreviation and including multiple surnames or places. See Help:Page titles for more information
If you title all your Surname in Place pages with one surname and one place (without abbreviation), they will be indexed into categories properly. It will be easier for your cousins to find your pages. For instance, if you create a page for Smith in Kentucky, it will be indexed in the Smith category, the Kentucky category and the Smith in Kentucky category. The next time someone creates a page for Smith in Kentucky they will come to your page instead of creating a second page for "Smith in Kentucky". It's all about making networking with other genealogists easier.
When abbreviations are used, the system thinks that the abbreviation is a different place. It won't put "Kentucky" articles in the same category with "KY" articles. If you title your page with an abbreviation, for example "Smith in KY", and your cousin titles a page with "Smith in Kentucky", your articles will not be in the same category. Thus, it is less likely that you will connect with that cousin. The same is true if you title your page with multiple locations. For instance, if you title your page with "KY, OH and MT", it will be placed in the "KY, OH, and MT" category. A cousin searching for "Smith in Kentucky" won't see your page in the right category index.
Click on a surname category link at the bottom of a person page to see the category index list.

Add a link to the Surname in Place page from the surname page

Please add a link to each Surname in Place page from the relevant surname page so that people looking at (or watching) the surname page will see your article. For example, after you created the Phillips in Texas page, you would click on the the Phillips link on the left hand side of the page. You would then edit the Surname:Phillips page, adding the link [[Phillips in Texas]] to that page.


Frequently asked questions

How do I use a Surname in Place page?

A Surname in Place page can be used to post, share, and discuss information about people having that surname who lived in that place.
  • Anyone interested in these surnames and places can watch (monitor for changes) any Surname in Place Page. If a change is made, everyone watching the page will be notified.
  • The changes you make to the Surname in Place page takes effect immediately
  • The new Surname in Place page (or the new modified content) will start showing up in Searches the following day. This allows you to be found by others researching the same family lines as you, ask for and offer help, and share research you have gathered for that surname and place with others.

Are Surname in Place pages like message boards?

Surname in Place pages have a couple of advantages over most surname-based message boards:
  • They are restricted to both a surname and a place, not a surname worldwide
  • Research results and answers to questions over time can be organized into a research log for each family having that surname in that place, instead of being scattered across hundreds of messages

How do I create a Surname in Place page?

  1. Click on the My Relate menu in the upper left menu bar and select "Dashboard"
    • If you're not already signed in to WeRelate, sign in now.
  2. Click on View your profile, under the heading, Profile & Messages.
    • On the Profile Page click Edit from the left sidebar
    • Under the Surnames and/or places you are researching heading, click on "Add Surname and/or Place".
    • In the fields that pop up, enter the surname of that family and the place where they lived.
      • Limit the Place to a State, Province, or Country to begin with
      • Your ancestors may have been related to other families having the same surname in their region, so set the place to the state, province, or country in which the family lived, not the town. For example, if I were researching the John and Mary Smith family living in Boston, Georgia, I would enter "Smith" and "Georgia" into the appropriate boxes.
      • Make sure to use only one surname and place per page title and to type out the full place name, without abbreviation, so the page can be properly indexed into categories.
        • If you use multiple names or abbreviate ("Smith in KY"), your page will not be automatically associated with other pages with information on that line in that place (e.g "Smith in Kentucky"). Following this standard will make it easier for you to connect and collaborate with other genealogists.
    • For example, if you were researching the Daniel Phillips family in Denton County, Texas, and the Gottfried Quaas family in Germany, you would enter:
      • Phillips | Texas
      • Quaas | Germany
  3. If you wish to add another Surname in Place page, just click the link again and an additional row of boxes will pop up.
  4. Each Surname in Place page should appear as a link on the left side of the page, under the Researching heading, with links to relevant surname and place categories beneath.
    • If a Surname in Place page has already been created for that surname and place, the link will be blue.
    • A red link will appear if the page has not yet been created
    • You may want to click on the watch link in the left sidebar and watch those pages so that you'll be notified when someone adds information to them.
  5. Click on the Surname in Place page link.
  6. Click on the Edit in the left sidebar.
    • If someone else has already created this page, you will see their information already in the text of the page. In that case you will add your information to theirs in the steps below.
  7. The surname of the family should appear in the first edit box.
  8. Their state, province, or country should appear in the second edit box, along with any specified year range beneath.
  9. In the large edit box labeled Text, enter the county/district where the family lived on a line by itself, with two equals signs(==) before and after (e.g. ==Denton County==). This creates a heading for the county/district.
  10. Under the line for the county/district, enter the name of the family you are researching, also on a line by itself, with three equals signs(===) before and after (e.g. ===Daniel Phillips Family===). This creates a sub-heading for the family.
  11. Under the line for the family, add information you want to share about the family. For example, if I were researching John and Mary Smith who lived in Boston, Thomas County, Georgia, and I needed help finding birth information for Mary, I would enter:
    ==Benton County==
    ===Daniel Phillips Family===
    '''Help!''' Does anyone have information on Daniel Phillips, born 1850?
  12. After previewing or saving the changes, these phrases would apear like this:
    Denton County
    Daniel Phillips family
    Help! Does anyone have information on Daniel Phillips, born 1850?
    Note: putting Help! between three apostrophes (''') makes it bold when the page is displayed (in show preview or after the page is saved), which makes your question stand out more.
  13. Before saving the page, make sure that the Watch this page checkbox at the bottom of the screen is checked (you may have to scroll down to see it). This adds the page to your Watchlist, allowing you to be notified whenever someone adds to, deletes, or changes information on the page.
    • If changes have been made to pages you have marked to "watch", a message will appear on your My Relate Dashboard screen telling you so. Click on the link it offers you to see a list of changes on your watchlist.
    • You are also notified by e-mail when pages you are watching are changed.
  14. Click on Show Preview at the bottom of the screen to see how you work will look on the finished page.
  15. Once you're happy with your page, click on the Save page button at the bottom of the screen.
We also recommend that you create a link on the surname page to the Surname in Place page.

What happens when the page gets too large?

When an page's length makes it unwieldy, we recommend that you split it into separate pages for each subdivision of the place. Pages at the U.S. state level could be split into separate pages for each county.
For example, if the Phillips in Texas page gets too large, you could create articles entitled "Phillips in Denton County, Texas", "Phillips in Dickens County, Texas", "Phillips in Dimmit County, Texas", etc. and move the content specific to each county into its own page, adding links from the original Phillips in Texas article to each of the new pages. People who were watching the original Phillips in Texas page may decide to unwatch this page and/or start watching one or more of the new county-based pages.


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