Help:Creating a Person page
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Creating the first person in a tree

To create the first person page in a tree:

  • Select Add from the menu at the top of any screen.
  • Select Person from the dropdown menu.
  • This takes you to the Add a Person screen.

On the Add a Person screen, enter as much of the following as you know:

  • The person's name.

When adding a Person page, enter the complete name at birth. Once a page is added, alternate names can be added for nicknames, name changes, stage names, etc. Don't combine the name at birth with any other name, such as a nickname, and don't use punctuation to indicate which of the person's given names they most commonly used. The only punctuation allowed is that which is part of the person's legal name.

Each name has up to 4 components: prefix, given name(s), surname, and suffix. When adding a Person page, you can only enter the given name(s) and surname. Once the page is added, you can add a prefix and/or suffix.

Enter names in mixed case. If a person chose to use all lowercase, you can enter that as an alternate name, unless the name at birth was assigned as all lowercase.

Don't use abbreviations (e.g., Wm for William) in the given name field, even if the source record uses an abbreviation. Initials are acceptable if the full name is unknown or when recognized as part of the legal name. Separate multiple initials with single spaces and no periods (e.g., R J).

Abbreviations (e.g., Capt, Dr, Jr) can be used in prefix and suffix fields.

For further information, see person name conventions.

  • The person's gender.
  • The person's birth or christening (infant baptism) date (note the dropdown to select which) and death or burial date (again, note the dropdown).

Enter dates as d mmm yyyy. If appropriate, add a modifier (bef, aft, bet/and, from/to, cal, abt, est). Don't worry about case - WeRelate automatically transforms dates to mixed-case. WeRelate supports dual dating (d Mmm yyyy/yy) - if you are entering dates prior to 1752 and aren't familiar with dual dating, please read Month number and dual dating.

Enter proxy dates (e.g., christening date as proxy for birth date, or burial date as proxy for death date) in their own events (not as birth or death date). When a proxy date is used, do not enter a birth or death date that can be derived from the proxy date (e.g., Bef christening date).

Source citations should give the date supported by the source in case the date in the date field is changed. If a non-trivial conversion is required, the source citation should include both the date as expressed in the source and the converted date (e.g., 6 (6) 66 [6 Aug 1666]).

For further information, see date conventions.

  • The person's birth or christening place (depending on what you selected in the dropdown) and death or burial place (again, depending on the dropdown selection)

Enter the place name in the following format (for places in the United States): Municipality or Township, County, State, United States. Do not enter the words "Township" or "County". Enter only what is known - e.g., if the municipality is not known, start with the township, county or country.

Once you enter a comma, pause a few seconds and WeRelate will present a dropdown of potential matches. Select a match or continue typing to refine the dropdown. You can skip a part of the place name - for example, you can enter municipality, state to get a list of all places with that municipality name in that state - then select from the list. Note: WeRelate matches on exactly what is typed, so spelling matters; however, capitalization does not.

For further information, see how to select a place.

Select the Next button. WeRelate will search to see if there is already a page for this person, and will present a number of possible matches.

  • If you see a page for the person you intended to add, do not add a new page, but instead, select the page and edit it if you have information that will enhance the page.
  • If you are not certain if a page matches, select it to see what other information (e.g., narrative or siblings) is available that might help you decide. If you are not sure if this is the same person, go ahead and add a new page (use your browser's back arrow to get back to the page where you can add). It is better to have 2 pages for the same person (which someone might be able to resolve in the future) than one page that represents 2 different people (which causes considerable confusion and can be difficult to untangle in the future).
  • If you do not see a page for the person you are adding, click the Add Page button. This will create the page and take you into edit mode. To continue, see Editing a Person page.
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Adding a person to an existing tree

Building your tree involves alternating between creating person pages and family pages. A family page is created for the parents of a person and for each marriage (or other relationship) the person is involved in. From the family page, a person page is created for each spouse and each child. See Creating a Family page for help on how to create a family page.

Once you have created a family page, you can:

Add a page for either spouse by clicking the (add) link beside the spouse's name. Note that this can be done from the person page where you added parents or a marriage:
Image:Create a person page 1.gif
or after you navigate to the family page:
Image:Create a person page 2.gif
Add a page for a child of the couple, by clicking the Add child link at the bottom of the family page:
Image:Create a person page 3.gif

Each of these options will take you to the Add a Person screen with the context of your request, so that when you save the new person page, it is connected to the family page. From here, continue with the instructions for the Add a Person screen, as presented in above section Creating the first person in a tree.

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