Person talk:Samuel Rossiter (4)

Changes to Samuel's Page [29 August 2015]

Hello and Welcome to WeRelate -
I saw your questions/comments on the Support Page regarding Sourcing and Citations, so I took the liberty of restructuring one of your Pages, so that you can see some of the ways in which information can be presented. There were originally no sources on this Samuel's Page, but it was relatively easy to figure out that most of his data was coming from the inscription on his headstone, so I cited that inscription as it can be found at Find A Grave.

Find A Grave has a WR Source Page here. There have been many discussions here the years about the reliability of Find A Grave as a Source, but I think everyone agrees that if there is a photo of the headstone, and you can read the inscription, it is perfectly ok to cite it, even if you have not personally visited the stone.

When creating the Find A Grave citation, I used a Template to create an external link directly to Samuel's Page at Find A Grave. We often use Templates when we are creating links to other pages, because URL strings are notorious for breaking over time. It is much easier to change one Template vs. tens of thousands of URL links on various pages. There is a decent guide to using WR's Find A Grave Templates on the Find A Grave Source Page.

I also used a Template in the Description Box of his Death Event to create an external link to the Wikipedia Page for the Seige of Port Hudson. You certainly don't have to do this, but I often do as a service to readers of the page.

And finally, I used another Template in the Description Box of his Military Event to create an internal WR link that attaches Samuel's Page to a WR Category Page for his military unit (Category:49th Massachusetts Infantry (Civil War)/Company B), as part of an ongoing WR project to recognize veterans. He happens to be the only one in there right now, but if the project continues, the categories will slowly fill up with others who served with him.

These are just some examples of how to present your data and, since you are the main one interested in Samuel at this point, we can certainly alter the presentation. I am happy to help you learn your way around this site. In my opinion, it really is the best one out here for doing collaborative work. Feel free to respond right here on Samuel's Talk Page. I will attach myself as a "watcher", so I will be notified of any changes or new messages. Best Wishes, --Cos1776 13:38, 29 August 2015 (UTC)

oops - I forgot to include that cemeteries get their own Place Pages here as well, so I created the page "Place:Center Cemetery, Richmond, Berkshire, Massachusetts, United States" to be used in the Place Box for his Burial Event. Now any other folks buried there can do the same, and they will be grouped together. You can see such a group by viewing the "What links here" Page at the top left corner of each page. (Ex. see "What links here" at Place:Center Cemetery, Richmond, Berkshire, Massachusetts, United States, and there is Samuel.) --Cos1776 14:29, 29 August 2015 (UTC)