User talk:Gold lotus 99

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If you need any help, I will be glad to answer your questions. Just click on my signature link below and then click on the “Leave a message” link under my name in the upper left corner of my profile page. Thanks for participating and see you around! Debbie Freeman --DFree 16:54, 20 June 2011 (EDT)

Creating Source pages for censuses [10 July 2011]

My name is Amy and I'm a volunteer admin here on WeRelate. Thank you for creating Source pages for various censuses. They will certainly help the Source listing become more complete. When you create one, however, it isn't necessary to put the place name in the title field. Just put the year and type of census (for example, 1880 U.S. Census Population Schedule). Only put the place in the "Place Covered" field (for example, Graham, Kansas, United States). If you put the place in both the Title and the Place Covered field, you end up with a source page titled Graham, Kansas, United States. Graham, Kansas, United States. 1880 U.S. Census Population Schedule. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks again for all your contributions! -- Amy (Ajcrow) 14:18, 10 July 2011 (EDT)

Hi, Amy, thanks for the feedback and the correction. Will correct the errors and get it right for future.--Gold lotus 99 14:27, 10 July 2011 (EDT)

7th Illinois Infantry category [20 July 2011]

Hi! I noticed the changes you made to the 7th Illinois Infantry category page. Great work! I'd like to make a suggestion. The category pages on WeRelate are supposed to highlight the pages that fit into that category (in this case, the Person pages related to the 7th Illinois Infantry). All of the information you compiled would be perfect as an article in its own right. You could do something similar to what I did on the Category:1st Ohio Heavy Artillery (Civil War) page -- have a short statement at the top of the category page with a link to the article. That way, you could make the article as long and involved as you'd like, yet the category page would still highlight the people without those links being lost all the way at the bottom. Let me know if you'd like any help with this. Thanks! -- Amy (Ajcrow) 18:43, 16 July 2011 (EDT)

Oh, how funny, Amy. I was sending you a message as you were sending one to me... Will read yours more closely and follow suggestions. Knew I was doing something off-kilter. (And, thanks for the compliment about my work. I'm so much an amateur genealogist that I never know if I'm naively submitting things others would grade as failing.) Thanks, Tamara--Gold lotus 99 18:59, 16 July 2011 (EDT)

That's funny that we were talking about it at the same time! I wouldn't say your work was off-kilter at all! I took a look at the new article page. It looks great. I'm sure a lot of people will get good use out of it. And please don't ever feel like you're being "graded" here. We're a pretty friendly, easy-going bunch here on WeRelate. :-) -- Amy (Ajcrow) 19:16, 16 July 2011 (EDT)

Hi, Amy, Have just posted another Civil War article, same type as the one for the 7th, this time for the 17th Illinois Infantry. Again, appreciate any feedback. A formatting question on both articles: In the lists, after I added a : to a line to create an indent, the space between the lines increased and looks messy. Do you know how to make it single-spaced? Also added categories for both, and think they're working right, but I'm not sure. Could you please let me know if you see a problem?

I don't plan to add much, if anything, more to the one for the 17th, and hope others will jump in. Do plan to add other articles of this format for each of the other civil war units my ancestors served in, as well. And, really long term, to do the same for the units of my ancestors for militias, the American Revolution, (Wisconsin) Black Hawk War, War of 1812. Will any of that conflict for you, the project, or We Relate? And, if I find an article already written on the unit, should I add to the existing article, or create a separate one? (Because We Relate aims for one page per person, source, etc., want to insure I'm understanding correctly that articles are different, and there will be multiple articles on the same subject.)

The article format you created is similar to the form I had put my research notes into. So much easier to track the troop movements when they're in that dated list format, and including the armies the regiment was assigned to for which dates. Having the articles on here will hopefully help other researchers. Already, too, I find myself referring to the article on the 7th on We Relate, instead of pulling up my personal copy.

Thanks again for all your encouragement and help, Tamara--Gold lotus 99 13:39, 18 July 2011 (EDT)

Sorry -- I didn't see this earlier. The : will make a new paragraph, which is why you're seeing the extra space between the lines. You can do a bulleted list by using the asterisk. You can also insert a line break by inserting <br> where you want the new line to begin. There's all sorts of formatting help on the Formatting help page.

No, your articles for other regiments and/or other wars won't conflict with any other projects. The more articles, the better, IMHO! That's the great thing about a wiki -- even if something is messed up, you can always change it. BTW, I saw your page for the 115th Ohio. Lookin' good! -- Amy (Ajcrow) 15:28, 20 July 2011 (EDT)

Webpage sources [17 July 2011]

Hi Tamara,

I noticed you've created several source pages for family trees located on websites. Please do not do this. Personal family tree websites should either be referenced using "Citation Only" or using a MySource page. Either way, you should put the URL for the website somewhere so that others can find the page. You will need to change the references on pages referring to at least these Sources (use the "what links here" link) and delete the source pages:

Source:Cairns, Anthony Raymond. Anthony Raymond Cairns Tree

Source:Everingham, Kimball G. Kimball G. Everingham Tree

Source:McKercher, Robin. World Connect Project: Robin Mc Kercher Family

Thanks. --Amelia 21:19, 16 July 2011 (EDT)

Thanks, Amelia. This is a result of my earlier confusion re: citation only. Thanks for pointing out these needed corrections, and I will review the remainder and insure they're correct now, too. Tamara--Gold lotus 99 21:23, 16 July 2011 (EDT)

Cemetery categories [20 July 2011]

Hi, Tamara! Thanks for creating so many cemetery pages -- they're wonderful! One thing: on the cemetery page itself, don't add a category for Cemeteries of state. Just include the county category. For example, on the Marietta National Cemetery page, just have a link to the category Cemeteries of Cobb, Georgia, United States and not also Cemeteries of Georgia, United States. Thanks! -- Amy (Ajcrow) 08:11, 20 July 2011 (EDT)

Will do, Amy. Didn't intend to add categories, so not certain what I did that gave the result. Will look at the most recent cemetery corrections you made, to see what I did. Thanks, Tamara--Gold lotus 99 10:05, 20 July 2011 (EDT)

Collection of Letters [28 July 2011]

Hi, Tamara---
I note on your personal page your comments about the frankly amazing number of letters you inherited from the 1880s. Being a bit of a snoop (and a librarian & archivist), I've also enjoyed reading old letters and diaries -- history from the horse's mouth, as it were. Usually, correspondence within a family (when it isn't someone famous) amounts to maybe a dozen letters, if you're lucky. I've got a few packets like that myself. But hundreds! That's very unusual. I wonder if you've considered preparing this trove for "real" publication? Since the writer was in Wisconsin (or Illinois?), you might approach the University of Wisconsin Press. I've also been a freelance book editor for many years, and this is exactly the sort of local history project academic publishers like to do. It fits nicely within their scope. --Mike^Talk 15:49, 28 July 2011 (EDT)

Hmmm. Well, "ownership" of documents more than 120 years old is very iffy. Difficult either to prove or disprove. Is your father still alive? If so, get him to write you a letter explicitly giving you ownership of the letters you already have. If not, well, it's a truism that sheer possession goes a long way. If necessary, you probably could get statements from anyone in the family who was present when your grandmother's instructions were given, or to whom your father later recounted the verbal instructions. If the other half of the letters (why in the world would they divide something like that?) still exist, you should consider cutting a deal with whoever holds them, that ya'll would go halves on the transcription and everything, or that they would explicitly lend them (the originals or photocopies) to you and be recompensed by lavish praise in the Editor's Introduction. In any case, "ownership" is definitely not the same as "reproduction rights," so don't wait to approach a potential publisher: They deal with this sort of thing all the time and will have specific legal requirements, plus suggestions to make. At least you won't have to worry about copyright!

Something else, though, that involves a lot more work is providing contextual notes for what's in the letters. Who is related to whom among those mentioned, what happened to the couple whose wedding she attended, who owned what store, or what farm, identification of events of the day that get mentioned, etc. And that depends on how conversant you are with the history of the writer's town/county and with U.S. history of the 1880s. --Mike^Talk 20:02, 28 July 2011 (EDT)

7th Illinois Infantry article [29 July 2011]

Hi, Tamara! I saw your article on the 7th Illinois Infantry in the Campaigns Against Forts Henry and Donelson (American Civil War). I think it looks great! -- Amy (Ajcrow) 13:46, 29 July 2011 (EDT)

Creating categories [29 July 2011]

Thanks for dropping me a line about the Maryland Civil War veterans category. As you've noticed, if a link to a category is red, that means that the category doesn't actually exist (yet). To create the category, click the link, then click Edit. Usually you'll want to add the parent category. I noticed that your category for the 3rd Maryland Infantry, Potomac Home Guard doesn't actually exist, so the easiest thing to do would be to go to Hugh Linn's page, click that link, then click Edit. You'll enter [[Category:Maryland Civil War veterans| 3]]. (The part after the | pipe symbol is call the sort key and allows us to sort the pages however we want.) I'll go ahead and create the Maryland vets category, but if I didn't, you'd follow the same procedure to create that category. Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks so much for all your help with this project! -- Amy (Ajcrow) 13:54, 29 July 2011 (EDT)

Hugh Linn's bio [4 April 2012]

Hi. This is Loretta Layman. I corrected a few things about Hugh's birth, parentage, and place of residence in Ireland. After continued extensive research in Ireland and further analysis of Dr. George Linn's book, it has become obvious that Linn descendants, including myself, made too many assumptions on this subject. First, Dr. Linn never said Hugh was born in Newry; second, there are no surviving records of birth for Ulster during this period, particularly for Protestants. Thus, there is no evidence of Hugh's place of birth, only that he and Sarah lived somewhere in or near Newry after they were married. If you study the geography and topography of the area, you can see that they would have seen the church spires of Newry from the A1 highway which runs through Counties Louth and Armagh and passes Newry on the west. Likewise, there is no evidence of Hugh Linn's paternal lineage. If you'd like to correspond, my email address is Lynneage@h-o-l.com. Also, you might be interested in a couple of web pages of mine: http://www.house-of-lynn.com/Lynns_of_Londonderry_Donegal_Tyrone.html http://www.house-of-lynn.com/Widney_Woodney_Udney_of_Ireland.html--Annlynn9 08:08, 5 December 2011 (EST)

Thank you so much, Loretta, both for the information and the links. I appreciate your on-going research, willingness to share, and especially for your corrections. Tamara--Gold lotus 99 07:50, 4 April 2012 (EDT)

question re: family of Robert Bridges and Mary Landon [6 August 2013]

Hello, I am new to We Relate and am entering family information. I have ancestors Robert Briggs and Mary Landon (husband and wife) with a child named David Briggs, born 1730. When I went to enter the information I saw that you had entered a Robert Bridges and Mary Landon, husband and wife, with a child William Briggs. I was wondering if you meant to enter Robert Briggs instead of Bridges. If that is the case, it looks like this couple is the same as my ancestor.

Sincerely, Carol Steffenson--Carolsid 18:34, 23 July 2013 (EDT)

Hello, I am new to We Relate and am entering family information. I have ancestors Robert Briggs and Mary Landon (husband and wife) with a child named David Briggs, born 1730. When I went to enter the information I saw that you had entered a Robert Bridges and Mary Landon, husband and wife, with a child William Briggs. I was wondering if you meant to enter Robert Briggs instead of Bridges. If that is the case, it looks like this couple is the same as my ancestor.

Sincerely, Carol Steffenson--Carolsid 18:34, 23 July 2013 (EDT)

Hi, Carol. The records show both names (Briggs and Bridges) at different times, for the same person. If dates and other facts match, these may be the same families. When I found the name differences, I added the additional names, but evidently missed this one. Good luck, Tamara--Gold lotus 99 10:42, 6 August 2013 (EDT)

We Relate Feature Page - week of February 10, 2014 [14 February 2014]

Congratulations, your Article Page, Official Regimental History of the 7th Illinois Infantry (American Civil War) was nominated and selected as the WeRelate Featured Page. Congratulations and keep up the good work! Best regards, Jim Volunteer Administrator, WeRelate--Delijim 21:59, 14 February 2014 (UTC)