2. The presenter: Mike Ritchey FamilySearch employee since 2000 Community Content manager within the Community Services team Professional genealogist Former family history center director
3. Rules of the classroom During class, ringing devices may evoke a psychotic episode Camera flashes will be rewarded with a drink from a miscellaneous vial Questions will be welcomed after class
4. The road we’ll travel today What is a wiki Introduce FamilySearch Wiki U.S. Census project & American Indian project Community contributors Questions they answer Old way of research Project samples Results & Learnings Help wanted What contributors like about wiki Questions @ end
5. What’s a wiki? Wiki: Hawaiian for “quick” Anyone can contribute -- no programming or html required Writing: Easy as MS Word Write an idea now; add more later A gathering place to collect group knowledge
6. FamilySearch Wiki overview Scope: Research advice (how to find, use, & analyze records) Does not contain records of individual ancestors Began Jan 2008 Originally seeded with 800 paper publications Now 32,000 pages (don’t blink) Covers 100+ countries
7. Map and people Put here an image of a world map. Add an icon of a person. Color the map red for areas he has questions about. These are places his ancestors lived.Then add an icon of another person. She knows about that country, so it turns green. She has questions about other countries, so they turn red. Then add people and colors till the map is all green.
9. Questions the U.S. census project answers How do I begin a census search? Where are census records for my ancestor’s state? Which colonial and state censuses are available? Where do I go if I can’t find my ancestor on the couple major online indexes I know of?
11. Old solution for census research Learn where the records are… Five places in the library catalog Five registers Many Websites The Dollarhide/Thorndale missing census table “We’re talking a dozen to forty census references” Better talk to an expert
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21. Census team’s results & learnings “Even though I had been working in census records for thirty years… I found that wow, there’s a lot more than I realized.”
22. Census team’s results & learnings “I had not realized that there were so many state and colonial censuses…. For instance, one great book on state censuses wouldn’t touch colonial censuses.”
23. Census team’s results & learnings “When I started the project… I didn’t know that you can find a competing index most of the time.”
24. Census team’s results & learnings “When most people do census research, they pick and choose from only a few sources. But we put the whole buffet in their face to show what records are there.”
25. Help Wanted: U.S. census project Add information about printed indexes Add pictures and document examples
26. What contributors like about the Wiki “I particularly enjoy the directness. Seconds after I put it on there, I could have a reader.” - David Dilts
29. Questions the Indian project answers Which Indian tribes lived in the areas where my ancestors lived? What records exist for those tribes and what do they contain? Where can I access those records?
30. Old solution for American Indian research Find tribes in ancestor’s area Local histories & reference books Study tribal histories to find… When the tribe was there Tribal history and cultural background Likelihood of tribal member marrying a non-Indian Whether part-blood could be tribal member Search several reference books for… Reservation Bureau of Indian Affairs agency Location of agency records
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42. American Indian team’s results/learnings None of the reference works are complete We are unearthing facts that are not easily found We are compiling it all in the wiki Now we can find information easier without going to a library or building a personal collection
43. Help Wanted: American Indian project Pages for additional tribes Brief tribal histories & timelines Records at: Agencies Tribal offices Archives Historical societies Universities Special need for volunteers who are… Tribal members BIA employees Tribal office employees
44. What contributors like about the Wiki “I have collected lots of material over 40 years of research on American Indians. It does no one any good sitting in my filing cabinets. By entering this information into the Wiki, it is accessible to anyone who wants to access it, worldwide.” -- Jimmy Parker
45. The road we traveledtoday What is a wiki Introduce FamilySearch Wiki U.S. Census project & American Indian project Community contributors Questions they answer Old way of research Project samples Results & Learnings Help wanted What contributors like about wiki
