Category talk:Research guides

How if at all to use this Category? [24 July 2009]

Back in November 2008, there was a string of messages in Help_talk:Categories about abandoning Research Guides (and this category) in favor of pointing people to the FamilySearch Wiki. The key point was not to recreate the wheel, and to encourage WR users to update the LDS wiki.

I'm all for not recreating the wheel, but I feel like we have a different wheel here.

I'm wondering: Is there a way to pull selected LDS wiki content over here, like we do with wikipedia? This would enable us to have spaces that have a WR feel while not recreating content compiled at the LDS wiki.

I just find the LDS wiki a bit -- je ne c'est quoi -- DENSE? Requiring too many links to find things? Not super intuitive? A bit too formal? It's lacking the "voice" of its community. Maybe that's why I like WeRelate so much-- it reflects the voice of its community. (Good and not-so.) The LDS wiki has no such voice. Well, it does: it looks like an institutional wiki, run by an institution, that's seeking volunteers to write content for it. Much moreso, even, than wikipedia.

Just as I feel about WP, I don't have a great deal of desire (much less time) to go edit LDS wiki pages. But if we could pull in selected LDS wiki content, seems like we could maintain the WR "voice" while not recreating the wheel.

-- jillaine 09:07, 23 July 2009 (EDT)

Unfortunately the LDS wiki uses a non-commercial-only license for their wiki. Our license allows commercial use, just like Wikipedia and most other wikis. So if we copied material from the LDS wiki we would have to clearly state that it couldn't be used by professional genealogists or others for commercial gain. I'm reluctant to do that, since with the new license proposal we're trying to make everything here available under the same license.

Maybe there's room for a non-institutional research guide wiki in addition to the LDS wiki.--Dallan 11:34, 23 July 2009 (EDT)

Thanks for the response, Dallan; you're sure trying to "catch up" post vacation, aren't you? Much appreciated. Since writing the above, I've spent a bit more time mucking about the LDS wiki. And as you may have seen, I've added links on the Category:Research_guides page to the appropriate FS wiki page. So perhaps there's some "in-between" place that leverages the LDS material, while creating space here, too. As I move forward, I will try not to be duplicative, and to link to LDS as much as possible. Thanks, too, Dallan, for being so "expansive" -- ie for giving WR users like myself "room" to be here. jillaine 12:00, 23 July 2009 (EDT)

Thank you too! I really like how this page is coming along. I nominated it for a featured page.--Dallan 21:25, 24 July 2009 (EDT)

Thanks, Dallan! ;-) jillaine 21:29, 24 July 2009 (EDT)

practical stuff [30 September 2009]

Okay Jillaine, Where does one enter the specifics? I visited two courthouses last week in Georgia and both do not allow copies made from bound books. One needs a digital camera, portable scanner, or a pencil and lots of time to copy the record. --Beth 00:25, 1 September 2009 (EDT)

Somewhere on Georgia_Research_Guide. How about a section called == When you Visit ==? Now that I think of that, I realize I made a variation of that for Buffalo, NY that could be helpful over here. jillaine 11:03, 1 September 2009 (EDT)

Hi Jillaine, still would like guidelines for how pages are organized. I'm thinking that it would be nice to have a formatting example for a page. So I am going to enter some information on this talk page from a brochure that I received in the mail yesterday as a result of ordering an obit from a society. This information is not on the FamilySearch site.

Having been in and having had connections to the military services much of my life, I notice most everyone tends to think in orderly ways, march in formation, act in unison, work as a team, abide by standard established written guidelines, train as a cohesive unit, follow the leader's directives without hesitation; all within pretty strict, usually quite well-defined boundaries. This here is not the military, Beth. We can think out of the box, dance to the beat of a different drummer, create our own format, show independent initiative, and basically create our own vision what we would like to see, within the parameters of programming limitations, user knowledge, functional ability and collaborative concensus.

That being said, you don't have to reinvent the wheel. You can "borrow" what others have done and seems to look good to you to create or edit your favorite Research Guide. For instance, the Germany Research Guide uses the following headers and category link:

== I can't read German! ==

== Abbreviations ==

== Common words to know ==

== Emigration ==

== Church records ==

== Research in Germany ==

== Recommended Books for German Research ==

== Related German Research Sites ==

[[Category:Research guides]]

If that doesn't meet your needs, then you might consider using the more basic Poland Research Guide as a template (or even combine the best elements of both). It contains the following headers:

== Where to Start ==

== Societies ==

== Books ==

== Maps ==

== Internal Links ==

== External Links ==

[[Category:Research guides]]

Hope that helps. --BobC 06:50, 30 September 2009 (EDT)

Tulare county, CA [2 October 2009]

State is California - and County is Tulare. California US Gen Web Project-Tulare[1] Society is Sequoia Genealogical Society[2]. The society is the main support of the genealogy room at the Tulare City Library. Visit the Genealogy Room, located inside the Tulare City Public Library, 113 North "F" Street, Tulare, California 93274, phone-559.685.2342, Hours: Tues.-Thurs. 11:00am-5:00pm Fri.-Sat. 11:00am-4:00pm Closed Monday and Sunday, email TULEROOTS@SBCGLOBAL.NET The genealogy room offers over 7,000 volumes of various genealogy related books and publications, Hyde II Collection, which contains books that can be checked out, The Tulare Advance Register newspaper on microfilm, Copies of 1892 to 1928 Visalia Daily (later Morning) Delta newspapers on microfilm, records relating to Tulare County, such as birth, death, and marriage indexes, Access to the Porterville Evening Recorder newspaper for obituary look-ups, Internet access which includes a subscription to Ancestry.com, Surname files of information other researchers have already found, Microfilm and microfiche readers, many census records on microfilm, Copy machine, helpful volunteers, genealogy classes taught by a professional genealogist.

genealogical research books are listed in the online library catalog for the San Joaquin Valley Library System [3]search under the Genealogical Collection.

For those out of the area-Obituaries from The Tulare Advance Register are $3.50 each, Obituaries that have to be obtained from another Tulare County library are $5.00 each, basic research is $10.00 per hour plus copy and postage charges. When mailing requests include SASE.

Beth

Beth, I think that the above information should go here:

Place:Tulare,_California,_United_States

Someone has already started collecting decent information there.

-- jillaine 13:47, 29 September 2009 (EDT)

Okay, Jillaine, but how is a user to decide whether it goes in research guides or the place page? Moved info to place page feel free to help me out and edit.--Beth 19:57, 29 September 2009 (EDT)

Very good question. I'm not sure. Ideas? jillaine 20:32, 29 September 2009 (EDT)

My personal opinion is that place-oriented research guides should be created for places where we have so much to say that it wouldn't fit comfortably on the place page; i.e., US states and countries. Tips like the one you list, that are short and specific to a particular county, seem to make more sense on the Place page for the county. I'd be fine with stating this as a general rule -- create place-oriented research guides for US states and countries; put all other research tips on the specific place pages -- if everyone is in agreement.--Dallan 13:48, 2 October 2009 (EDT)

Proposed Guidelines for Geographical Research Guides [2 October 2009]

I was clearly brain dead when I wrote the above. Here are proposed guidelines. Let's discuss, refine and then post to Help:Research_guides#How_do_I_create_a_research_guide.3F:

• If your research guide information is specific to a locality, first check the corresponding place page. If the page is not already too full(*) and/or the information you want to add not too long, create a new section on the Place page (with a == Header ==) and add your information there. If there is not yet a Category:Research_guides on the Place page, please add [[Category:Research guides]] to the bottom of the page.

• Some Place pages are quite full with genealogically-relevant information OR the amount of Research Guide information you want to add is too long. In this case, create a link on the Place page to a separate article (see above for how to create a separate Research Guide page). In this case, do NOT add [[Category:Research guides]] to the bottom of the Place page.

(*)If the content on the page is predominantly Wikipedia content that is not genealogically relevant, replace that content with an external link to the wikipedia page, then add your research guide information to a new section on that page. Again, be sure to add [[Category:Research guides]] to the bottom of the page if it's not already there. See Help:Place_pages#What_if_the_place_page_already_has_data_from_Wikipedia_that_I_don.27t_think_is_pertinent_for_genealogy_purposes.3F this section of Help:Place pages for more specific information about removing or replacing Wikipedia content on Place pages.

-- jillaine 09:10, 30 September 2009 (EDT)

I just read this after making my comment above. I could go along with this rule as well. I especially like the request to add the research guides category to the bottom of place pages that have research tips.--Dallan 13:51, 2 October 2009 (EDT)

FSW links [25 January 2011]

It appears the FSW links are no longer valid - the portal pages on FSW have been deleted. --Jennifer (JBS66) 15:11, 16 January 2011 (EST)

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I just did a check; it appears that they removed the word "Portal:" from the URL address. So, hopefully, it's just a matter of removing the word "Portal:" from each listing. Let me do some more testing to see if this is so. Jillaine 11:20, 25 January 2011 (EST)

That was it; links now working. Jillaine 11:27, 25 January 2011 (EST)