FamilySearch Wiki:WikiProject Updating England County Societies Pages

Purpose
To add information about genealogical/historical societies and their record collections to England County Societies pages.

Contact
Jane Colmenares

Task List
Task List

Instructions
1. Go to the Task List and select a county Societies page you wish to update.

2. If there is already information about a society on the county page:
 * Reformat the information to match these instructions
 * If there is only a link to the Genealogical Society, add additional contact and other information about the society
 * You can use Alaska Societies wiki page as an example.
 * NOTE: in this project the societies are not listed in a heading. We find this makes the Contents too long for the page. Instead just use descriptions of the type of societies in the contents.

3. To locate county societies click on the following website name and then search for genealogical/historical societies:


 * Local History Online
 * Wikipedia
 * Google Type in the search box "Genealogical Society [county name]" or "Historical Society [county name and state]"
 * Cyndi's List
 * 
 * The Federation of Family History Societies (FFHS)

4. Once you have located some genealogical and historical societies to add them to the county societies' page using the following guidelines:

5. For each county society you find, look for the following:


 * Name of the society
 * Address
 * Telephone number
 * E-mail
 * Website

6. Add name of society: Add the name of the society in alpha order under the Archives and Libraries heading. Bold the name of the society. In Wikitext, use three apostrophes to bold the name.

Example in wikitext:


 * Autauga County Genealogical Society

7. Add Address: Add the address putting a  after the street address and zipcode

Example in wikitext:


 * 1234 Main Street Prattville, Alabama 36068-0668

8. Add Telephone: If there is a telephone number, add it after the address using the example below.

Example in wikitext:


 * Telephone:310-555-2929

9. Add E-mail: If there is an e-mail address for the society, make the e-mail address into a clickable link. The e-mail address goes directly after the telephone number.

Example of correct link for e-mail address in wikitext:


 * E-mail: [mailto:askarchives@autaugahistory.org askarchives@autaugahistory.org]

10. Adding Website: Put the URL after the address and e-mail address on the page. If there is a website already listed on the page, change any exposed URLs so that the full URL does not appear. Use the example to help you enter the URL for the society. Example of correct URL link in wikitext:


 * Website: Autauga Genealogical Society

Example of completed address and contact info in wikitext: Autauga County Genealogical Society 1234 Main Street Prattville, Alabama 36068-0668 Telephone:310-555-2929 E-mail: [mailto:askarchives@autaugahistory.org askarchives@autaugahistory.org] Website: Autauga Genealogical Society

11. Some societies actually have their own record collections. When you are at the society's site, check to see if they have such collections, and if they are available to the public. Discover the strengths and peculiarities of the databases or collections of the society. You may add a sentence or two about the collection.

12. You may also wish to include the following:
 * Rules for using the collection
 * Copy policies
 * Research help
 * Cost of entrance

13. You do not need to add England societies to county pages, but if there are regional societies covering more than one county, you may want to include those.

14. Once you are done, preview the page. If it looks ok, add in the Summary field, updated information.

16. Save the page. You may want to save the page after updating or adding a society so that the wiki does not time out and to make sure your work is not lost.

17. Once you have saved the page, go back to the Task List and enter the date completed under your name and go to the next county page.

Example of Societies Page

 * Alaska Societies