Detail in profiles

+10 votes
260 views
Is there any limit to the details that can/should be added to profiles? I know I've read that we are welcome to be as creative as possible. .... However, I've found a lot of ephemera from my grandfather's experience in WWI. For example, I have his billet card for where he bunked on the USS Mexican, his troop ship; and his ID card for leave in Coblenz. Germany. Any suggestions?
WikiTree profile: Paul Smith
in WikiTree Help by Donna Hughes G2G6 Mach 1 (10.0k points)

Hi Donna. Long detailed profiles can be great! See this earlier discussion:

https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1605932/suggestion-801-big-profile

4 Answers

+8 votes
 
Best answer

Hello Donna,

Neither the WikiTree Style Guide’s “Help:Biographies” page nor the Data Doctors’ “Biography Creation Helper” page limits the details in profiles. The WikiTree Biography Builders Project has a 14-point checklist for the biography section, but even that does not state a detail limit.

In my opinion, the detail you include is your judgment call, within WikiTree guidelines for privacy. A detail that is pertinent to the story you are telling will help a reader better understand your subject person. A research note detail could be the clue leading another genealogist to help you answer a question or make a connection.

by A. Murphy G2G6 Mach 2 (22.5k points)
selected by Donna Hughes
Thank you for your reply. As far as level of detail and how that information might help someone else: I'm seeing that my grandfather kept a lot of ephemera. I knew my grandfather, so this makes me think about the man I knew. It is giving me insight into his personality that I never recognized as a child.
+12 votes
by Ros Haywood G2G Astronaut (2.0m points)
Thank you. That's a possibility I'm considering.
+8 votes
Good looking well sourced profile, and supported with relevant photos, which include a couple of duplicates, so maybe a duplicate could be swapped for another picture.
 Visitors to Wikitree might not know to click thru' to a freespace page.
by Gary Burgess G2G6 Mach 7 (76.2k points)
So you do what I do, say something like: "For a more complete bibliography, please click here for freespace page" and make the word "here" a live link.  Or make the words "freespace page" a live link (that they can click on).
I would say "For more information see [name of page as link]." Free space page is wikitree jargon so I would not use it, and the word "here" as a link is not clear for screen readers (because it lacks context of what here is when moving quickly through a page looking for links) so is not as good for accessibility.
By duplicate (photos), do you mean they are in the right hand column as well as in the text area? If so, how do I have them only appear in one area? And which is best? The right hand column or the text area?
+4 votes
Some of the detail in the tagged profile about parents and siblings could be concatenated across two census reports (I think it was just two in which the subject was still living with parents). That would help keep the focus on the subject.

Marriage(s) and Children can be summarized much in the same way, instead of having a distinct paragraph for everything reported in each census as a standalone.

I can find an example profile if this comment isn't clear. It is nice that you've structured everything chronologically, but it is possible to preserve the facts about the subject in more of a summary format that doesn't introduce quite so much detail on immediate family in a time study type of presentation.

True, sometimes differences between census reports need presenting and discussion when they don't exactly reconcile or when distinct and significant similarities or conflicts are apparent. Nothing like that seems to apply to this person, which is why I would suggest using less detail about siblings, for example, especially across census years.

Using summary paragraphs about all of the detail from each census makes the story about your subject get lost in those very details.

Thank you for sharing this profile.
by Porter Fann G2G6 Mach 9 (95.4k points)
Thank you for your response. I know that listing each census gets to be repetitive. However, I have a separate entry for each census for a couple of reasons:

1) I have found children who died by seeing them listed in one census record, then see they are missing from the next. I have a cemetery project, so finding and recording the children who have died is important. The records for the cemetery have been lost, so this is the only way to "find" a missing burial in the cemetery. (https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Saint_Aloysius_Cemetery%2C_Clearfield_County%2C_Pennsylvania)

2) I have a One Place Study. With each census report, I see what relatives are living with a family. That is helping me see community connections. (https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Morgan_Land%2C_Pennsylvania_One_Place_Study)

3) I record the profile entry while looking directly at the census record. I don't have an intermediate step which would be required to make a combination record.

I will try to avoid including repetitive information, such as immigration information, ability to read and write, etc.

Thank you, again.

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