Can you help rid the tree of Unknowns?

Question

If you are looking for a quick and satisfying way to help contribute to the health of the tree, I highly recommend helping with the Unknowns project!

It is easy to help, regardless of how much or little time you have to contribute.  

Here's how I've approached it.

Do a search for the surname Unknown with the limit British Columbia in the birth or death location (you can use your region here)

Sort by Surname

Get to the Unknowns section

Go through them and either find a source that establishes the name

Or add the category Unknowns if no source can be found

Contact the profile manager, if there is one, with the info

Or, if the profile is orphaned, adopt and update the info.

You may want to use a different approach by focusing on orphaned or unsourced profiles rather than by region.

Whether you do one or a bunch, you will have helped!

I am not the leader of this team. Just an enthusiastic new recruit. Hope this inspires some of you to help out.

Comments

There are many different types of unknowns.

1. The ones most commonly thought up with the LNAB listed as Unknown.

2. The ones with LNAB of a variant of unknown (for example: Unk, MNU, UNKNOWN, etc.)

3. Individuals that were inputted through the profile manager or how wikitree read a gedcom incorrectly when it was first placed on wikitree. These can be Unknowns like the first 2 examples, but can also be where the first name or an initial was placed in the LNAB by mistake. These last two can be very tricky to distinguish for some profiles (for example: was that individual named Abby or was that their actual surname?) and can take a lot of research to figure it out.

Also remember one Record does not mean you have found the right LNAB. I once had a death Record of one child say that her mother's name was one surname and another child in the same family that said her mother's maiden name was something completely different. I was only able to clear it up by finding the Marriage of the parents and her mother in the Census record with her parents that were named on the Marriage record.

Whichever type you plan on working on I would just like to say welcome to the project. Glad to have you with us!

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Thanks. I agree it can take some digging to find the right name. For example:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Unknown-335412

Sprice or Price?

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I would use Sprice as LNAB, but note in the profile that after she was married the members of the Sprice family used the surname of Price. This name change may be listed in various documents in which her maiden name may have been listed (example: children's birth record) or might contain information on her parentage (example: her death record).

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I figured out the LNAB for this unknown back in April and sent a note to the profile owner, but there has been no action on it. Is there someone that can make the change? I have it documented on the profile as to what the name should be and sources.

Ellen M. (UNKNOWN) Sheridan

LNAB should be HENRY.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/UNKNOWN-272207

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Hi Mae,

You need to follow the unresponsive manager procedures. This means:

1. Request to be on the profile's trusted list

2. Leave a message on the pm profile page

3. Send a message to the pm

If you get no response from these three contact attempts, submit an unresponsive manager form (after at least seven days).This process takes time and I keep a list to keep track of this info but it does work in the end.

More here:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Unresponsive_Profile_Managers

Peggy

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Would love to know if this discussion has sparked an uptick in Unknowns becoming named!

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No, I started this discussion after reading a different discussion about the number of Unknowns and got annoyed about that and looked into how to help decrease them. I discovered that it was a pretty satisfying way to improve the tree and wanted to share that with others. I encourage everyone who's interested to go to the project page to find out more. It is part of the profile improvement project.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Project:Unknowns#How_to_Join

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I do my part by refusing to start a profile AS an unknown. I will put it in the bio until I have a known to make a new profile.

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Thank you for adding me. I love working with Genealogies because it so much fun to be able to fill in the blanks.

Please add the badge for me.

Jan

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Contact Shirley about the badge.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Strutton-11

Answer 1

I have already tackled my post-1837 Unknowns in my watchlist, but when I read this question, I decided to check to see if there were any others in my watchlist I could tackle. The first two, no dice but I got third time lucky and not only did I find her marriage and baptism, I found those of her father too and by creating him, managed to connect to some unconnecteds in the process. The unconnected profile was also unsourced, so I added a source too.

Comments

Now THAT is what may be known as killing a whole flock of birds with one well-thrown stone! Well done!

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Fantastic, Gillian!

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Thank you! I also had success with my fourth one. The couple's children were all born before 1837 except one, whose GRO entry had the mother's maiden name as Bitt. I couldn't find any Bitts at all and suspected a mistranscription. Whilst looking at one of their kids' marriages, I noticed two witnesses with a variant of the family surname, looked them up, and they were born post-1837 with a MMN of Bott. I then found their baptisms which confirmed both parents so I now had the MMN and sources for two kids I previously missed.

Answer 2

With the new indexes and other online records available I am making inroads on my unknowns and added families to some of them in the recent thon.

When I have done with my own unknowns I may look at others in England.

Comments

Excellent!

Answer 3

Just got one! Sourced, adopted, fixed.

Lena Mae (Hagan) Bowers

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Hagan-1525

Comments

That's great!

Answer 4

I would like to work on the Unknown project.

Thank you.

Comments

Find out how to join here:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Project:Unknowns#How_to_Join

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Thank you. I will do my best to help clear up the unknown.