Joyce (Bjorkgren) Rivette

Ancestors

Contents 1 Biography 2 Current Projects 2.1 Louisiana Families Project 2.2 U.S. Black Heritage Project 2.3 Acadians Project 2.4 Profile Improvement Project 2.5 One Name Studies Project 2.6 Data Doctors Project 2.7 WikiTree Participation Events 2.8 Other Projects of Interest

Biography

I have been a member of WikiTree since 2016, but didn't get active until 2017's Source-a-Thon. I've been working on genealogy for over 40 years. I love WikiTree's mission of an accurate and sourced shared World tree, and try to help wherever I can. A major focus of my personal genealogical work has been on all descendants of Etienne Rivet, my husband's Acadian progenitor. I can't promise that all of this work will end up on WikiTree, but I will try to add certain families as I can.

I am mostly finished with uploading known direct ancestors to WikiTree, and use the annual Connect-a-Thon challenges to continue adding extended family members. The BioBuilders monthly challenges are used to focus cleanup and additional research work on these profiles, which has prompted me to re-look at some of the folks that I haven't researched in years. It has been good to revisit the old work!

As of 15 October 2023, I have added or discovered on WikiTree about 40% of the ancestors and their families currently in my personal database. Only 60% to go! That's about 4,560 profiles left to add. <sigh>

Current Projects

Louisiana Families Project

I am a co-Leader with Jackie Girouard, Stephanie Ward, and Ginny Fields on the Louisiana Project, and this accounts for a large part of my time on WikiTree. There are lots of Louisiana relatives on both sides of our family, including Acadians, Germans, English, and Irish who immigrated in the 1700s-1800s.

I have worked on a space page to verify the Ritters of 1700s Louisiana, who settled in South Louisiana in the mid-to-late 1700s. I try to transfer those sources into the relevant WikiTree profiles when I can, but still have a long way to go. It has been a lower priority project, but I pick at it now and then.

U.S. Black Heritage Project

I recently joined the US Black Heritage Project! As a member of the project's Louisiana Team, my goal is to assist in their efforts to identify Louisiana slaveholders of 1850-1860, associated major plantations, and the enslaved lives impacted during that period. Initial focus will be on the 1850 Slave Schedule in St. Landry Parish. I also plan to participate in some of their monthly challenges when I can, especially when they relate to Louisiana profiles.

Acadians Project

My husband's line is half Acadian, including the descendants of Etienne Rivet, so the Acadians Project is an important part of his ancestry. His paternal grandparents each descended through two of Etienne's grandchildren, although they didn't know it and always told people they were unrelated. Surprise!

Aside from the family connections, I also help work on the profiles of Acadians who were deported in the 1750s and ended up in Louisiana. These profiles are in both the Acadians and Louisiana projects, and require a certain amount of coordination between the two. To this end, a new sub-project has been started, the Acadian_Exiles project. It is being led by Jackie, and intends to identify and expand the stories of all Acadian exiles who were scattered all over the world. This is a huge undertaking and will take years, so if you are interested in helping, there is certainly plenty to do!

Profile Improvement Project

As a member of the Biography Team in the Profile Improvement Project (PIP), I try to abide by the guidelines for building profiles on WikiTree. I am a huge fan of the monthly Biography Builders challenges. These challenges are a non-competitive, fun way to work on building nice biographies in our profiles, and are based on a different theme every month. I use them to prompt me to improve profiles that I previously added with Gedcom imports or during the Connect-a-Thons.

The project also features a "PIP Voyage," during which two needy profiles (usually from a user's watchlist) are selected for improvement. The voyager is assigned a guide who will assist in sourcing and writing biographies according to WikiTree styles and standards. After the profiles have been fully improved and biography-writing skills have been sufficiently demonstrated, the voyager graduates and receives a successful completion sticker. I highly recommend this process to anyone, whether experienced or novice.

One Name Studies Project

I have started a Rivet One Name Study for the Rivet name and its variants, Rivett and Rivette. It's in its infancy, and so far I'm the only member, but I hope it grows as interest develops. The core to begin with is based on the Acadian descendants by that name that I have researched. So far about 35% of them have profiles on WikiTree, so there's still more work to be done. The goal is to eventually connect to Rivet*s in France if possible, and discover whether families in other countries might also be related. Collaboration on ALL Rivet*s worldwide is welcome!

I'm also a member of the Murray One Name Study. Hoping to collaborate with people knowledgeable about Irish resources, to break down the brick wall of my Irish ancestor, Michael Murray (abt.1800-abt.1840), and his wife, Alice Sharkey (abt.1805-aft.1860). Also would like to find connections, if any, to Elihu Murray, as described in this G2G post. I haven't created a profile for him yet.

Data Doctors Project

One thing I've always enjoyed doing is finding errors and correcting them, so participating in the Data Doctors' challenges is a lot of fun for me! Unfortunately it can also be a bit of a black hole regarding my time. Starting in January 2018 I had to cut back dramatically on time spent there, so I could focus on my personal genealogy and other interests. I guess you could call me a recovering DD addict. Now I limit my DD time to suggestions on my managed profiles, an occasional weekly challenge, and the annual Spring Clean-a-Thons.

WikiTree Participation Events

I have enjoyed participating in the various 3-day weekend Thons that WikiTree sponsors throughout the year. I also like to participate in some of the annual "themed" events. They are all a lot of fun! These are the ones I've done, starting with the most recent:

WT's eleventh Connect-a-Thon was held on 12-15 Apr 2024. I had a lot going on this weekend so there was no set goal, but I did manage to connect 41 more profiles.

WT's tenth Connect-a-Thon was held on 19-22 Jan 2024. My goal for this thon was to connect at least 160 new profiles. As it turned out, I reached exactly that number!

The 15 for 15 Challenge lasted for the entire year of 2023, in celebration of WikiTree's 15th anniversary. I managed to complete 15 missions plus a bit more.

The WikiTree Day Symposium was held on 3-5 November 2023. There were lots of topics to choose from, very interesting!

The eighth annual Source-a-Thon challenge was held the weekend of 29 September to 2 October 2023.

WT's ninth Connect-a-Thon, held on 14-17 July 2023. I managed to add 169 new profiles.

WT's eighth Connect-a-Thon, held on 21-24 Apr 2023. I was able to beat my previous record and reached a new high of 311 profiles added.

WT's seventh Connect-a-Thon, held on 13-16 Jan 2023. My wish for this thon was to beat my previous record of 279, but as a minimum I wanted to add at least 150 new profiles. I managed to come in between and did 205, and very happy with that.

The Source-a-Thon challenge was held the weekend of 30 September to 3 October 2022.

WT's sixth Connect-a-Thon was held 15-18 Jul 2022. This was the third and last for the year. Unfortunately I ended up out of town for this one, so wasn't able to add more than just a few profiles.

WT's fifth Connect-a-Thon was held 22-25 Apr 2022. The second of three for the year.

WT's fourth Connect-a-Thon was held 14-17 Jan 2022. This was the first of three to be held in this "Year of Family Connections."

Source-a-Thon challenge was held on 1-4 October 2021. I reached a new personal record for this one!

Third annual Connect-a-Thon was held 23-26 July 2021. The count changed for this and future thons, to only include new profiles created/connected to existing profiles.

Clean-a-Thon challenge was held 23-26 April 2021. Worked mostly on Profile Completeness suggestions from my Watchlist, getting them updated so that they are actually useful.

Source-a-Thon challenge was held on 2-5 October 2020.

Worked with the Tree Nuts in the second annual Connect-a-Thon 17-20 July 2020. Little by little, I'm getting those extended family members added to the tree!

The Tree Nuts, a general-purpose Clean-a-Thon challenge team, was a fun change of pace in 2020. From 24-27 April 2020, we fixed a lot of errors, and made a big difference!

The Gulf Coast Hurricanes' Source-a-Thon challenge adventure was held on 4-7 October 2019.

The Gulf Coast Hurricanes participated in the first annual Connect-a-Thon 12-15 July 2019. This counted every new profile created and connected to an existing profile, and every new connection between existing profiles. It was exciting to see so many profiles added and connected over a period of only 3 days!

The Gulf Coast Hurricanes Clean-a-Thon team was started up to focus on Louisiana, Texas & Mississippi. It was held 26-29 April 2019, letting me once again indulge in my DD addiction!

The first annual WikiTree Scan-a-Thon in January 2019 was super interesting. I found more photos and documents than I realized -- or remembered -- I had!

I signed up to be co-captain with Steff Mandarino for Équipe Acadie - Team Acadia for the October 2018 Source-a-Thon. It was a challenge to get everything organized before the event started -- but it was a lot of fun!

The first Clean-a-Thon I participated in was held on the weekend of 21-23 April 2018. This fueled my DD addiction!

My first Source-a-Thon was on Team Acadia, in October 2017. That was lots of fun, and really was the catalyst that inspired me to participate more on WikiTree!

Other Projects of Interest

There are plenty of other projects that I'm interested in, but haven't found the time for yet. I hope to some day get involved in these:

• FRANCE PROJECT (formerly French Roots) - husband's paternal Acadian branch originated there, but I also have ONE known French ancestor, 3GGM
• IRELAND PROJECT (formerly Irish Roots) - my paternal grandmother's branch. I'm also told (unverified) that I have some Irish or maybe Welsh-Irish on my maternal grandfather's side that needs to be explored further.
• SWEDEN PROJECT - my paternal grandfather's branch
• TEXAS PROJECT - my husband's maternal great-grandfather participated in the Battle of San Jacinto during the Texas War for Independence