Project: Medieval

Categories: Medieval Project | Pre-1700 Projects


Welcome to the Medieval Project!

In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or Medieval Period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery. This Project is for WikiTreers who are pre-1500 certified and interested in improving the profiles of people that lived prior to the year 1500 A.D.


Contents

Project Contacts and Participants

Are you interested in the Medieval Project?medieval.gif
If you have an interest in profiles in the pre-1500 period, you must apply for Pre-1500 certification. Wikitree is striving to maintain and improve these historically significant and medieval profiles. To receive the certification, you must have made contributions to pre-1700 or project-protected profiles that demonstrate a practical understanding of the principles behind our Honor Code and Pre-1700 Self-Certification, especially regarding sources and collaboration in high-conflict areas. You can find a link to read about and apply for the pre-1500 certification here. This is required to:
  • Create new profiles for people born prior to 1500.
  • Edit existing profiles of those born prior to 1500.

For the naming standards, see Name Fields for European Aristocrats as well as the section located further down on this page. All users are encouraged to also read WikiTree's guidelines on Name Fields. If you have a question with regard to what to enter where, ask before doing by clicking here. Be sure to use the EuroAristo, Pre-1500, and Medieval tags. You also should feel free to contact John, Michael, or Darlene.

Overall Project Goals

  1. To improve existing medieval profiles and WikiTree’s coverage of the medieval period in collaboration with other projects.
  2. To promote medieval profiles to the WikiTree and wider genealogical community.
  3. To source existing medieval profiles. For a partial list, see:
    1. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Unsourced_Profile_Hints_Pre-1500
    2. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Unsourced_Profile_Hints_Pre-1500_Part2

Please note:

  • This is intended to be an aid in finding profiles that should have the {{Unsourced}} Research Notes Box.
  • For the list of Unsourced profiles, see the Data Doctors Report updated weekly https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:DBE_Unsourced
  • The pages are static and represents a snapshot in time (about mid-August 2020)
  • Any profile on the unsourced hints page should be reviewed to determine if it does qualify for the unsourced tag
  • The evaluation to find potentially unsourced profiles is based on the Wikitree criteria for post-1700 profiles (at least right now)

Teams

We are happy for members to work on any pre-1500 profiles, but we currently have a number of teams:

We also collaborate with the following projects:

Maintenance Categories

The Project has a set of maintenance categories for some medieval profiles, mainly ones of which the Project is a profile manager, that need attention: Category: Medieval Project Maintenance Categories.

Profile Management

The Project is aiming to manage profiles only where there is a good reason for doing so. The most obvious reasons are:

  • there is a case for Project protection
  • the person is very notable, and
    • the profile is orphaned or
    • no other Project is a manager and there is no manager with pre-1500 certification

If you feel that a profile should be managed by the Project, please contact one of the project coordinators or team leaders noted above.

Profile Comments

The Comments section on Medieval Project-managed profiles is meant to be used for collaboration on sourcing, discussion of the details of the person's life and/or disputed facts, and other things that contribute to the development of a profile. These comments are forwarded to all of the Project's Google Group members for review. We ask that you please do not use profile comments to add information about your personal relationship to these individuals. These comments will be removed from project-managed profiles. By all means celebrate your connection with medieval people - but you can do this on your own personal profile page, or on a free space page.

Profile Improvement Checklist

Please respect the WikiTree guidance on communication before making major changes. If you are going to be doing major work on a profile and it is managed by someone else, please put a comment on the profile in advance: and please add a comment when you have finished the main work you plan on the profile.

  1. Add reliable sources, and replace or remove unreliable ones. Many of the sources listed on the Magna Carta project resource page are excellent sources for medieval profiles. See this list of resources here. (For general WikiTree guidance on reliable sources, please see the help page on Reliable Sources.)
  2. Create and/or edit the Biography with inline citations, using either narrative or timeline styles.
  3. Where they are known, aim to have parents, spouse(s) and children sourced with inline citations in the biography.
  4. Draw attention to significant uncertainties or conflicts of evidence: research notes can often be helpful.
  5. Do not copy and paste substantial amounts of text from other websites and books: use your own words. If you find substantial copy-and-paste on a profile, replace it with text in your own words.
  6. Add images as appropriate.
    1. Any images attached to profiles managed by the project must comply with copyright guidelines, be cited correctly (with source and copyright information in the Comment box under the image), and be appropriate to the profile or profiles for whom they are attached.
    2. Add Coat of Arms image if available; check box "set as primary photo"; add source and copyright in the Comment Box below the image (add the blazon if you have it). Do not use coats of arms as background images.
    3. Background images, if used, should be unobtrusive. See this G2G discussion.
    4. Make sure any existing images in a profile have a source and copyright information in the Comment Box below the image and do not violate copyright.
    5. Tips on labeling images: scroll down in edit mode on the image until you see the title in the edit box and delete or replace 'image 1' 'image 2' etc. Then scroll to the end of the page and click save. Save the comment box first, and then "save as thumbnail" if it is a coat of arms, and last save the image title.
  7. Place a project box on the profile if it is managed by the Project and does not already have one (but do not add the project box to other profiles).
  8. Follow Project guidelines on the use of stickers: these are limited to specific groups of people.

Medieval Naming Standards

The standards listed below are general in nature. Other projects, such as Wales, Magna Carta, and Irish Roots, have developed their own naming standards. Be sure to review their standards and check with the other projects (easiest done with a post on the G2G forum with a tag for the project) for their preferences.

Name Fields

Do not use Latin forms for proper first name, last name at birth, or current last name, even if they appear in records.

Last Name at Birth

LNAB: Last Name At Birth should be one word

EuroAristo project members decided that Fitz- names should be written with mid-caps, that is, a capital letter for the father's name. For example, write FitzAlan, FitzGeoffrey, FitzGerald, etc. This is the same pattern as used in names with Mac-: MacMurray, MacDonald, etc. Do not include a space. As Wikitree users encounter these names, we request that they change the capitalization for consistency.

For the LNABs that have been established, see Proper Spelling of LNABs. For others, ask on the G2G forum, remembering to tag your post with medieval, pre-1500, and euroaristo.

Prefixes, Suffixes, Titles

  1. PREFIX FIELD: This is for a title such as 'Sir' or 'Reverend'. A man who was knighted was called Sir. DO NOT USE this field for long titles, such as 'Earl of Angus'. Titles such as that belong in the 'Other Nickname' field.
  2. PREFIXES IN LAST NAME AT BIRTH FIELD: in cases like de Quincy, prefixes go with the surname in the Current Last Name field, EXCEPT when they are the last name at birth (LNAB) like St John. "St" is a prefix which stays with the surname; that is, "St John" goes in the LNAB field, and St is not dropped nor separated out into the prefix field.
  3. The common "de" before a surname does NOT go in the LNAB field; it goes with the surname in the Current Last Name field while the surname, ONE word, goes in the LNAB. Example: Last name at birth: "Villefort", Current Last Name: "de Villefort". The exceptions to this are de Vere and de la Mare. Members of these families should have both/all words in the LNAB field with "de” and "de la" having no initial capital letter. Some of the other projects, such as Cymru Welsh and Irish Roots, have developed their own naming standards. Be sure to check with the other projects (easiest done with a post on the G2G forum with a tag for the project) for their preferences.
  4. PUNCTUATION: The correct style is to NOT use a period after a prefix such as Rev or Capt and this includes the prefix "St" (Saint).
  5. There is NO leeway on the rules for prefixes and suffixes; that is, those fields cannot be used for anything else.
  6. SUFFIXES IN LAST NAME: Jr, Sr, and Roman numerals like III should never be used in the suffix field for pre-1500 profiles. Occasional KG or KB for medieval profiles go in the suffix field. NOTHING else goes in the suffix field.
  7. TITLES: Titles DO NOT go in prefix or suffix fields. They go in the biography. However, what people were called (King of England, Duc d'Angoulême, Lord Mountbatten, the Fat) belongs in the OTHER NICKNAMES field.
  8. ALTERNATE SPELLING OF LAST NAME: alternate spellings go in "Other Last Names"
  9. PATRONYMICS: Patronymics are middle names, (unless nothing else is available)
  10. WELSH NAMES: Welsh names are a muddle. Write a question on the G2G forum and get input from other before proceeding.
  11. We use the native language of the person within reason. Wikipedia is very good about translations.

Numerals in a Name

If there is a numeral, such as Henry III of England, his name at birth is Henry, preferred name is Henry III, Last Name At Birth is Plantagenet, Current Last Name is of England.

Merging Profiles

When merging always select the lowest correct LNAB. To understand the importance of this please see the page on project protection and the Supervisor page on project protecting and merging.

Project Box for Profiles

The project box below should be added to profiles that fall within the project and will need project protection and management by adding {{Medieval Project}} to the biography of the profile. At the same time, be sure to add the Medieval Project as a PM (profile manager). If you aren't authorized to do this, then contact one of the project managers to do this.

Medieval Project
... ... ... is managed by the Medieval Project.
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