Locators Challenge

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: [unknown]
Surname/tag: challenges

This challenge is brand new. Please be patient as we work out the kinks.

---

April challenge tracker scores

---

Goal: To add a birth location to every WikiTree profile

Why? Birth locations help prevent duplicates. When looking at two profiles side by side, you can quickly look at the birth location to see if they are match.

When? This challenge will run monthly starting March 1, 2024

Who? Every WikiTreer who has signed the Honor Code can join this challenge.

---

Contents 1 How This Works 1.1 1890s 1.2 How to Properly Estimate a Birth Location 1.3 Search Links 2 Points 3 Challenge Stickers 4 Past Tracking 5 How are we doing?

How This Works

Choose profiles to work on from one of the searches linked below.

If the profile has sources, use those sources to determine the birth location. If it doesn't have sources, go find some! If it's unsourced, adding sources will also count for the Sourcerer Challenge.

1890s

We are beginning with people born in the 1890s as there are generally records for this decade. However, any BIRTH locations you add for any profiles missing them counts toward this challenge.

Modify a search below to get profiles from a specific country or region (state, province, county etc.). If you need help, ask for help on the G2G post.

These searches include the country or region in the marriage and/or death location

Country: country=Canada open birthlocation=missinglocation 1890s not 1880s

Region: region=Maryland open birthlocation=missinglocation 1890s not 1880s

These searches look for the name of the country or region somewhere other than a properly formatted location (city, region, country all separated by commas).
Note: results can include people with the place as a name.

Country: Canada open birthlocation=missinglocation 1890s not 1880s not country=Canada

Region: Maryland open birthlocation=missinglocation 1890s not 1880s not region=Maryland

If you want a big challenge, try these profiles with no locations in them

How to Properly Estimate a Birth Location

Please do not estimate a birth location until you have run out of sources to check.

The best way to find a birth location is to look at the sources. Usually sources name at least the country or country division such as state, province, or county for a birth location. Sometimes, sources for children will name their parents' birth location.

If you can't find a source that clearly states the birth location, do one of the following:

• If you have a marriage record or another record without a birth location stated, use the country or country division (state, province, or county, etc.), from that record for the birth location. Mark it as uncertain and write a research note.
• If the source for the person does not contain any location, use the best estimated location from one of the children's profiles and mark it uncertain. Write a research note.
• If no family is attached and sources do not contain a location, use the best estimate from what is known about that person. Mark it as uncertain and write a research note.
• If the profile is unsourced and you can't find a source, do not attempt to estimate a location. Instead, add the {{unsourced}} template above the biography heading. Write a research note about where you searched for a source and move on to the next profile.

It is okay to use only the country as the birth location if you can't find anything more specific in sources. This is better than no location since it gives location context for researchers.

In rare situations, it is okay to use the continent as the birth location if you can't find anything more specific in sources. One example is enslaved ancestors imported from Africa to other countries. We may know they were born in Africa, but nothing else.

Search Links

https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1695136/new-suggestion-on-the-horizon

Points

• Each profile with a birth location added counts as one point.
• Please use the Challenge Tracker to track how many birth locations you've added.

When you save your change after adding a birth location, a dark green button will appear at the top of the profile that says "challenge tracker." Click that, then make sure your Wiki-ID is in the ID box and that you choose Locators Challenge. Then save.

The challenge tracker button at the top of a profile

Challenge Stickers

All 2024 Participants can add this sticker to their profile:

{{Challenge Sticker

|image=WikiTree_Locators_Challenge.png

|challenge=Locators

|project=

|date=2024

|type=participated in the

}}

---

Top Five Contributors will receive these stickers each month:

First Place Contributor

Second Place Contributor

Third Place Contributor

Fourth Place Contributor

Fifth Place Contributor

Past Tracking

We will not be tracking all participants contributions over time, but you can keep track yourself using each month's tracking scoresheet.

• March challenge tracker scores 5000 profiles located
  • March's top contributors: L A Banta, Helen Flight, Graeme Olney, Stu Ward, Patrick Holland

How are we doing?

We won't be tracking statistics for this, but we do offer these before counts (open profiles only).

• 1890s
  • Have death location, no birth location - 312242
  • Have marriage location, no birth or death location - 149476
  • No birth, death or marriage locations - 93464

For counts of countries by birth location see Count of Profiles by Birth Country. The 2nd highest count (at 17.19% of the total as of 21 April 2024) is for profiles missing a birth location.

Have you finished the 1890s for your location of interest? There are a lot more open, no birth location but has death location to do! (The totals are from 3 March 2024 data.)

time span	profile count
0cen	156,522
1760s	99,686
1770s	117,621
1780s	130,274
1790s	144,085
1800s	176,269
1810s	178,472
1820s	210,802
1830s	236,381
1840s	261,303
1850s	289,852
1860s	300,211
1870s	311,532
1880s	320,161
1890s	312,647
1900s	319,155
1910s	285,726
1920s	200,813
1930s	97,685