The Unknowns Team Process

Profile managers: Debi Hoag [send private message], Kay Knight [send private message], and Robin Shaules [send private message]

Profile Improvement Project
Unknowns Team

Click to download the WikiTree Day 2022 Slideshow

Mission

To improve the integrity of WikiTree by identifying and updating profiles with either a sourced Last Name at Birth (LNAB) or Unknown as per the Name Field Guidelines for Last Name at Birth.

Task List

A. Select a profile to work on. Please work in the time period and/or location where you have the most research experience.

The Unknown Last Name at Birth (LNAB) count may never go down but it should contain only profiles that have been researched and proper names could not be found. Here is a summary of the count:

Date	Total	Difference
19 Nov 2023	326495
27 Mar 2024	332682	9187

Select a profile via any of the methods below.

Unknown Profiles with no location

Right-click on a column heading to get a list of Unknown profiles. Profiles with public privacy are listed separately; the remaining profiles are open privacy. The Orphan and Managed profiles have no dates.

Date	Public	Undated Orphan	Undated Managed	16Cen	17Cen	18Cen	19Cen	20Cen	21Cen	Total	Diff
19 Nov 2023	11734	17826	11031	2907	11127	29661	44863	13651	8	142808
27 Mar 2024	10867	17810	10192	2922	11239	29773	44757	13800	7	141367	1441

Unknown Profiles by country

Right-click on a column heading to get a list of Unknown profiles. These are open profiles that may have a birth, marriage or death location in the country. They may or may not be orphaned.

Date	Australia	Canada	England	France	Germany	Ireland	New Zealand	United States	USA	Total	Diff
19 Nov 2023	3238	5717	32853	1042	9284	11417	1865	51217	11493	128126
27 Mar 2024	3369	5913	33434	1068	9471	11909	1924	56349	11387	134825	6699

United States Unknown profiles by State

To find a profile that may have a birth, marriage, or death location for a specific state in the United States, navigate to the United States Project and click on the desired state. Then navigate to the individual state's Ongoing List of Things to Do and click on the name of the state for the Unknowns item.

Historic numbers

The following are historic Unknown numbers from earlier reports. These are open or public profiles that are unsourced and have the Last Name At Birth (LNAB) as Unknown.

Unknowns Unsourced Open or Public	17 Mar 2022	5 Oct 2022	Jul 2023
16th Century 1500-1599	1,325	1,462	1594
17th Century 1600-1699	3,113	3,262	3465
18th Century 1700-1799	6,773	7,047	7294
19th Century 1800-1899	7,644	7,713	7594
20th Century 1900-1999	1,628	2,223	1791
21st Century 2000-2999	2	2	2
Total	20,483	21,709	21,720

Earlier numbers include profiles with privacy levels more restrictive than open and public:

Alias	28 Sep 2016	3 Feb 2018	25 Nov 2019	10 Oct 2020	8 Jun 2021	7 Jan 2022	5 Oct 2022	Jul 2023
Unknown	246,758	276,976	308,578	315,805	323,599	334,095	351,030	358,805
Growth %		12.25%	11.41%	2.34%	2.47%	3.24%	4.9%	2.21%|

B. Search for possible duplicates. Only merge if the two profiles were intended to represent the same person. If the profile is linked to another profile, such as a spouse or child, it can sometimes be helpful to look for duplicates for the other profile in order to identify a duplicate for the Unknown.

C. If an alias, e. g., Unknown/UNKNOWN, is used for the Last Name at Birth (LNAB):

1. Is the profile from a time, place or culture where Last Names at Birth (LNAB) are not used?
   1. If Yes, skip the following steps. Unknown as a Last Name at Birth (LNAB) in this case is a valid usage; no further action is required.
   2. If No, go to the next step.
2. On the surnames list is a profile marked Active?
   1. If Yes, skip the following steps. An alias in this case is being used by an active member of WikiTree and is a valid usage; no further action is required.
   2. If No, go to the next step.
3. Does the profile have a privacy status other than Open (white), that is, Public (green) or Private (yellow or red)?
   1. If Yes, you may need to contact the Profile Manager. Only Open privacy level profiles can be edited by any WikiTree Genealogist.
   2. If No (profile is Open and can be edited), go to the next step.
4. Does the profile have a Profile Manager? Or someone on the Trusted List who is not Profile Manager? Always be sure to check the Privacy tab for Trusted List.
   1. If Yes, contact the Profile Manager or Trusted List member to see if a corrected LNAB is known or can be discovered.
   2. If No, go to the next step.
5. Is the profile a married woman with an alias as her LNAB in a time/culture where a wife normally takes her husband's name at marriage?
   1. If Yes, and research has been done and it is unlikely that future research will find her LNAB, no further action is required. This is a valid usage. If you have exhausted all possible means of determining her LNAB, consider adding a Research Notes section to the biography outlining your results. This will notify other researchers of what work has been done so it will not be duplicated. You might verify that her husband's surname is listed in the Current or Other Last Name fields.
   2. If No, go to the next step.
6. Does the profile have identifiable data? Are there birth/death dates? Is there information in the biography such as a narrative bio, sources, etc.?
   1. If Yes, skip the following steps. No further action is required.
   2. If No, go to the next step.
7. Is the profile connected to one or more other profiles? For example: spouse, child(ren), parents.
   1. If Yes, no further action is required.
   2. If No, add a comment to Possible Profiles for Deletion with a link to the profile, include an explanation of what you have looked for and/or discovered

Best Practices

Notes on research and Redirects

By Steve Harris, posted on G2G March 2023

Corrections are always good for the tree. We just need to be cognizant of the history of the profile, the current state of the profile, and what the future changes to the profile might look like. We have to remember that every change made on a wiki has a "cost".

In the case of this specific profile, Unkown-1098, I would say the change to LNAB is fine to make, since "Unknown" may unfortunately be her legacy here on WikiTree.

History: No merges and/or LNAB changes to date (meaning no existing redirects).

Current State: Correct (sourced) LNAB will be difficult to find, and many people have apparently already tried.

Future: LNAB may never be found.

Based on the above, we only talking about one redirect now, and if we are lucky, a second redirect in the distant future to a correct (sourced) LNAB. This small number of redirects poses no issues.

Resources

• Unknowns team Unknowns team home page.
• Unknowns Aliases Tasks process page

• Name Fields Guidelines for using name fields

• Project specific Name Field Guidelines