Volga German Sticker Clarification [closed]

Question

It has always been my understanding that the Volga German sticker is for use on the profiles of citizens of the colonies. For example, I've added it to all my ancestors that either emigrated to the colonies or were born in the colonies. I haven't added the sticker to my grandmother, since she was the first child born in the United States. I also haven't added the sticker to my parent or myself as were aren't colonists.

The Volga German sticker page is lacking guidance and the sticker itself is only available in the present tense (for living individuals). This sticker also doesn't define any parameters that would allow toggling between past and present tense like other roots stickers have.

We don't have a Volga German descendant sticker, which I think would be nice to have.

I would love to get some clarification and see the sticker page updated to reflect it's intended usage like other roots stickers have. If meant for both colonists and descendants, then having the parameter to toggle tense would be nice to have.

So, what is the intended usage of this sticker?

EDIT: This expands the scope of the question, but along the same lines, I've seen a lot of the Volga German profiles have had the German Roots sticker added recently, which creates another issue. Volga German profiles are categorized by colony, which are sub (more than one sub) categories below the German Roots project. The German Roots sticker adds the German Roots category, which is a high level category. These profiles are now double categorized at the highest level of German Roots and then at their lowest level, the colony, this is very confusing as well.

Comments

Re:  "EDIT: This expands the scope of the question, but along the same lines, I've seen a lot of the Volga German profiles have had the German Roots sticker added recently, which creates another issue. Volga German profiles are categorized by colony, which are sub (more than one sub) categories below the German Roots project. The German Roots sticker adds the German Roots category, which is a high level category. These profiles are now double categorized at the highest level of German Roots and then at their lowest level, the colony, this is very confusing as well."

Has this question been addressed yet? I searched for it and couldn't find anything, but it's possible I missed it. I noticed that two categories have been added to my Volga German profiles, in addition to the Volga German tag and the village category tag:

[[Category:German Roots]]

[[Category:German Roots Project Needs Research]]

[[Category:Grimm]]

{{Volga_German}}

{{German Roots Sticker}}

The two German Roots tags/categories seem like a double tagging of sorts. Seems like we should be using one or the other. The reason behind "Category:German Roots Project Needs Research" is unclear to me. Does it mean we need to prove the people in these profiles are really German? Do we have to paste the story of the Volga Germans in every profile? Or paste a copy of their pedigree chart showing their ancestors going back to 1766 when the Germans first immigrated to Russia? Or are we switching from the tag to the category and we need to remove the tag?

For an example of this, see: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Aab-106.

Thanks for the clarification.

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Hi! Could you start a new G2G thread with your current question(s)? I just checked the Volga German sticker and I believe that the issues you brought up last year have been addressed (description states "This sticker can be placed on the profiles of people who were born in or lived in the Volga German Colonies." & tense is "was"). I would recommend using the [Heritage Sticker] for a descendant of a Volga German (|image= Freehling-6.png).

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I am not the original poster. I was trying to get clarification on the difference between the German Roots sticker and the German Roots category, or if they were redundant, as well as to figure out what the German Roots Project Needs Research category is for, beyond the obvious.   

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I monitor the stickers & templates tags & "German Volga Sticker Clarification" seemed like something I might need to take action on. (And I did, at the request of the Germany Project, in September.)

To answer your question about German Roots Sticker / Category German Roots: the difference is one is a sticker and one is a category. The Sticker currently adds the category automatically.

• https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Template:German_Roots_Sticker
• https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Category:German_Roots

Needs categories such as "Research" cover a wide range of issues. You should ask whoever added the category to the profile why they did so to determine what's needed to remove the category from that profile. (See for example the instructions for use on the Magna Carta Project's needs research category.)

But I'm not a member (or leader) of the Germany Project. If you posted a new G2G question, you'd have a better chance of getting a less generic answer.

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Hi Allison! I just saw this post today. Since the Sticker issues have been resolved, could you close the question? If there are other issues that still need to be addressed, could you post a new G2G question about them?

Thanks!

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Yes, I will close the question.

See https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1312108/double-categorization-of-volga-germans for the categorization part of the question.

Thanks!

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Julie, see this post: https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1312108/double-categorization-of-volga-germans.

I aim to remove the German Roots category from the German Roots sticker, but my hands are tied at the moment as I am not on the templates team and can't make that change myself.

I agree with Liz, whoever added the German Roots "needs research" category should be asked why they added it. Perhaps there are questions about vital records or connections? As you are the PM of the profile you gave as an example, you can remove that category if you've exhausted your research. However, your example profile has no info on Johann Jakob Aab except for a census record. The profile could certainly use some additional info, specifically, birth, marriage, death records and a sourced list of children.

The answer is no to all your questions: "Does it mean we need to prove the people in these profiles are really German? Do we have to paste the story of the Volga Germans in every profile? Or paste a copy of their pedigree chart showing their ancestors going back to 1766 when the Germans first immigrated to Russia? Or are we switching from the tag to the category and we need to remove the tag?"

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Thank you so much, Traci, for this information. It is exactly what I needed to know.

Answer 1

Great question Allison.  Looking at the sticker's page, I don't see that it has any parameters for setting differences in the sticker like "is living" or "was living."  I believe that the sticker may need some definitions added and maybe some parameter additions.

I've added the stickers tag to the question in order to get some attention from the stickers folks.

Comments

Thanks for adding the stickers tag!

And yes, I mentioned the lack of parameters in my post. :)

Answer 2

Hi Allison,

This is a great question, and I myself have wondered many things that don't make sense with the Volga Germans sub-project. I will look into this for you, and let you know.

Kind regards,

Kylie

Comments

Some history of the sticker. All VG profiles had the Project Box affixed and the use of this was changed or redefined a couple of years ago. To clear thousands of DBE suggestions, Aleš and I came up with the idea to change the Project Box temporarily to a sticker.If the VG project ever acquires another leader, a PB can be created again and the profiles that would be managed or co-managed by the project could be sorted out.

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To my knowledge there hasn't ever been any profiles actually managed by the project. It's always been more of a way to try to gather Volga German researchers and the use of the project box was to decorate profiles, at least since I've been a member.

Categorization is via the colony name, which is are sub-categories below the Germany parent project. Which leads to another question about the categorization, so I think I'll edit the question and add it. :)