Do we need these categories for Unknowns?

Question

If a profile shows LNAB as Unknown, how useful are“Category: Needs LNAB” and “Category: Unknowns”? These are sporadically added by members and often not removed when the problem has been solved. With the advent of the WikiTree+ reports, the Unknowns Team finds them to be completely unnecessary.  The Profile Improvement Project (PIP) and the Categorization Project have discussed removing the generic categories (project or country level categories could be retained if useful). I agree but would welcome feedback from folks with different perspectives than I have. I spend most of my WikiTree time as Leader of PIP’s Unknowns team…but there’s undoubtedly lots of background I don’t fully understand. We welcome your input. Thanks in advance.

Comments

Did some exploring to find profiles in these categories and Needs LNAB does seem to be useful for Black Heritage profiles. Other than those, several profiles seem to have a sourced LNAB so don't see why they are in that category.

Had trouble even finding the Unknowns category. Finally did a Google search to find it.  Not many profiles, but one of them is an "I don't know"  Is this a new one for your problems list or have you already seen it?  I also use Wiki+ to find profiles to research Unknown last names, so see no need for that category.

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Thanks for looking, Patricia.

The main change to the Needs LNAB category page would be removing the line saying to use Category:Unknowns.

All of the Unknowns subcategories are already part of the maintenance categories of a particular country/project. Those would continue to be available.

Answer 1

My thoughts are that both categories are limited to the last name "Unknown" or undefined, no proper surname. The BOT could be flagged to remove these categories if the last name does not meet that criteria.

This would allow users to continue to use the category for a marker to return or others to explore and solve.

Comments

Thanks for looking, Jimmy. 

EditBot is the only one that runs at WikiTree and it "[n]ever changes any field. It only changes the Biography due to Category renames, Template name typos or system wide URL change due to changes on some servers." (posted Dec 20, 2022 by Aleš Trtnik-2 in a comment on the EditBot WikiTree-3 profile)

If members want a "reminder" category to return to a profile, personal categories would be more useful as they would contain a limited number of profiles.

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I wasn't suggesting it modify the field, but remove the category if it is inappropriate. Similar to what it does not with merges, renaming, etc. of categories.

Answer 2

Hi Pam, excellent question. It would be helpful to streamline the categories /processes. I have used the Australia, Needs LNAB category as a parking category for profiles that I have researched and there seems to be no prospect of determining the LNAB in the forseeable future (eg crucial vital records aren't yet in the public domain / some married female convicts). Ideally that category would be used with a research note explaining what research had been done. But maybe there is a better approach (ie Australia, Unknowns or just research notes alone??). The Unknowns template also adds profiles to the Unknowns category. If that template is still in use, there might need to be some guidelines for usage of the template.

Comments

Thanks for looking, Gillian. We expect projects to continue using the Needs LNAB category, though we would like to remove the instructions on using the Unknowns category when research is still needed.

The Categorization team has let us know that a change to the Unknowns Template could be made to stop adding profiles to the category. If I understand the template correctly, that change would result in the removal of profiles currently in the category only because of the template.

Answer 3

Unknowns have their own project who use WikiTree+ or other tools to find them, so don't think it needs a category also.

Needs LNAB is supposedly a maintenance category, normally they are project specific.  Can also be covered by Needs Birth Record.  But I would leave that one alone.

Comments

Thanks, Danielle. The main change to the Needs LNAB category page would be removing the line saying to use Category:Unknowns.

Answer 4

Edited to add: Sorry, I missed this was only about Unknowns so my comment is not relevant

Needs LNAB is useful for the Netherlands project as it is used in part to identify profiles which need to have the LNAB changed to match sources. "This category is intended for profiles for which the LNAB has yet to be determined or where it must be corrected." If the profiles were orphans, the name could be changed, but otherwise a note is added to the profiles and this category can be added.

Comments

Thanks, W. We expect projects to keep using Needs LNAB. Our main interest in that category is to remove the instruction to add the Unknowns category if more research is needed.

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For those that have wrong name, we use Category Incorrect LNAB (link is project specific, but it also exists without project as Incorrect LNAB, findable with category picker)

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Needs LNAB can be changed to a top-level category once all the profiles are moved to appropriate sub-categories. That will prevent it from showing up in the category picker.

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Incorrect LNAB is an interesting maintenance category - perhaps it could be used by more projects

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W. the presence of ''dit names'' causes enormous confusion and duplication, so one of our members gave me this idea and created the category for the project.  That way we can keep track of what still needs correction, also lets us see when a member has gone inactive for a long time.