Family History Wiki

We have embarked on an interesting — and hopefully very successful experiment - that of the creation of a Family History Wiki. This document will outline the reasons why we do family history, what a wiki is, how the wiki will help us in our family history, and some guiding principles to help us as we slowly bring the Wiki to life.

What is family history and what is our duties toward it?

At the dawn of the Restoration, Moroni quoted to the boy Joseph the prophecy of Malachi, “Behold, I will reveal unto you the Priesthood, by the hand of Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord… And he shall plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers. If it were not so, the whole earth would be utterly wasted at his coming” ^’i’^

This prophecy is the beginning of family history in our dispensation.

Boyd K. Packer in his book, “The Holy Temple”, summarized our family history duties into six areas:

  1. Each of us is to compile his or her own life history.
  2. Each of us is to keep a book of remembrance.
  3. As individuals and families we are each to seek out our kindred dead, beginning first with the four most recent generations on each line, and then going back as far as we can.
  4. We are each to participate in other programs such as name extraction when asked to do so.
  5. We are to organize our families and hold meetings and reunions.
  6. If we have access to a temple, each of us should go to the temple as often as possible to do ordinance work - first for ourselves, then for our progenitors, then for all the names that have been gathered by means other than our own. ii

Boyd K. Packer made this promise in connection with family history. “Family history work has the power to do something for the dead. It has an equal power to do something to the living. Family history work of Church members has a refining, spiritualizing, tempering influence on those who are engaged in it. They understand that they are tying their family together, their living family here with those who have gone before.”iii

What is a wiki and how will it help us to do family history work?

A wiki is a type of web software that allows for easy editing. iv Most non-wiki websites (i.e. the normal ones you visit everyday) are made by a paid web designer. Wiki websites, on the other hand, are designed and their content is created by those that use them. In this sense a wiki is like an online chalkboard — anyone who comes along and wishes to write and contribute, can. Because the barriers to use it are low and creating content is word-processor easy, wikis encourages easy and productive collaboration. A wiki was chosen for use as our web platform as it allows our widely disbursed family to “build” the family wiki gradually, combining and organizing the wealth of stories, pictures and genelogical data that has been passed down to various branches of the family tree. The wiki’s ease of use and openness will allow our entire extended family to contribute to and “own” it.

What will the Family History Wiki be used for?

The Family History Wiki is to be used to fulfill our six basic duties towards family history as outlined by Boyd K. Packer. These duties fall basically under three categories; researching ancestors to do temple work, keeping a personal/family history, and keeping our families close.

Wikis shine at doing collaboration.

Collaboration is a group of people working together to create or accomplish something. People who collaborate create more then if the same people work alone. Knowing this, why is family history traditionally done by individuals working alone? Because collaboration is hard. There has been no easy way to to discuss and share data on genealogical research. The family history website would change this by facilitating easy communication and sharing of data. There will be one shared genealogy file online that all could see and update in addition there will be discussion forums where people can report on research, ask questions, and collaborate with others.

Like the inheritance of land hundreds of years ago where each passing generation saw the ancestral estate be divided into smaller and smaller chunks, in a similar way, the records, journals, and pictures of our ancestors have been divided and scattered amongst all our relatives. This is a shame as now each branch of the family has a poorer understanding of those whom we are descended from. We can reverse the scattering by gathering all that has been passed down into the Wiki. Once all the information has been digitized and placed upon the wiki, not only will be able to find that great story Dad would always tell about such-and-such Great-Grandpa but also we would be able to find all sorts of new and interesting things from the records saved from dusty attics of distant relatives. And not only will we benefit but so will hundreds of our relatives.

A wiki is also ideal for keeping a personal/family history. Like the sites that let you create personal pages, it’s easy to set up pages showing pictures of new-born babies, a child’s first day at school, new houses, trips, and other memorable events in our lives. Because we might not want the whole world to see our personal pages, wikis allows individual pages to be easily password-protected so only who we want to see our pages can. If wanted, whole sections of the site can be password protected to create an area just for our family where we can share events of more personal nature and to store pictures and scans of significant documents such as Priesthood ordination records and blessings.

The wiki can be used to communicate with each other as listed above but also it is helpful in organizing family events and reunions. Erick, Libbey, Joel, Becky, and Kyle recently used a http://kyle.mathews2000.com/Wikka/June23CampingTrip wiki page to organize a camping trip to Manti. In a similar way we can plan for other events, including family reunions. Wikis will help us stay on the same page.

Wiki Content

The wiki will serve as a platform to gather and present information about our ancestors and ourselves for the purposes of refining, spiritualizing, and tempering members of our greater family. As such we will gather together stories, journals, pictures together that will teach and inspire those of our family.

Sources

Dad & Mom

First we need to add content. We have lots of resources from just what Dad and Mom have inherited. Scanning/typing or otherwise preparing that to put on the web will take a while and then organizing it online will take a while.

Ben has a scanner with an Automatic Document Feeder that can speed and ease scanning tasks.

Washington D.C.

Where to go after that? Once we’ve exhausted our resources, we’ll need to start collecting it from others and encouraging others to add content. Joel and Becky are going to Virgina in August and once there, they will be close to many of our Aunts and Uncles there. On their trips to Washington DC they can stop by some of their houses and collect pictures/letters/genealogical data etc. enough to occupy them until the next trip and take these home to scan/type and otherwise prepare it to put on the wiki.

Utah

Similarly, here in Utah where many of us are, there are lots of relatives close by. All of them most likely would be willing to have a few of us visit them with a laptop and scanner and grab a whole bunch of information that way.

Email

Also by email and otherwise we can advertise the site and get others excited about adding themselves materials they might have. The upcoming Barker reunion will be a prime opportunity to advertise the wiki.

I do not think that at our current rate of progress this will be ready to show to anyone in the next couple of weeks. Until it has a foundation with some core content and a defined layout I do not want to show it off. I would prefer to start slowly and build steadily than show it off prematurely. Most of the great uncles and aunts use email, so we can contact them that way.

Ancestor of the Month

To encourage repeat visits from family members, we could include an ancestor of the Month on the main page for each family web. Include a picture, biographical information, links to his page, and some brief factoids about him. This would also be a good way to encourage participation from extended family members as we could delegate that responsibility to Dad/Mom’s cousins for them to create the pages for their parents, our great Uncles/Aunts.

Wiki Organization

Here are several design principles that should guide as we create the Family History Wiki. First, hide the fact that it is a wiki. Wikis have a tendency to look raw and geeky. We need to design the wiki so it looks professional and comfortable.

Second, work to create a good user interface (UI). v This means we should make it as easy as possible for people to find what they are looking for. The site has to be laid out with the end user in mind. Think, what parts of the site they would want to access and how to arrange things so it is easy to find it. Eventually to test the UI, we should sit down with people and watch them navigate the site to see what actions are intuitive and what are not.

Another design issue to be concerned about is how we, meaning the Gary A. Mathews Family, can build, create, populate this website all the while not making it “ours”. In other words, if a third-cousin twice removed should stumble across this website they shouldn’t feel as if they were intruding. They shouldn’t feel that this is another family’s website but that they are welcome and as if it’s theirs as much of anyone else’s. This is important because ultimately, if we can create the wiki right, the bulk of the information will be added by those outside of our immediate family.

I like this, because we certainly want to draw from as broad a body as possible. Kyle, did you have any specific ideas on how to acomplish this?

Webs

pmWiki will let you create “groups” within the larger wiki, a wiki within the wiki. Each family should have its own group. This will help keep things organized plus make the wiki easier to navigate.

Static generated data

Once we have a good base of information. We’ll want to began working on the UI. Integrate the two web platforms we’re using, phpGedView and pmWiki, auto create “homepages” for each person and link pictures/journals other pages to them.

Custom Skin

Last of all, to create a uniform experience for the users, create a custom skin for the entire site.

Naming Convention

We need a naming convention for pages names so that they are predictable and easy to find. I would suggest first name, middle initial, last name, birth year, and subject. So, a bibligraphical sketch of Dad would be at GaryAMathews1944. If some document or story page needed to be created, it would be something like GaryAMathews1944MissionStories. If the document is regarding a family, then append Family to the end such as GaryAMathews1944Family.

Todo List

In order to keep this document at a fairly high level, I’m creating a TodoList where specific tasks and their progress can be recorded.

Summary

While there is a lot to do before the Family History Wiki is ready, we’re convinced it will be successful, prove helpful to our genealogical research and the information it will provide will bless our lives and many others.

Endnotes

i Joseph Smith – History 1:38–39. Pearl of Great Price

ii Boyd K. Packer. (2003, August). Your family history: Getting started. Ensign, 12.

iii ibid.

iv Dan Russel. (2006). _Intuition._ Retrieved June 22, 2006 from http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2006/06/intuition.html

v Lee !LeFever. (2005). Wikis described in plain english. Retrieved June 10, 2006 from http://www.commoncraft.com/archives/000644.html