FamilySearch Wiki:WikiProject FamilySearch Historical Records/Guidelines for ArticlesEdit This Page

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Revision as of 20:31, 17 May 2011 by HoranDM (Talk | contribs)

 We need your help! Below is a style guide to assist you in editing and authoring desciptions of wiki articles that describe FamilySearch digital collections.


Some style notes:

FamilySearch Collections are found in the new version of They are titled "Historical Record Collections".

Wiki articles that are created to describe FamilySearch Collections are written to assist wiki users who may or may not be genealogical experts. The articles should be written in a basic languge style, using simple words. Descriptions of each section of a Family Search Collection wiki article are listed below.


The title of the wiki article reflects the title of the collection(s) in
Include in the title:

The name of the locality, beginning with the largest jurisdiction and ending with the smallest jurisdiction. Country names should be listed, with the exception of the United States and Canada. Example: Nicaragua, Managua Department Civil Registration Records.

Dates are only added for census records. Example: Florida State 1885 Census

Record type and name of the denomination or specific religious organization.


  •  Illinois Belleville Catholic Church Records
  • British Columbia Births

Add the phrase (FamilySearch Historical Records) to the end of the title in parenthesis.

Example: England, Durham Diocese Marriage Bonds and Allegations (FamilySearch Historical Records). This phrase distinguishes articles that describe specific Record Search/Historical Collections from other wiki articles.

FamilySearch Collection Template

Members of the User Guidance Unit will add the required Collection Identification number to the FamilySearch Collection Template: {{FamilySearch Collection}}. The template brands the article as describing a collection from the FamilySearch website and creates links to digital collections. 

Foreign Language Title

List the title of the collection in the language of the records.

Collection Time Period

Describe the dates covered by the collection.


Record Description

Describe the physical state of the originals, including:

  • water damage
  • torn pages
  • bleed-through
  • fire damage

Describe the types of records included in the collection, the language of the record's text and the format used in the records.

Record Content

This section includes sub-headers in bold text for the major record types found within the collection. A phrase similar to "Most (record type) contain the following important genealogical facts:" should be followed by the significant genealogical data found in the records, usually in the form of a bulleted list. Some collections contain several types of records and may need a list for each record type.

An example is:

Key genealogical facts found in the collection are listed below:

  •  Child’s name
  •  Child’s sex
  •  Number of children of mother

Sample Images

Samples of images from the collection will be added to this section individually, or with a number of images, in galleries. Foreign language images may include callouts of major phrases in the document or a translation of the document. Images should be placed above or next to the record content section that describes each image.

How to Use the Record


Record History

Describe the history of the records. Relate information about a set of records, localities, jurisdictions, and religious or ethnic groups. The history of the collection itself can also be described in this section of the article.

Why this Record Was Created

This section should explain the original intent of the creation of a specific collection of records.

Record Reliability

Describe how reliable a collection is and whether there are issues with the accuracy of the records or collection.

Related Websites:

Create links to websites outside of the wiki that contain information related to the collection being described. Addresses and other information about an archive or other site could be added to this section of the wiki article as well. Do not list the URL as the link, use a short phrase that describes the site as the link.

A sentence is input into this section by the User Guidance Unit to encourage wiki users to add helpful wiki sites. If you feel that the correct websites have been added, feel free to delete the sentence, which reads:


Related Wiki Articles:

Create internal links to wiki articles that contain information related to the collection being described.

Known Issues With This Collection

This header will be added as needed by World Wide Support Staff and Missionaries when they add information about problems with the collection.

Contributions to This Article

Please add the Contributor invite template to encourage wiki user participation:


Citing FamilySearch Historical Collections


In order to demonstrate to wiki users how to cite a source, create a link to the “How to Cite FamilySearch Collections” wiki article by typing the phrase “A suggested format for keeping track of records that you have searched is found in the Wiki Article: How to Cite FamilySearch Collections”. Create the link using the name of the article in normal font. It will look like this:


Examples of Source Citations for a Record in This Collection:

Please add this header in bolded normal text:
Examples of source citations: 

Many articles include examples of a citation based on a search of this collection listed. If there isn't an example listed for the collection, please add the examples listed below to the article in normal text with bullets: 

  • Mexico, Distrito Federal, Catholic Church Records, 1886-1933, digital images, from FamilySearch Internet ( April 22, 2010), Baptism of Adolfo Fernandez Jimenez, 1 Feb. 1910, San Pedro Apóstol, Cuahimalpa, Distrito Federal, Mexico, film number 0227023.  

Once an example is added to a wiki article that cites the collection being described, the generic examples should be removed from the article. 

Sources of Information for This Collection:

To assist wiki patrons with making citations that describe their findings, the User Guidance unit will create a bibliographic source citation that describes the digital collection in this section of the wiki article.Input a source citation in normal text font for the collection.The suggested format for citing FamilySearch Historical Collections, is found in the following article: How to Create Source Citations For FamilySearch Historical Records Collections.