User:Rlward/2007 2Q

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Website

Robert:

I'm going to take the wiki offline for about 30 minutes to move it to a new location.

- Tim Doyle - Talk to me 12:17, 29 April 2007 (CDT)

Whitney v. Whitney

Robert:

I have confirmed that the Whitney vs. Whitney court case occurred in 1566. In folio 4, I have now transcribed the following statement: "Robert Whytney esquier father of this defendant ... aboute twentye and fyve yeres last past at Icombe__ the Com of Glous dyed". 1566 - 25 = 1541, the year that Robert Whitney died.

- Tim Doyle - Talk to me 15:06, 30 April 2007 (CDT)

Phoenix Footnotes

Robert:

Something appears to be incorrect with the footnotes. Take a look at page 61, 61, etc.

I am currently reviewing your recently imported pages to determine how to make these changes programatically.

- Tim Doyle - Talk to me 09:52, 1 May 2007 (CDT)

Duplicates?

Robert:

It appears that the following two pages probably refer to the same man:

• Family:Whitney, Eustace (fl. 1277-1282)
• Family:Whitney, Eustace de (b1256-a1301)

Do you agree? If so, I'll merge.

- Tim Doyle - Talk to me 08:02, 16 May 2007 (CDT)

Phoenix Progress

Robert:

Congratulations on your progress with the Phoenix import and family page creation! As far as how detailed you want to be with source citation, I would go forward both with the 5th generation males and the females with the simple method of citing Phoenix. You can always cycle back around and add additional citations.

- Tim Doyle - Talk to me 10:12, 20 May 2007 (CDT)

Phoenix Process

Robert:

Can you quickly describe your process for Phoenix? It seems as though you are uploading them fairly quickly. Are you just cutting and pasting from a set of pre-created pages that you have? The reason I ask is that if the content is ready to be added, the bot can do that very easily!

- Tim Doyle - Talk to me 16:13, 25 May 2007 (CDT)

Phoenix & Databases

Robert:

Excellent work on Phoenix. I'm glad that my scripting and robot automation tool were able to help out after all.

As far as what other pages or activities we should do now, I look at it in two ways. 1) What's left to complete the content on this website to what the last website had, and 2) What content would be most beneficial to the largest number of WRG members. As long as we've completed the migration of data from the old website, I say any further work should fall under the second criteria. Of course, I'm also a big believer that this is all a hobby, and should be enjoyable, even to us! I say work on what you find most enjoyable.

As far as the databases go, the big question which we must agree on is where should the primary data reside? In the GEDCOMs, or in the wiki? Once that question has been answered, I'll have a better idea of how to make it happen.

Note: I'm still working on this list. Feel free to add items of your own here. - Tim

Keep the data in the GEDCOM files

Pros

1. System is in place and people know how to use it.
2. The process is distributed among several people.
3. WRG members can download it to their own systems.

Cons

1. GEDCOM isn't a great system for storing the narratives that we'd like to put together.
2. We can't link source documents to families and families to source documents
3. Only one person can be in charge of each GEDCOM
4. We'd have to write a program to display or somehow integrate the GEDCOM data on the website.
5. This data would not be included in the search of the site.
6. We have the same data in multiple places (wiki and GEDCOM) for some early generations.

Migrate the data to the wiki

Pros

1. The process is distributed among everyone - Everyone can contribute.
2. The wiki is a great way to store narratives and link to source documents.

Cons

1. WRG members can't easily download the data to their own systems.
2. System is in place and people can learn how to use it.
3. We'd have to import the data from the GEDCOMs to the website (easier to do this once than to keep the data in sync repeatedly).

- Tim Doyle - Talk to me 19:15, 5 June 2007 (CDT)

Ebenezer

Robert:

While looking at the list of outstanding conversion projects, I realized that I could use a new HTML to Wiki formatting tool that I just installed this week for work to convert Descendants of Ebenezer Whitney of Sheffield, NB, Canada. I have now done this and the results, while not perfect, are far better than previous attempts. I've saved them to the website, and I think we can finish up the cleanup by using search and replace, either in an external editor or I can write a perl script if we need that. Take a look at what's there and let me know what you think.

By the way, I agree that we should eventually strive to convert this to family group pages, but for now, a direct import of the full document is probably all that we need to do.

It appears that the conversion stripped out the internal anchors. I am currently working on this and will be doing a re-import. If you have time, please review the file and let me know what other issues you might find.

- Tim Doyle - Talk to me 07:12, 6 June 2007 (CDT)

Ebenezer GEDCOM

Robert:

I just downloaded a GEDCOM to HTML converter. I'd like to test that out, then use my HTML to Wiki conversion capabilities to see if I can't get the Ebenezer data online in Family Group pages. Could you send me the latest Ebenezer file?

Thanks!

- Tim Doyle - Talk to me 17:29, 6 June 2007 (CDT)

Searching

Robert:

One of the items that was listed on the website conversion list was the ability to search the mailing list archives on rootsweb and the Whitney Genealogy Forum. The old website was able to do this and present the data merged in with the other search results. That will not be possible here. Instead, I have added these searches, as well as several others that were on the old search page to the Advanced Search page. All appear to be currently working properly.

- Tim Doyle - Talk to me 09:50, 7 June 2007 (CDT)

Collapsible Tables

Robert:

After much effort, I was finally able to get collapsible tables to work. See User:Tdoyle/Sandbox9 for an example. Basically, we can use these in places where we want users to be able to see information, but may not want it to take up all of the screen. I basically got this working here for a project for work, but if you ever have a need for it, just let me know.

- Tim Doyle - Talk to me 23:26, 7 June 2007 (CDT)

Problems Galore

All fixed! - at least in the MA Vital records pages. I'll go look around to see if I can find more areas that need conversion. Fixed several other areas as well.

- Tim Doyle - Talk to me 07:55, 12 June 2007 (CDT)

More Changes

Robert:

I can quickly add a link for [[Whitney Research Group]] and convert <br> to <br />

- Tim Doyle - Talk to me 10:08, 12 June 2007 (CDT)

Silas

I was hoping you saw turbodoug's post. I actually pulled out your Footloose article to see what might have been listed there. I just received a package of all of the past issues of TAG that I was missing from 2003-2006, but not the anticipated issue.

Why are Isaac & Nathaniel from your Footloose article not listed on Family:Whitney, Joshua (1712-1750)?

P.S. FYI - We have yet more thunder outside currently, and when that happens, we frequently lose power, which means the website could go down again.

- Tim Doyle - Talk to me 13:26, 13 June 2007 (CDT)

Silas Whitney- Simeon Whitney

The handwritten notes I have came from my Father's cousin and have the following which I just sent to TDoyle.

I have Silas Whitney b. 1770/71 marrying Tryphina Lane in 1791 died 1836 Buried in Temple Hill Cemetery, Geneseo, N.Y.. #2 wife Electa Hawks (came from Connecticut) and #3 wife Huldah born 1774 died Oct. 4, 1846 in Rochester, May be buried in Temple Hill. Children with Tryphina. 1. Jemima born 1792 2. Male child ? 3. Simeon L. born July 7, 1802 ?4. Another son?

Silas 1795 Came to Ontario County, N.Y. from Medway MA. 1796 was in Ontario County at Pittstown (now Honeoye) Later in Bristol, N.Y. Came to Geneseo, N.Y.

1855- Silas was 85 yrs old and lived in son Simeon's home.

Simeon died March 7th,1875 buried Temple Hill cemetery, Geneseo, N.Y. He was married to Temperance Alexander April 4,1822. Temperance was born March 10, 1804 died Nov. 4, 1860.

Six children

1. 5 was Charles H. born June 3, 1842. Simeon's information came from the Whitney Bible. and some from Barb. Deller

I am still digesting the handwritten pages but the above is an excerpt. I will continue to correspond

Which Nathaniel

Robert:

I think you're right - I think it should belong to his grandfather, since we know from his second marriage that he had ties to Concord.

- Tim Doyle - Talk to me 21:46, 17 June 2007 (CDT)

Ebenezer / Databases

Robert:

As you know, we have two things left to convert before our migration from the old website is complete. In reality, these two items are variants of the same thing - the databases. Rather than convert the Ebenezer report, I think I should concentrate on how to convert the databases. Agreed?

As I look at how to attack this issue, I can do this in a couple of ways:

1. Write a script which parses & interprets the GEDCOM directly, then creates family group pages for each family.
2. Use TMG to convert the GEDCOM information to a different format, such as a descendancy report, and then write scripts to convert this further.

I think using TMG would save me much time in GEDCOM interpretation, providing I can get output that contains all of the information as well as the appropriate links between individuals.

I'm still pondering how to do this... I haven't forgotten that it needs to be done.

- Tim Doyle - Talk to me 08:16, 19 June 2007 (CDT)

Samuel Whitney Descendant

Robert,

Could you put kit #92676 up on the web for my brother and I. I am not sure how to get the results on the web page. Thanks. You and Tim are doing great work!

Tara (Whitney) Bellomy