Recently, I have begun to create people pages for some of my ancestors. I have been using the standard template. However, considering the wiki approach recommends creating links to people through the use of the double square brackets, I was wondering if it were better to create person pages with birth and death dates right in the titles.
For example, I created a page for Abraham Fickeisen. Perhaps, though, it would be better for the title of the page to read "Abraham Fickeisen (1825-1895)" in order to distinguish this person from others that have the same name. I understand that I can always use the vertical pipe to control what text appears in the link to the page. It seems that doing it this way would way reduce the amount of renaming of pages and disambiguation that might be later required for two people with the same names.
Jandris 17:55, 22 June 2007 (UTC)
Hi Jandris...In a nutshell, the answer is yes. You seem to have thought through the problem and came up with the same solution as we did. There is a specific preferred format for people articles, though we aren't exactly fussy on the subject. (see Genealogy:Page_names.
In general titles for people articles follow the format: First Middle Last (DOB-DOD)
- Note that in the dates there are no spaces.
- Note that we DO NOT use the convention of ALLCAPS for surnames (though some ignore this).
- When a date is unknown, use a "?" as in First Middle Last (?-?)
- When it is uncertain, use "c", as in First Middle Last (c1693-c1755)
- When you wish to indicate a date is before a certain year, use "bef", and after a certain year use "aft"---DO NOT use "<" or ">" as this confuses the underlying programming.
There are a few other protocols for things like "by names" that people sometimes like to use. (usually not a good idea, but I have used them here in the past in a title---Usually, simpler name articles are best, as more complicated ones aren't going to be picked up easily in a search. Bill 18:39, 22 June 2007 (UTC)