Link Builders Cubicle Party (August 2026) w/host @Robinson-27225

Thank you everybody for joining us for the August session of link builders challenge. This is where we talk about the previous month of link building and what we're doing the current month and share some tips and tricks on how to how to build links back to Wiki Tree, which is what this is all about. If you haven't been here before, that's what we're doing. It's part of the Ambassadors Project. And the ambassadors project is how we spread the word about Wiki Tree so that others can learn about it and bring their family here. Link building is building links back to Wiki Tree on external websites like Ancestry, Find a Grave, um, and Family Search are the main ones. But we'll we'll show some examples a little bit later. Let's check in and see how we did last month. So, I'm just going to go to the scoreboard for last month. And we had looks like we had 1,14 ancestors with links built back to them. And we had 32 people take part. Let me pop in and see how many links were actually built, though. So, we did a total of 1,483 links built back to those 1,14 ancestors. So, thank you everybody who joined in the challenge last month and helped us build those links. Let's check in now and see how we're doing in August. So this month so far, we still have some days left in the month, but we have another 32 taken part and we have 1,43 ancestors built back to and that's a total of 2,24 links. That's awesome to see. So, thank you everybody who's taking part this month. We really appreciate everything you do. And I have an example for each of these different ones. So, let me walk through what that looks like for y'all and then we can open it up to questions and if anybody has anything they'd like to share after that. I just like to have some examples on screen for y'all so that um anybody who missed this can catch up later. So let me bring up the examples for us here. Okay. So, the first thing I want to show is the find a grave one. And I'm going to start actually by going to the ambassadors project page. So if you go to find and then projects and by the way I just want to mention um I have two different browsers open here so that you all can see the difference between wiki tree browser extension being installed like this it is on this version and then here you can see it is not installed. So you can see the difference between the two. So on the project page, I'm just going to look for ambassadors. So on the ambassadors project page towards the bottom is the wiki tree heart. That's what we call it. I love wiki tree heart. So if you right click on that, you can do save image as and it will save to wherever you'd like to have it saved. So I'm just going to save that. Now, if I go back over to my ancestors profile on find a grave. Oh, first though, I have to grab I have to grab it over here. Let me So if you haven't used Wiki Tree Sorcerer before, it is an extension that allows you to do many things, but the one we're going to talk about today is saving person data on a Wiki Tree profile. and then go to find a grave and scroll down to the bottom here and click this button leave a flower and go to choose a category up here and do the drop down. Select my scrapbook and then add to your scrapbook. Upload new and then go to where you saved that image. And then you can name your flower and upload. So now it's saved in your scrapbook. So if I go back to his memorial on find a grave now and scroll back down and go leave a flower again, choose a category. my scrapbook. There it is. So then you can click choose that Wiki Tree heart and then go up to Wiki Tree sourcer and do add link builder flowernote referencing that profile we just saved the information from. So it saved his Wiki Tree profile ID. And so it says that on Wiki Tree and that's what it looks like when you're done. So now if you go over to his family search profile and go into the sources tab there, you can do add source, add new source, and then go back up to Wiki Tree Sourcer. Oh, I have to There we go. Now it should work. Set fields from person data. And so that fills in that form for you. And then you just click save. Now, if you scroll down through the sources towards the end where there are entries with no dates, you'll see it's right there. And you'll see it's the full URL there. Now, let's go over to newspapers.com is uh doesn't have the sourcer capability. So, I'll just show how to do that though. In the edit screen for your clipping, you can just type in the profile ID just like that. And then they also have tags that you can add. And I've added one for Wiki Tree here. So is there. So that that was my question about a newsprase.com. So, you're just typing in his Wiki Tree ID in the um in the edit box. Is that what you're doing? >> Yes. >> Yep. Just this edit. >> And then adding a tag of that says Wiki Tree. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Okay. >> Yeah. >> So, there isn't any other place to put it than um >> not not on newspapers. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Let me go ahead before I forget, as I always do for some reason. Let me go over and count my point. So on the ancestor profile menu, go to challenge tracker and select link builders and family search. Find a grave and newspapers >> and newspapers. Right, right below. There we go. >> Yeah, >> there we go. Add point. And there it goes. And now we're going to hear from our special guest Flo about Wiki TreeB. >> So I just wanted to show a do a short demonstration of a feature I put in Wiki 3B the other day. I announced it on G2G, but apparently um you might not have seen it already. Therefore, I thought let's just take a look. And the idea is basically to have B show you when there is a link to Vikid data page um where the Vikid data page might have potential to link back to Vikree but doesn't have a Vik tree link um which is of course very interesting for notables um but also for other topics um maybe Just to show you how it looks like, we have a biography of a relative of mine. And here um there is a Wikipedia link to Lake Lucern. And it has a Wikidata logo, which basically means that the Vikid data page to Lake Lucern doesn't have a Vik tree link, which is okay. So there are a lot of cases where it's completely fine not to have a wiki tree link. But for example, um if this would be the profile of a notable and there would be no wiki tree link in the wiki data profile of that notable then it might be a good idea to add that link to wiki tree to vi in wiki data. Um so um let's see first how to enable it. So you go to you click the B button you go to B setting here with this gear symbol and there it is directly the option show Wikid data logo next to Wikipedia Wikid data links if it lacks link to Wiki tree. I'm sure there would have been a shorter title, but I didn't come up with any. Um, but it does basically what I explained. So, for example, if we now pick a random Vik tree category, which also often have links to Wiki tree uh to Vikid data profiles. Here we have the category Colorado war. Um, and it has a link to Colorado War. And we see it has the Vikid data logo which means the page on Vikid data about the Colorado war does not have a link to Vikit Tree which doesn't need to be that way because why not link from the Vikid data page about the Colorado war to Vikree right M right >> all right yes >> okay um therefore You can click here right on the wiki data item. It will take you directly to the page about the Colorado war >> and you copy the ID and I'm sorry for wait let's make it English so you all feel a little bit more home. Um yeah and you can go basically to the bottom of the page. You click add statement. You start typing Vik tree and this is not a person ID but this is a category space page. So we select category space page. We insert the category we just copied and we press publish and we have a link to the Colorado War category. >> Excellent. >> And even cooler, um, if you go to the Colorado War Wikipedia page and you have B installed, which I assume you did because, yeah, that's what we're doing here. and you go here in the in the tools menu here at the top right there you have the link to the vigree page >> and you have um a link that will allow you to copy the Wikipedia page as a template as a linking template. So if you click here then you can easily copy the wikid data template >> and put it in your profile page. And when you click instead on the on the um brackets on the other brackets here then you can copy directly a Wikipedia link for your wiki tree page. And if you push the show Vik tree profiles link here, it will check the whole page for Vik tree profiles that are linked. For example, we have here the link to black kettle and it takes you directly to the wiki tree page of black kettle. And here we have George Bent. And what else do we have? Here we have James G. Blunt and a lot of other people's people that are that have Wiki Tree profiles. And you also see who doesn't have a Vik tree profile, which might also be nice. Still, if you have, for example, here the battle on plate rich, you go again on the show wiki tree profiles button and you will see all the logos popping up with the people that have profiles. And if you have a list of um um profiles, for example, how are they called? for the haters and you have a list of a lot of people and you go then again on the um show wiki tree profiles button then you will see a lot of wiki tree profiles for people that you can easily see who doesn't have a wiki tree profile yet. >> Wow, >> that's awesome. That's great. >> Okay. Um, I guess this would be the end of the advertisement block for today. >> Wow, love that. >> Um, except maybe as as a little pun. >> That's very helpful. A lot of helpful. >> That's that's good to hear. B also has a feature called Wikid data places. Um if you go to the settings again with the gear symbol at editing there is Viki data places and what it will do it will add to all the location fields in Vik tree. So birthplace death place marriage place and the location of the photograph. It will add here a vigata logo button. And okay, I don't know about you, but I sometimes really have problems, especially with German profiles. Um, when when is it called how and where did it belong to? Because Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Or for the Americans, Hawaii is always a great example. So when was it a state and what not or Virginia, West Virginia, you name it. Um and what it will do. For example, we just know that the location is Hinden constructed example. Um and we know it's in AD37. the person was born and you click that uh Vikid data button and it will go to Vikid data and we'll look up the historic locations in combination for the time. >> Awesome. And yeah um small small gotcha at this point the locations have to be in Vikid data already of course um for my area those are meanwhile but it might also be that you would need to add it in vikid data to have it of course so there might be you come up with it will nothing will come out because simply the data is not in wiki data but then you can edit I mean when you have to research it anyway. You can also edit um uh maybe and for this to work in German, you have to um put the place name suggestion language to German. Um because if you put it to English, it will use use English names and a lot of them are not filled for. So for example, you see here hint, but then the next one has no English name. Um, and then everything is in English. So just switch it to German, then you have it in German. But for example, does anyone know a place? >> Um, Honolulu, Hawaii, >> the cap. Okay. Yeah, Honolulu is also a good good point. We switch it to English and we say 1837 in I think you write it completely different or I let's see I I ah there was a a lude too less too few. Okay so we have Honolulu and then it checks and it says Kingdom of Hawaii. Um if the place has more um if the if there are more places or generally more Vikid data items with the same name, you will get here a list um to select from. But yeah, it already picked Kingdom of Hawaii. Um when does it get interesting? I think 1950 maybe. >> No, I think it's further. Um, so it says you further. Yeah. >> 1950ish. >> No. >> So now I say 1950. And it suggests Honolulu, Honolulu County, Territory of Hawaii, United States. And you can pick this one. >> Yeah, that's that's right because that's when it became became a state. >> And then you have 1970. And it still says okay. Maybe 1940 would be interesting. >> I don't know. >> No, I don't think so. Not yet. >> Um, yeah, it's the same. Okay. Yeah, but you get the idea, I think. Um, but of course, all on the premises that it has to be in Vicki data. Um, that has but that the American stuff is there. For Germany, it's not as widespread. Um, but the American stuff is there for sure. Um, and you have a question. >> Yeah. Hello. You were in wiki. Uh, you were in B, but but it also said it was preview. Is there a big difference between preview and regular U B? Um, yes, preview has the ultimate but preview might also be the ultimate Um, sorry for uh way too explicit for for Americans. I'm sorry, German direct. Um so um B preview is um is a preview version has the is the latest and greatest is basically under development and might have new interesting features but might also have new interesting features with bugs. Um >> well so it's under test. So if you are if you are aware that this might be buggy but therefore I might also get new shiny things then you're okay with preview and if you would like to have the things a bit more stable then you're better off with the normal B >> right so so I was just telling is so the wiki data that you were just showing it it's in update it's doing it right now right it is not in preview only. It's right now. >> No, that's that has been there for a year already. >> Hi. >> Great. That's awesome, Flo. Thank you so much for taking some time and showing that to us. I really appreciate it. >> You're welcome. >> Thank you. >> All right. >> All right. Does anybody have anything they want to see or share what they're working on or >> I just want to tell you how fantastic you helped me for my IMBD or whatever. >> Oh, good. Yeah. >> I did five of them which are was it was really easy. >> Yeah, that's nice, huh? >> Yeah. I love it. >> Yeah. Very cool. So, so I have a question about um I have some ancestors that are buried in um it's I don't not sure how to pronounce it. It's it's Pilis P Y L- S Cemetery in Texas. Okay. >> In Lamar Lamar County, Texas. And um it's coming up um when I click on the the cemetery it's um it shows the little icon that um that it h that there are several people in wiki tree that are in that cemetery. >> Okay. >> But um it's coming up as um um in like the data dockers or the the the suggestions. So, does that mean that the cemeterists um are working on that or there's a problem or >> No, it's just it's just that that's where the the information is coming from. So, when Sorcerer is giving you these icons, it's using the database dumps, it's not checking the live wiki tree. So when you click on that it's going to take you to >> the database but it's not this is just wiki tree plus this is not the data doctors >> okay >> this is >> when I try to when I try to categorize it it doesn't come up in categories the cemetery doesn't come up in categories which I thought was kind of weird. Does that make sense? >> Yeah. Let's go to It just might be that somebody hasn't created the category for it yet. >> Okay. >> So, uh, in Texas, you said, do you know what county? >> Uh, it's in Lamar. >> Okay. And what was Py? >> P Y L. >> Yeah. So, somebody just hasn't created the category yet. >> Okay. So, is that something that I would have to put on G2G or could I do that myself? Yeah, you can do it yourself uh if you feel comfortable um doing that. Just make sure that that is the actual name. Just because it's on find a grave that way doesn't mean it's correct. >> Uh there might actually be an also known >> name. So, uh just as with anything, just research that you have all the correct information. So, I'll show you on this one. Um, so I'm going to go to this category just so you can see. So, have you worked with categories before? >> Um, not not I mean, not very much. I mean, a little bit, but yeah. >> Okay. So, there's what we call a category info box, which is what this is showing right here. >> Mhm. So when you go in to edit screen on this category, you'll see that you can fill in all this information. So there's a field for the name and then see this one has an also known as. >> Okay, >> so as a different name and then the the parent >> category is the county. >> Okay, >> so um it would be Lamar County, Texas, right? >> The one and then the location. If it's in a city, you would put the lo that location. There's an entry field for find a grave, billing graves, the GPS coordinates. There's actually quite a few uh different fields. Let me take this into the one with the >> So, how do I get to that little box then? Does that automatically come up when you go into edit category? >> No. Um when you when you um So, do you have B? >> Yes. >> Oh, okay. Ha. So B has a great feature. So let me go there just a second. >> Um, cancel. So I'm just going to go back on find a grave. So with B, you can, if you just click this B up here when you're on the the cemetery page, >> Mhm. it actually will go ahead and um create get it set up for you. >> So it it on this one it's saying it already exists but you did you see briefly it was in an edit screen, >> right? Yeah. So okay. So So I go to that cemetery find a grave page >> and I click click B and it will automatically bring up that category page. >> Yeah. It'll it'll bring up the edit screen for >> Okay. >> And the new category. >> Okay. >> And then get you all set up with the with everything it can tell from the find a grave page. >> Okay. Okay. Well, I I'll go to I'll Google it first to make sure because it does it doesn't say also known as. It just says um Pile Cemetery, Lamar County, Texas. There's nothing AKA or anything like that. >> That's Yeah, that's fine. But I I'll Google it just to make sure that you know that there's an address or anything like that. So, okay. >> Yeah. So, if you go once you're in the edit screen before you save though, because you're it's prefilling with information from find a grave. >> If you go to if once you're in so set your cursor in the template somewhere >> and go edit template, >> then it'll show you all the different fields that you could fill in. So, okay, if if you have a cemetery that's affiliated with a church, you have a place to put that there. >> Um, cool. >> And then if Ed has a entry on Wiki data, >> you have a place there. If there's a space page, you can put that there. >> Oh, wow. >> If there's a web page, >> if you know, for instance, what the start and end, you know, end dates were. Um, so there's a lot of different fields there that you can set. >> Okay. Yeah. I don't know much about wiki data, so that's that's kind of new to me. >> No worries. >> Okay. >> Um, but yeah, there's there's just lots of So, this is the category info box. So, that'll give you um you know, all the details. Anybody who goes there then can see that. >> Okay, that seems pretty straightforward. So, okay. >> Yeah, pretty easy actually. >> Yeah, >> with that B at extension that does that work for you. >> That's really nice. Okay. >> I just added a cemetery today and I found out and I had to make sure it's the right one because because there was one more different than another cemetery and completely different cemeteries. So, so, so, so that's why I had to find out, you know, more information about it. >> Yeah. And when you run across something like that, I would just put a note in the in below the category info box. I just put a note. Do not confuse with, >> you know, what what the other cemetery is. >> Okay. >> Because somebody else might >> say, well, wait a, you know, have the same. >> Oh, yeah. Yeah. Um, I just did that for in in your c uh cemetery uh discord. I found two cemeteries that are exactly the same, but unfortunately they were, they were supposed to be in Ohio and not in Indiana. >> Oh. >> So, so, so, uh, I did not know how to do it. So, so someone in Discord did it for me. >> Great. That's great. Yeah, that's what that's what it's there for is, you know, there there are some people who do this every day. They're really sav savvy about it and they know what to look for, whatever. And so, Right. Right. >> It's nice to be able to lean on them. So, >> yep. >> All right. Well, does anybody else have a question or want to see see something uh demonstrated or want to share what you're working on? I've been going through and um so I I started on Wiki Tree in 2018, you know, and started um my family. I had a G um I had a Jedcom that I was working from when I first came to Wiki Tree and you know I did a first pass through a couple years after I'd been here but now I'm going back through and trying to bring them all up to at least silver standard because some of these people have living descendants because this is my grandfather. So um yeah so that's just something I've been working on. What are y'all working on? >> Yeah, that's what I just looked at, too. Uh, I was looking at my grandfather and I did this way back like three or four years ago. I said, "What in the heck were you doing?" I said, "You didn't put any information. You just put, you know, you know, just know for and now I have more information." I said, "Good. I am going to reverse you and become standard or even goal." >> Yeah. Nice. Yeah. Crazy. >> Very cool. >> Yeah. I'm kind I'm kind of doing the same thing. I I've um I'm working through my my watch list to put everybody um on on uh you know linking everybody to Find a Grave and and Family Search. So, that's kind of what I've been working on. So, >> yeah. Another thing that I've been doing when I've been doing this is um having uh Claude actually look at the actual image of the record, the source record. >> Um because there's a lot of information I missed when I looked at it. And so it it's basically transcribing the information for me. >> Okay. into the site citation >> like I see here. Anyway, just something new I've been working on so that I can make sure I'm not missing anything. >> Oh, >> off the record. So, this is his death record. So, >> I don't know. It's just and like on a census record there's sometimes I didn't know like the Iowa census in 1925 that has a second page. So, it Claude told me, "Well, go to the second page and that's going to tell you the mother's maiden name." And anyway, it was just really cool. I learned a lot >> um by having it review my source sources and citations, >> right? >> Been interesting. >> Wow. Actually, >> so yeah. So, I've been finding Yeah. by going through my watch list and and putting everybody uh linking everybody to find a grave. I'm thinking, "Oh, I didn't like like Ann was saying, I I didn't very much on this when I first put everybody on Wiki Tree because I I was like, okay, I I got to go back and I mean, I had a couple that had maybe one or two sources and I'm like, well, this isn't going to do." So, >> Oh, yeah. And it's like when you're first when you first start, you just want to get everybody up there, right? And so, right, >> it was like was bored, married, >> died. That's not all. >> Right. Exactly. And it's like, oh, okay. Well, this needs a little work, you know. >> That was my grandfather. That was my grandfather. I I had all these senses. And I said, wait a minute. He moved from this place to this place. It does not show that. It did not show that he went from, you know, you know, from New York to to to Cleveland. >> Yeah. And I last night I was working on one and it it real I realized that they this was my would be my second great aunt. Her and her husband moved back and forth between Texas and Oklahoma. >> Oh wow. >> Between 1910 and 1950 every 10 years they moved back and forth between Texas and Oklahoma. They moved here. They moved to Texas, then they moved to Oklahoma, then they moved back to Texas, then they moved back to Oklahoma. And I'm just going, "Holy, >> what are you guys doing?" >> I know. I'm thinking, well, it had to be before because he needed to find work, you know, in the 30s they, you know, they moved to Oklahoma, then in the 40s they moved to Texas, then they moved back to Oklahoma, then they moved back to Texas, and I'm like, "Wow, those poor kids." I mean, they had 10 kids. >> Yeah. Well, maybe and maybe it was um something too where he was like seasonal. >> Yeah. Work. Yep. Seasonal work. >> Yeah. He he worked, you know, road construction and and then the last 10 years of his life, he was a gravedigger, I think. And I didn't know that. I like he's a gravedigger. That's an interesting occupation. Yeah. So, >> um, a you you were doing Claude and what kind of source did would you put in there as you know, would you say just cla or how would you put that in there? >> Oh, uh, the prompt that I put in for it. >> Yeah. So I would say I would say he review these images of sources and I would say um compare against the existing markup on Wiki Tree for this person and glean all of all available details and add it to the citation for that record. >> Right. And when you added to wiki3 what is uh I see that you have digital image is that just what um >> yeah so this specific one is uploaded to his profile I my aunt actually gave me I have the actual records of uh >> this discharge um and then there's um an enlistment record. >> Yeah. >> So >> I have the actual record. So I uploaded Isla uploaded them to Wiki Tree. So it's linking to the actual image. >> Ah, okay. Thank you. >> So much to learn. Always new tips and tricks every time. I'm on three. >> Love it. Thank you. >> Yeah. And this is the new B feature that or it's not new. It's been around for a year, but this is what Flo was talking about. You guys see the little wiki data icon there? I have never seen that before. >> What does that what does that do? >> Well, it just shows you that that location is on Wiki data. >> So, if you were, for instance, if you Let's see there >> if it was when uh he was talking. >> Yeah. Let me go back here. Where was that at? Here we go. Okay. So, if we open this up in Wiki data, but first I'm going to go to the category so I can show you what what it is. So, we have a category on wiki tree for where was that tab import? >> Oh, it's not on his profile. Okay. Okay. Well, let me do >> let me do this one. Let me just do Seattle. Um, but I have to go back here. Okay. So, Seattle. I know it's on his profile at the beginning. Oh, no. Towards the end. Okay. Oh, it's not. That's funny. It's not doing it there. >> Yeah, the Pierce County above it is though. Pierce County. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, there here is the wiki tree category for Seattle, Washington, right? Oh, that's what's going on. It doesn't have the wiki data in the field there. So, let me put that in. Okay. So on a Wikipedia article, um, every Wikipedia article has Wiki data, but um, there doesn't have to be a Wikipedia article for everything in Wiki data. Does that make sense? So just because it's in Wikid data doesn't mean that there's an article for it. >> Oh, >> it just means it's in that database. So it's a separate system. So, here's Seattle and let's just see. Okay, so somebody's already got it linked. So, let me try Southbend, Washington, just to see if that also so you can guys can see what that looks like. Oh, first let me get the Okay, let me fix this category though because it doesn't have the wiki data. Oh, it does. Oh, why wasn't it showing? And maybe I just didn't see it. Nope, it's not showing here. So, there must be something wrong with the field. Oh, yeah. It's wiki data ID I think is what the correct thing is for that. There it is. Yeah, it was just missing. So now it should work on his page for B. Let's see here. Nope. I'll have to find out. I'll send that to I'll send that to Flo. Oh, maybe it's because these ones don't have and they they could Okay, so it's telling us that's why it's not on there is because it has an entry in its wiki data. Sorry. Ah, that's funny. Okay, so fresh example, Raymond Washington. Okay. So, here we go. So, this is an indicator that it does not have a link back to Wiki Tree on Wiki data. So, we can grab the category ID here and go to Wiki data and scroll down here. But first you have to be sure that you are account have account. >> Oh yeah. >> Oh there it goes. Okay. >> Yeah. So let me go over here where I do have an account. >> Okay. So if you go down here and you go add statement and type in wiki tree, it'll come up with category or space and you can just put in there, paste in there the category ID and then hit publish. And there it is. So now you've got a link back to Wiki Tree for that one. >> Oh, I got to look at all those. >> Okay, so now there we go. So now they went away. So those little icons were basically saying create create a link back to Wiki Tree for for this. >> Oh wow. >> That's what that that's what those are. >> So that's more of a flag then to let you know that that needs to be linked to data. >> Oh, okay. It's like extra credit basically because we we don't have this as part of the challenge just because we can't um track it uh because we can't track contributions um on the category pages. But it's Yeah, that's why I call it extra credit. So, >> okay. Yeah, I I don't I don't think I'm quite ready for that yet, but >> yeah, >> okay. Yeah, I get a few more little things under my belt before I do that. But >> yeah, >> I gota put that on my bee. >> So, I think I can probably um do the the cemetery one, but >> yeah, that'll be cool. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. And there are probably quite a few profiles that link to that c uh to that cemetery. You'll be able to get into that category for you. Yeah, because I have a um I have a lot of the of my um my Watson ancestors that I was running into last night that I was linking that were ended up in that cemetery and every time I you know >> they weren't there. There's no category. >> They weren't there. I'm like I need to know how to do that. >> Well, good. I'm glad we could help out. >> Yeah. >> All right, we need to shut down because um >> Yes, I know at at four o'clock. Well, thanks everybody for joining me for this one. Bye. >> Bye.