Editing Main Page (section)

== Getting started ==

=== Browsing ===

Please use this wiki to browse and learn about our family!  You can find a list of all of the family members with biographies [[:Category:Biography|here]]. You can find contact information for living family members [[Addresses|here]].  We hope that this site will help us stay connected. If you forget the name of the page you want, you might be able to find it by [[Special:Categories|Category]], or by entering part of the name in the search box.

If your own biography is in the wiki, you can visit your ancestors by clicking on a parent's name, then click on their parent, and so on up the tree, but this works only for blue links. If you click on a red link, you will be taken to a special page where you can create a new biography for that person. If you don't want to do that, either click on "Cancel" at the bottom, or use your browser's "Go back one page" arrow.

=== Correcting Errors ===

If you notice an error on a page, please do either of the following:

# Let an editor know
#*Click on the "View History" tab in the upper right corner
#*Choose someone from the list of editors
#*Find their email address [[Addresses|here]] and tell them of the error
# Make the correction yourself
#*Click on the "Edit" tab in the upper right corner and make the correction in the page code
::Warning: This may require above average computer skills
::Tip: When you are done editing, click "Show preview" so you can see what you've done before you save anything.

=== Creating A Biography ===

# Go to [[Template:Biography]]
# Highlight the text in the blue/gray box and copy it
# In the search box type:
#:: If Living: the person's current full name.
#:: If Deceased: the person's full name at death.
# Click on: Create the page "Janet Doe Smith" on this wiki!
# Paste the Template:Biography code into the new text box
# Begin editing!

We suggest that, in regard to living people, you provide only basic information.

==== Duplicate Names ====

* This wiki already has seven different people named John Lowell. To allow each one to have his own page, we called them [[John Lowell 1]] through [[John Lowell 7]]. If you search for "[[John Lowell]]" with no number, you get a "disambiguation page" that describes each of them briefly and lets you pick the one you want.
* If you want to create a page for Mary Smith, but there's already a page for a totally different Mary Smith, make the title of your article "Mary Smith 2" instead. If that's used, too, make it "Mary Smith 3", and so on.
* You can also create your own disambiguation page, but if that's too much for you to cope with, the administrators will do it later.

=== Adding photos ===

* If you have old family photos on your computer, we would love to have them on the wiki&mdash;within reason. Photos should preferably show the face of some family member clearly, and should be substantially different; for example, five shots of a picnic with the same four people in each one is overkill.
* To upload a photo, click on "Upload file" in the menu bar at the left of your screen. You will be asked to find the picture file by browsing on your computer, and then to type in a caption. If possible, include names, date, and location in your caption.
* To display the photo in an article, follow the instructions in [[Template:Biography]].

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