Editing the Sankethi Family Tree

Kartik Subbarao
kartik.subbarao@gmail.com

Overview

The Sankethi Family Tree is managed with the PhpGedView genealogy software. We are using ourroots.info to host the service. This document provides instructions on common tasks when editing the family tree.

First, please make sure that you are familiar with the charter and contribution guidelines for the family tree:
http://kartiksubbarao.com/sftcharter.html

Logging into the site

In order to make changes to data, you will need to login as an editor. Go to the login page by clicking the Login link in the upper right hand corner of the home page, then type your user name and password and click the submit button.

Adding a new person

Before adding someone new, check to see whether the person already exists in the family tree. If you cannot find the person, look for a parent, child, sibling or spouse. If you find that close relative, go to their page and click the "Close Relatives" tab:

Parent -- use "Add a son or daughter" to add the new person. Add children in a family from oldest to youngest wherever possible. If you need to correct the order of children in an existing family, see the section below on how to do that.
Child -- use "Add a new father" or "Add a new mother" as appropriate
Spouse -- use "Add a new wife" or "Add a new husband" as appropriate (This can be used to record additional marriages as well, for example if the person remarried)
Sibling -- use "Add a brother or sister" if a family has been defined and one of the parents is known. If not, create an entry for a parent (e.g. "Add a new father", specifying "Unknown" as a name if necessary). This will define the family, and then add the new person as a child of that family

If you have exhausted all other options to find the person or any close relatives in the family tree, you can have the person added as an unlinked entry. Send email to sankethi_family_tree@googlegroups.com with the name of the person you want to add. Once the person has been added, you can add connected people as usual.

Name issues

Enter the person’s given and any middle names in the “Given Names” field, and their surname in the "Surname" field. PhpGedView will automatically fill in the “Name” field. If the person has a US-style or modern-Indian-style name ordering (Givenname Middle Surname), the “Name” field will be filled in properly.

However, if they have a traditional Indian style name ordering (Surname Middlename Givenname), the “Name” field will be filled in incorrectly. Click on the icon next to the "Name" field to enable editing that field, and then correct it as appropriate.

For women, always enter the maiden name (name before marriage). Married names can be optionally added in the "Married Name" field. These should be added as Givenname Middlename /Surname/ or /Surname/ Middlename Givenname depending on the order.

Entering date information

Dates should be specified in the GEDCOM standard format. Here are some examples:

25 JAN 1952 (an exact date)
JAN 1952 (sometime in January 1952)
1952 (sometime during the year 1952)
BEF MAR 1952 (sometime before March 1952)
AFT MAY 1952 (sometime after May 1952)
BET MAR 1952 AND MAY 1952 (sometime between March 1952 and May 1952)

For more details, see the GEDCOM standard: http://phpgedview.sourceforge.net/ged551-5.pdf

Entering place information

Enter places (birth, death, education, work, marriage, etc) in the format City, State, Country. This should be fully spelled out without abbreviations. Examples:

Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Princeton, New Jersey, United States

Editing the date and place of a marriage

Find either the husband's or wife's entry, click "Close Relatives", find the "Family with <spouse>" section, and click "View Family (<family ID>)". Then, in the "Add new fact" menu, select "Marriage [MARR]", and click "Add". There you can type in the date and place for the marriage.

Editing the order of children in a family

Find the family with "View Family (<family ID>)" as described above. In the "Options for Family" section, pull down the "Edit Family" menu and click "Re-order Children". There you will be able to reorder the children.

Spelling Names

If you know exactly how a person spells their name, then use their spelling, regardless of any other considerations. People have a right to spell their names however they want.

If you don't know the exact spelling, below are some suggestions to consider when spelling Sankethi names. If the person's name was never written in English, phonetic spelling is another option. In some cases, I use google to find the most common spelling for a given name.

Wherever possible, try to clarify the person's real, actual name. When speaking, people will sometimes append "aya", "aiah", "anna", "akka", "appa", "amma", "ru", "lu" or whatever for flavoring. In some cases, those are the actual names, but in other cases those are just added in the flow of verbal speech. Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference, but try to get clarification as much as possible.

Aliases and/or nicknames can be added where appropriate. For example, someone named Lakshmi may have "Achakka" as a nickname. It's also common in our community for nouns to prefix a nickname -- "Landholder Narayanarao", "Bombay Krishna". Transliterate where necessary (e.g. "Peri Haath Shomi").

Here is a list of suggested spellings for common Sankethi names:

Bettadapura
Hanasoge
Harave
Lakshmi (i.e. as opposed to "Laxmi". In general, use "ksh' instead of "x" since "ksh" is phonetically more accurate)
Periyapatna
Rudrapatna
Saligrama
Srinivasaiah (i.e. as opposed to "Srinivasiah". In general, use "aiah" instead of "iah")

You can see other examples in the family tree.

When someone has "rao" at the end of their name, and you are unsure of the spelling, join it to the name. Examples:

Krishnarao
Narayanarao
Parashuramarao
Subbarao
Vasudevarao

Photographs

Here are some guidelines for adding/uploading photographs:

Crop the picture so that the person's face is centered and prominent in the photo. This is because the photo is displayed in a small scale in a number of places (charts, family views, etc). The bigger the person's face, the easier it is to recognize, even at a small scale. Head shots are preferred.
When uploading photos, keep the file size under 1 MB.
Use the following naming convention for filenames when uploading photos: first_last.idnumber.filetype -- for example, harave_srinivasaiah.i148.jpg
To add/upload a picture:
- Go to the person's entry and select the "Media" tab
- Click "Add a new Media item"
- Browse to select "Media file to upload", or if adding a photo already on the web, type in the URL in the "File name on server" item
- For "Title", fill in the person's name
- For "Highlighted Image", select "Yes" -- this is the primary image that will be displayed for that person
- Click Save to add/upload the picture