User:Michael A. White/Genealogical information in articles

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an essay; it contains the advice and/or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. It is not a policy or guideline, and editors are not obliged to follow it.

Many Wikipedia articles contain genealogical information. These can broadly be grouped into articles not focused on genealogy, mainly biographies, and articles where the subject significantly involves genealogy, such as articles on families.

Contents 1 Biographies 1.1 Cousin relationships 1.2 Spouses and children 1.3 Royalty 2 See also

[edit] Biographies

Remember that Wikipedia is not a genealogy repository. Biographies should only include genealogical information to the extent that it is notable and relevant, and it should not be given undue weight when compared to sections about the person's life. For most people, listing the names of their parents in the Early life section is sufficient. It may be appropriate to add a sentence about their ancestors, such as the names of grandparents, when the grandparents had a significant effect on the person or were notable and the parents were not. Further information about the subject's genealogy should be relegated to a footnote or not included at all. Exceptions are when the subject has significant notable ancestry that has been noted in reliable sources, and this fact would not be otherwise assumed based on the subject's life. See, for example Hugh Grant#Ancestry and early life.

[edit] Cousin relationships

Common ancestry between two people is not uncommon. George W. Bush and John Kerry are distant cousins in several ways, and this is typical for people born in the twentieth century who are of New England colonial ancestry. Cousin relationships should not be included in a biographical article unless the relationships themselves have received significant coverage in reliable sources, as, for example, those of U.S. Presidential candidates tend to. Similarly, that a person is descended from a notable ancestor should not be included in their biography unless it is relevant to understanding that person. So, for example, an article about an actor who happens to be descended from a Mayflower Pilgrim should not list that fact, while articles about Boston Brahmins (because ancestry is important to understanding their notability) or Hugh Hefner (because his Mayflower descent has received reliable coverage and is significant to discussion of him) could contain such information.

When cousin relationships are relatively close, such as within the third or possibly fourth cousin range, or cousins are both from part of a notable family or a family with notable members, it may be appropriate to include those cousin relationships.

Otherwise, such information may be kept in List of United States Presidents by genealogical relationship or a similar article, or a footnote.

[edit] Spouses and children

Marriage dates and places and child birth dates and places are generally relevant to the life of any biographical subject. Depending on the article, children may be incorporated in prose narrative, or listed in prose, or listed in a bulleted list (this method may be useful if information about the life of children needs to be conveyed). Children should not be redlinked unless there is a reasonable chance that they are notable and an article could be made about them.

Living people who are the subjects of articles tend to add biographical information, such as exact birth dates, about their children. Any information, even names, that can't be verified with a reliable source should be removed.

[edit] Royalty

See also: WikiProject Royalty

Royalty are a special case, because their importance is based on their ancestry/descent. Thus, it may be appropriate to list parents in the lead, and ancestry can receive significant coverage in the article, including with Genealogy templates.

[edit] See also

• WP:NOTINHERITED - notability is not inherited; thus, to have an article, ancestors or descendants of notable people must be independently notable or have had a very significant effect on the notable person's life that could not be sufficiently covered in that article.