Chris Lüer wrote:
At 07:28 AM 5/5/2006, charles matthews wrote:
The fact is that dab pages in general are never going to be neat and tidy: it's a catch-all idea. Surname dab pages on the other hand should be important reference pages, for example for someone wondering which Watson was a sixteenth century commentator on Senecan drama (Thomas, as I found a couple of days ago).
Agreed, but this requires to be lenient about spelling. Historical names often exist in lots of spelling variants, so one would have to have Jamison and Jamieson on the same page.
Absolutely. My known family tree stretches back 27 generations, and the surname is spelt in very nearly that many ways. Originally "de Bossuille", it has been "Bosvil" and "Boswil" at various times. Only in recent generations has the spelling settled down, and even so the variant "Boswall" is still around: there's a famous TV producer of that name who's a distant cousin.
There is a discussion on Meta as to whether a genealogy project should be adopted under the Wikimedia Foundation umbrella: this kind of data would be invaluable for the kind of page Charles is describing. Imagine not simply having to say "This John Smith is the one born in 1710" but also being able to say "This John Smith is in our genealogy wiki [[here]]" with a proper link!
HTH HAND