How to create and edit a Church node

Introduction

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Keep in mind that in this context a church Is the congregation of people.That may be identified with a particular building for a long period of time or may move from place to place. Thus for example you can enter more than one location for a church if they have moved.

Create a new church node

When logged in, on the Shortcut Menu click "Add Content", then choose "Church". The Church Page template will open and should then be completed and saved.

There are

• some essential fields (you cannot save the node with out these);
• some core fields (if you are creating a node it is highly desirable to include this information)
• common node fields 

Edit an existing church node

To modify an existing church node, navigate to  the church node in question. You can do this quickly: via the parish page; using the general GENUKI search; or from the Shortcuts > Churches item on the menu bars if you are already logged. As with other nodes you then open  Edit Mode by clicking Edit on the page menu bar below the title and above the text. Make the necessary amendments, and save. Beware of leaving any essential fields empty as you will not be able to save.

Essential fields to create node

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These are essential in the sense that the edit screen cannot be  saved unless there is an entry in these items. Often it is convenient to create the node and save it with this basic information before then editing it to include as much other information as possible. They are marked with an asterisk on the entry and edit screen

Title *
The title should be composed of three elements, separated by commas.

• The dedication if there is one, otherwise the name of the street.
• The name of the place in which it is located.
• The denomination. If that has changed over time due to mergers use the one it started out with.

County *

As with place nodes, if you start typing the name of the appropriate county a list will appear of possible matches. You can either complete the typing or select the entry from the list.

Parent Place *

The church is in a place.  Click on "Choose Place" and type some of the town/parish name in which it is located. If it is a common name you can use the filter to narrow down the options.

Has Graveyard*

For distinct cemeteries this will obviously need setting to Yes. For all places of worship set an appropriate value. Note that for older churches there may have been a churchyard there in the past which has been closed and no visible traces remain. So we have the ? option to handle those where you are unsure whether there has been a graveyard.

Church Type *
The broad category of churches into which this denomination falls. This is only used in searching, for example to just select Methodist churches.

Location *

The simplest way to enter a location is to use the map to place a marker on the map. See the guidance on how to use maps

The alternatives are:

• Enter latitude/longitude in WKT* format e.g. POINT (1.495653 52.212801) in the box below the map (with longitude first), and click "Replace".
• Enter an OS grid reference in the OS grid reference box immediately beneath, and click "Replace" 

* (WKT Format - Well-known text (WKT) is a text markup language for representing vector geometry objects on a map.
 

Set the precision field as well.

URL Alias *
Specify a URL by which this content can be accessed. Don't add a trailing slash or the URL alias won't work. Usually the entry will be that for the parish with the name of the Church added.

Core Information

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The edit page can be saved without entries in these fields but the aim is to have as much of this information included as possible.

Denomination
The detailed church denomination. Frequently this has changed over time and the initial one should be recorded here. Changes over time should be detailed in the Church History field.

Dedication
The dedication of the church. e.g. St Mary. If it is a chapel, with a name such as Bethesda or Jireh. Leave it blank if there was no dedication or name. Do not try and create a title in this field.

Introduction

It is useful in some nodes to include some introductory text at the top of the page that is separate from the data.

Picture

You can use the standard image process

Address

The street address of the church. This should be the location of the church, NOT the contact address, which may be different. Typically  use ithe same form as if you were writing a letter. Use <br /> to separate the lines. This is the area in which to record the url of any web page for the church, either round the name on the first line, or underneath. There may be more than one url to add as there may be a diocesan one as well as one for the church itself.

If the church has moved then detail previous locations under Church History.

Quote
A quote extracted from a gazetteer or other source describing the church. Name the source in a separate paragraph at the bottom of this entry.

 

Topic(s)

As with place nodes you can add any number of topic boxes from the GENUKI standard list. You can enter additional information. The common topic to add is "Church History": this provides a place to add additional information about changes in the church/congregation over time.

Precision
The precision of the location that has been supplied. See the drop down options. These are used to show the precision in different symbols on maps.

Notes
Additional notes about this location. Only use this if the church has been in more than one location, using this text to differentiate between them along with dates.

Location Picture
Not used

Add another location

This will provide a new set of entries to show a second location. The reason for this should be shown in a topic field.

 Footer
Place text in this field that will be placed just above the footer at the bottom of the page, if desired.

Fields used for internal purposes

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These fields may be displayed to the users, for example, by inclusion in other pages but are mainly used to help group and sort search results and other displays.

Place

Enter the parish or town

Street

Enter the street as in the address 

Founded

The year the church was founded. If completely unknown enter 1 or the earliest known year. Also add details under Church History.

Closed 

The year the church closed. Enter 9999 for those that are still open. 9998 if you don't know whether it is still open or has closed. 9997 for closed churches.

Unique Key

Each church has a unique numeric id within a county. The first three characters of this key are the Chapman county code.
This is only used for linking in csv files containing details of church records and can be omitted if this is not being done as we hope to use a different technique in the future.

Notes

Use for notes to maintainers

 

Common Node Elements

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These are the same as on other nodes. They are usually best left as defaults, although the specific URL is essential

Maintenance level

Metatag

Search Exclude

URL Alias (see essential)

Authoring Information