Andygm

John Jack

Hey, it's great to see those photos you added to the 52nd (Oxfordshire) Regiment of Foot article. I see from the permissions that they are from family photos. Thanks for sharing them. I googled to see what else was around on John Jack, and found this Guardian article. A connection? Many thanks: I became quite interested in the 52nd's Napoleonic Wars experiences, and so I've enjoyed seeing the photo and medals of someone who was there. Gwinva (talk) 00:14, 22 July 2009 (UTC)

July 2009

Welcome to Wikipedia. A page you recently created, John Jack, may not conform to some of Wikipedia's guidelines for new pages, so it will shortly be removed (if it hasn't been already). Please use the sandbox for any tests. For more information about creating articles, you may want to read Your first article. You may also want to read our introduction page to learn more about contributing. Thank you. - CobaltBlueTony™ _talk 18:21, 22 July 2009 (UTC)

Article creation

Hi there Andy. I was hoping you'd come back to WP, and that your photos weren't going to be your sole contributions. I've followed up on your deleted article, and asked Cobaltbluetony if he could "userfy" the article...which means retrieving the deleted material and moving it to a subpage under your name. Then we can look at the material and see what's appropriate for WP. There are various rules on writing for WP, but the main reason for deletion is generally notability, which requires the verification of reliable sources. (The speedy criteria used to delete the article doesn't make immediate sense to me, but I haven't seen the content.) John Jack might not be "notable" enough for his own article, but there might be other articles which could be enriched with some of the material. The Military History WikiProject has a outline of the notability of military personnel.

I'm willing to give you a hand with things as you find your feet here. I've been with WP for a while, so know my way around a bit, plus I've got access to a few good Nap Wars sources. (I wrote the article on the 52nd.) I'm also keen to hear the story of a 52nd Peninsula veteran!

There's stacks of policies and editing guidelines around WP, but they can be pretty confusing to read in one go, and it's often easiest to pick things up as you go along. With the material in userspace, it's not so important to get it all right immediately.

Anyway, for the moment, we'll wait until your material is retrieved. Don't panic about losing it, WP keeps EVERYTHING...it just makes some of it invisible to non-admins. Gwinva (talk) 01:21, 23 July 2009 (UTC)

Sandboxing of your article

I've tossed the material here: User:Andygm/John Jack. Sorry for any confusion. - CobaltBlueTony™ _talk 12:57, 23 July 2009 (UTC)

Moving forward

Hi...I was just looking at the article in your subpage, so that was well timed. Firstly, emailing: for privacy's sake (and to avoid spamming) WP discourages the display of email addresses. However, there is an "email user" function. If you go into "my preferences" in your header (between "my talk" and "my watchlist") and scroll down the user profile, you'll see "email options". Enter your email, and check the "enable email from other users". Once that is verified, you can email me from my user page: the left hand navigation boxes will include a "email this user" function. You won't be able to send attachments, but I'll reply to the text email. Gwinva (talk) 22:45, 23 July 2009 (UTC)

Regarding the article, what we need to prove notability are independent, reliable sources. That is, any published references to John Jack. These, of course, need to be in reputable sources, not blogs or self-published works. WP also has a policy of no original research: as an encyclopedia, WP is a tertiary source (ie. a summary and consolidation of secondary sources), not a forum for publishing new information. If your material is mainly family documentation, then WP will not be the place to publish them. I think he is a significant person, but we need someone else to say so as well, not just make the claim ourselves. Something which records that he is one of the rare existing photos, or rare for having 12 clasps, or whatever. I'll see what I can come up with. The next few days for me are a bit busy, so I might not reply promptly, but I am thinking about the project. I'll also work through your draft, and show you how to format things. Looks like a fun project. I've recently come across some good stuff on the 52nd, and I keep meaning to go back and finish off the regimental article. Gwinva (talk) 23:00, 23 July 2009 (UTC)

Great. I'll see if I can track down the medals book, and have a look through what I've got here. Gwinva (talk) 23:13, 23 July 2009 (UTC)

I've played around a bit with the sandboxed article while I had a few minutes spare. And will do more as time permits. You can see what I've done by looking at the page history. ("history" tab at article top). I'll make any further comments about the article at User talk:Andygm/John Jack; I'm watching the page, so I'll see any comments you make there. Gwinva (talk) 06:07, 24 July 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the fascinating notes on John Jack. I've emailed in response; will spend more time on it when I get a chance. Gwinva (talk) 08:35, 26 July 2009 (UTC)

I am very excited to see this page on John Jack, who is my great great grandfather. I recieved a polaroid of the photograph 30 years ago and madea silk screen print of it for family members. The photograph was almosr certainly taken by his son's brother-in-law, Joseph Collier, who practised in Inverness before moving to Colorado in 1871. Much of his American photographs have been published. Much of the information accords with stories passed down through my family and it is wonderful to have them confirmed, I would be interested to know the sources of this information. Donald Jack — Preceding unsigned comment added by Donald jack (talk • contribs) 21:09, 4 June 2011 (UTC) Donald, the information came from me (Andrew Morton) I am John Jack's great great great grandson via his eldest son's eldest son. You can contact me on andrewgmorton@googlemail.com (not my main email address). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.178.195.252 (talk) 23:05, 4 June 2011 (UTC)