Wikipedia:Peer review/Ancestral background of presidents of the United States/archive1

Ancestral background of presidents of the United States

I've listed this article for peer review because I intend to pursue making this article a featured list in the near future, and I wish to find any potential issues with it now before I go about such a task. Thanks to the assistance of my fellow editors, I believe this article has achieved near perfection and is an example of how to make a cohesive and educational list.

Thanks, MyPreferredUsernameWasTaken (talk) 18:03, 15 June 2020 (UTC)

• At first glance the list itself looks well-sourced and thorough. I think the writing of the introductory blurb could still be improved, particularly to clarify why Roosevelt's comment is relevant to the list. More importantly, I think the introduction should address what it means for a particular president to "have" a particular ancestral background: is there a specific definition being applied? How many generations back does this go? (E.g. I suspect it doesn't go all the way back to 1066 or there'd be a lot more "French" going alongside the "English".) Does it matter if he ever talked about this ancestry? There may be some sources in the field of history discussing what it means to identify an "ancestral background," to support this section. This context will assist readers in knowing how to interpret the information in the list. I also wonder if there is a better way to format the table; in its current format, once you scroll down, you can no longer tell which ancestries all the "Yes"es refer to. ~ oulfis 🌸(talk) 20:20, 13 July 2020 (UTC)
  • Thank you for the analysis. I agree, the introductory paragraph is largely irrelevant to the article's content, particularly Roosevelt's comment. The table does indeed have that issue, I'll see to fixing that if I'm able. MyPreferredUsernameWasTaken (talk) 18:50, 18 July 2020 (UTC)