The following guidelines regard the proper usage and formatting of succession boxes throughout Wikipedia. This includes the handling of headers, titles, succession lists, and references, as well as the orders of listing and other style issues. For information about the mechanics of succession boxes and instructions for their creation, please see the Documentation page. For a complete list of the succession templates currently tracked by this project, see the Templates page.
The following guidelines apply to succession boxes of all types, unless noted otherwise.
Images should not be included in succession boxes for any reason, due to standardisation concerns and the potential for problems in their proper display within the boxes. Editors are urged to remove images from any succession boxes in which they encounter them.
The names of predecessors and successors to titles should be wiki-linked to their respective Wikipedia articles. Even in cases where there is no article for a person, creating the appropriate red link may spur the creation of the missing article and is therefore desirable. Care should be taken to ensure that a link leads to the person referred to in the box, rather than someone else or a disambiguation page—misleading links often appear when a predecessor/successor has no article of their own but shares a name with someone who does.
The title or office of a succession row should also be linked to its respective article, if one exists. Such an article will often describe the title and its functions or history and provide a list of its holders (e.g. Federal Chancellor of Switzerland). In cases where this list is separate from the article (e.g. Lord Mayor of London and List of Lord Mayors of London), the link should preferably lead to the list, to allow readers to bridge gaps in the succession chain where articles on specific holders do not exist. (Also, in most cases the article on the title will have already been linked to in the body of the text.)
Conversely, where the title is covered not in a separate article but in a section of one with a wider subject, link to the section: it is better to write "
Chancellor of the University of Birmingham" ([[University of Birmingham#Chancellors|Chancellor of the University of Birmingham]]
) than "
Chancellor of the
University of Birmingham" ([[Chancellor (education)|Chancellor]] of the [[University of Birmingham]]
). Such links may be affected if the target section is renamed, so it may be useful to create the full title as a redirect to the section and then link to the redirect in the succession box; this way, only the redirect will need to be updated in case of changes.
If there is no specific coverage of the title in Wikipedia at all, try to link to the next most relevant article, for example "CEO of General Motors".
For the linking of dates, see below.
The time period for which a person has held a title is filled in the "years" field of the central cell of each succession line, and it appears right below the title itself. Dates reflect the de facto acquisition of a title, generally either the assumption of power (in the case of an office) or the death of the subject's predecessor (when the title is hereditary, as in noble and regnal successions).
Like all information in an article, dates should be attributed to a reliable source. There is usually little need for citations within the succession box itself, because the information is repeated either from elsewhere in the article or from the title's article or list. Where a date is mentioned only in the box, however, the s-ref template should be used so that the date can be cited. Special care should be taken for full dates, where mistakes or inconsistencies are easier to occur; full dates may be written so long as it is possible to find reliable information for the entire chain of succession or at least a large part thereof. Writing full dates for one holder and plain years for another should be avoided.
Within each thematic group of succession boxes (i.e. those boxes under a single header), the boxes should be ordered chronologically: the earlier offices held are to be listed before the later offices held. For terms of office which started simultaneously, place first the one which ended the earliest.
In the overwhelming majority of succession lines, the time period for which a title has been held is given as a range of plain years (e.g., 1973–1975). However, as mentioned above, it is possible to give full dates (e.g., September 9, 1909 – October 10, 1910). There are two ways to write dates in Wikipedia articles: the so-called International format (DD Month YYYY) and US format (Month DD, YYYY). The format used in a succession box should reflect the dominant style of the nation of the office or title, as per Wikipedia Manual of Style guidelines. When a time period has not finished but is ongoing, write the word "present" instead of the end date, lower-case and without any special formatting (e.g., 2007–present or 14 November 2007 – present).
As can be seen in the examples above, the connector in all date ranges is the en-dash, which can be written either in code (–) or simply as – (Windows: Alt+0150; MacOS: option + -). This character should not be confused with the shorter hyphen ("-") nor with the longer em-dash ("—"). En-dashes are not flanked by spaces when connecting plain years, but they should be spaced when either or both connected elements contain spaces, as in the case of full dates or dates BC (see the Manual of Style's section on dashes).
For periods beginning and ending within a single year, where full dates are given, the date range should include the year twice (e.g., 7 March 1980 – 31 August 1980 rather than 7 March – 31 August 1980). On the other hand, if no dates are given, the year should be mentioned just once (e.g., 1886 rather than 1886–1886). The same applies for certain categories of succession lines (such as electoral candidacies, awards and sporting distinctions) which concern regular events rather than continuous periods of time.
A particular subset of these is when the subject holds the same title for two or more consecutive times, in which case a single succession line is used (instead of giving each instance its own line and citing the subject as their own predecessor/successor). All the years are given in the same "years" field, separated from each other by commas (e.g., 1991, 1992 for an annual event or 2000, 2004, 2008 for an event occurring every four years). There are also two types of succession line which do not require any dates at all: lines of succession (to a throne or presidency) and orders of precedence. If you encounter one of those, simply leave the "years" parameter empty or omit it altogether.
When a date cannot be found, write the word "unknown" in its place, lower-case and without any formatting (e.g., unknown – 410 BC). For approximate dates, use "c." (see circa) according to the instructions of the Manual of Style on dates and numbers. Although dates are not normally wiki-linked, certain exceptions are made where links can offer additional information to the reader; the most basic exception is that election dates under the header s-par should link to the articles for the respective elections (see the relevant section for details).
The following guidelines regard titles as they appear in the core templates within succession boxes.
All peers should be referred to by their titles, not their names. Full titles are used, rather than the shortened forms Lord/Lady X—which, among other things, can be confused with courtesy baronies (see below).
The appropriate format for holders of substantive titles is "The [rank] (of) [name of title]", as in the following two examples:
If two or more different peers with the same title are named in a succession box—even if not in the same succession row—then the titles ought to be disambiguated by the addition of a numeral, as in the following example:
Unless they hold substantive titles of their own, the eldest sons of dukes, marquesses and earls may use one of their father's titles by courtesy; this way they are addressed as peers, although they remain commoners. The style for a courtesy peer lacks the definite article the and is "[rank] (of) [name of title]", as in the following example:
In lieu of a courtesy title, the younger sons (i.e., all but the eldest) of dukes and marquesses receive the honorific prefix Lord before their full name. Correspondingly, daughters of dukes, marquesses and earls receive the prefix Lady before their forename and surname. For example:
The wives of peers, courtesy peers and sons of peers use similar styles with those of their husbands; please consult appropriate reliable sources for the exact styles, keeping in mind the conventions listed above for the individual elements of the styles.
This section does not apply to the names in succession lines for peerage titles themselves (see the relevant section lower in the page for details).
Baronetcies are a hereditary British honour ranking in precedence between peers and knights. The appropriate style for baronets is "Sir [forename surname], Bt", and that for baronetesses is "Dame [forename surname], Btss", as in the following example:
Like with peers, if two or more different baronets with the same name are given in a succession box, then they ought to be disambiguated by the addition of a numeral. In this case the post-nominals Bt and Btss are expanded to Baronet and Baronetess respectively, as in the following example:
Knights also should be referred to by their names, preceded by "Sir" for male knights or "Dame" for female knights—unless they are Ladies of the Garter or Ladies of the Thistle, in which case the appropriate prefix is "Lady". For example:
This section does not apply to the names in succession lines for baronetcies themselves (see the relevant section lower in the page for details).
Remember to pipe-link the names to the correct article titles which, in cases of peers and baronets, are almost always dissimilar from the format demonstrated here.
When a noble passes down, or succeeds to, an office, they should be named in the succession box with the title they held at that time of ascension.
In the following example, Fox Maule had no titles until he inherited the barony of Panmure in 1852, while Charles Wood was only a baronet until he was created Viscount Halifax in 1866.
Likewise, a baronet/baronetess should not have the prefix "Sir"/"Dame" in succession boxes before their succession to the baronetcy, and a knight should not receive the prefix "Sir"/"Dame"/"Lady" before they are awarded the knighthood. The same naturally applies to the wives of male title-holders, as their own names and styles are also affected.
If a monarch inherits a title, it often merges into the crown. If it does not, the monarch should be mentioned in the succession box by their name and ordinal. If they were not on the throne at the time of the succession, they should be written with the title they held then; below the name add in small lettering the phrase:
as in the following example:
In the event that a title becomes over-long, include a <br /> somewhere in the middle of the title to shift the second portion down a line. This allows the succession line to feel more balanced. In some cases, a second break may be necessary.
Post-nominal letters are not to be included in succession boxes under any circumstance except for the aforementioned special case of baronets/baronetesses and the succession boxes for orders of precedence. Social titles like "Mr", "Mrs", "Miss", and "Ms" are likewise excluded, as are professional titles like "Prof." and "Dr".
The headers currently managed by this project are divided into the following three classes:
Each succession line may have only one header above it, despite the fact that some titles may merit multiple headers. In the event that multiple headers qualify for a title, choose the most appropriate. For example, President of the United States may qualify as a military position, by virtue of its holder's status as commander in chief of the US Armed Forces; however, it is above all else an elected leadership position, and thus falls under the "Political offices" header.
Each header should be used no more than once in a succession box, and all succession lines of a similar nature should go under a single header, irrespective of overall chronological or other orders.
The order of the various headers (which is to say, the order of the various office/title categories) in any succession box is not fixed. It is generally subject to editorial discretion, although a few rules of thumb apply:
Honorary titles may be difficult to determine, given that most such titles were once substantive. Honorary titles held concurrently with other titles (e.g. Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay for Prince of Wales) are not necessary to list. The only exception is when these titles were not always held together by the same individual, in which case they should be listed separately only for the period when they were held by different people, and shown to merge into (or split from) the higher title as applicable.
In groups of headers specialised by region or type, like those for parliamentary seats, the same template is used but it is disambiguated with a parameter. For example, the undifferenced s-par header reads "Assembly seats", but different parameters can produce headers like "Parliament of Canada", "Folketinget" or "Lok Sabha". The parameter is added after the template and separated by it with a pipe, in the format {{template|parameter}}. Headers produced by different parameters of the same template share a single colour and theme, but their text and overall result is unique. Therefore, they are considered separate and individual headers for the purposes of the rule on using headers only once per succession box.
S-par regards seats in legislatures. This includes both current and historic bodies, national and regional.
This template requires the use of a parameter to function properly. Although simply writing {{s-par}} will result in an "Assembly seats" header, it is too vague and is thus not encouraged. For a list of parameters, see Template:S-par.
The parliaments of England and Great Britain were, and the Parliament of the United Kingdom is, bicameral. The House of Commons is a democratically elected chamber and falls under the header of s-par. The House of Lords is partly hereditary and partly appointed, but never elected and thus does not qualify for the s-par header. Templates s-reg and s-rel should be used for members of the House of Lords, with a label to indicate that they were in the Lords (see the Documentation page for details). Note that Life Peers are not entitled to succession boxes for their peerage at all, as it is not inherited.
Members of Parliament for a given constituency in England before 1707, in England or Scotland from 1707 to 1801, and in the United Kingdom after 1801, should have the correct header above the succession box for that constituency.
Members of Parliament who served for one constituency before one of those dates and another (or the same, non-consecutively) after that date should have headers for both Parliaments, but each header should only appear once. Example: a person serving in the Parliament of England for constituency 1 and the Parliament of Great Britain for constituencies 2 and 3 should have the following templates, in this order: s-par|en, succession (1), s-par|gb, succession (2), succession (3). (Note that the order of the parliament headers should be ascending chronological, with England coming first, followed by Great Britain and then by the United Kingdom.)
Members of Parliament consecutively serving for a single constituency in multiple Parliaments should have the header of the later Parliament. Example: a Member of Parliament representing an English constituency from 1689 until 1710 should have that succession box placed under an s-par|gb header.
In constituencies which returned multiple members, all predecessors and successors should be listed, using the parameters before2=
/ after2=
, before3=
/ after3=
, etc. Members of Parliament simultaneously representing the constituency should be listed using the parameters with=
, with2=
, with3=
, etc. If one of the other members represented the constituency throughout the length of the subject's term, the date range may be omitted; otherwise, the years between which that member served should appear after the member's name.
When a Member of Parliament is the first or last to represent a particular incarnation of a constituency because it has just been created or abolished, different templates should be used. For newly created constituencies, replace the s-bef template with s-new, using the proper parameter as well: {{s-new|constituency}}. For abolished constituencies, replace the s-aft template with s-non and in the reason field write "Constituency abolished".
Years should be wikilinked to the election at which a given Member of Parliament was elected to the seat, or at which a successor was chosen, e.g. 1983 – 1989. Note that in the second example the Member of Parliament ceased to represent the constituency in 1989 (due to death), but the successor was not chosen until 1990, in a by-election.
Legislative positions in the US should be listed chronologically, beginning with the first elected title and continuing down to the last. If an individual was elected to a position in another legislative body, that title should be below a new header reflecting the change.
The following guidelines regard the proper usage and formatting of succession boxes throughout Wikipedia. This includes the handling of headers, titles, succession lists, and references, as well as the orders of listing and other style issues. For information about the mechanics of succession boxes and instructions for their creation, please see the Documentation page. For a complete list of the succession templates currently tracked by this project, see the Templates page.
The following guidelines apply to succession boxes of all types, unless noted otherwise.
Images should not be included in succession boxes for any reason, due to standardisation concerns and the potential for problems in their proper display within the boxes. Editors are urged to remove images from any succession boxes in which they encounter them.
The names of predecessors and successors to titles should be wiki-linked to their respective Wikipedia articles. Even in cases where there is no article for a person, creating the appropriate red link may spur the creation of the missing article and is therefore desirable. Care should be taken to ensure that a link leads to the person referred to in the box, rather than someone else or a disambiguation page—misleading links often appear when a predecessor/successor has no article of their own but shares a name with someone who does.
The title or office of a succession row should also be linked to its respective article, if one exists. Such an article will often describe the title and its functions or history and provide a list of its holders (e.g. Federal Chancellor of Switzerland). In cases where this list is separate from the article (e.g. Lord Mayor of London and List of Lord Mayors of London), the link should preferably lead to the list, to allow readers to bridge gaps in the succession chain where articles on specific holders do not exist. (Also, in most cases the article on the title will have already been linked to in the body of the text.)
Conversely, where the title is covered not in a separate article but in a section of one with a wider subject, link to the section: it is better to write "
Chancellor of the University of Birmingham" ([[University of Birmingham#Chancellors|Chancellor of the University of Birmingham]]
) than "
Chancellor of the
University of Birmingham" ([[Chancellor (education)|Chancellor]] of the [[University of Birmingham]]
). Such links may be affected if the target section is renamed, so it may be useful to create the full title as a redirect to the section and then link to the redirect in the succession box; this way, only the redirect will need to be updated in case of changes.
If there is no specific coverage of the title in Wikipedia at all, try to link to the next most relevant article, for example "CEO of General Motors".
For the linking of dates, see below.
The time period for which a person has held a title is filled in the "years" field of the central cell of each succession line, and it appears right below the title itself. Dates reflect the de facto acquisition of a title, generally either the assumption of power (in the case of an office) or the death of the subject's predecessor (when the title is hereditary, as in noble and regnal successions).
Like all information in an article, dates should be attributed to a reliable source. There is usually little need for citations within the succession box itself, because the information is repeated either from elsewhere in the article or from the title's article or list. Where a date is mentioned only in the box, however, the s-ref template should be used so that the date can be cited. Special care should be taken for full dates, where mistakes or inconsistencies are easier to occur; full dates may be written so long as it is possible to find reliable information for the entire chain of succession or at least a large part thereof. Writing full dates for one holder and plain years for another should be avoided.
Within each thematic group of succession boxes (i.e. those boxes under a single header), the boxes should be ordered chronologically: the earlier offices held are to be listed before the later offices held. For terms of office which started simultaneously, place first the one which ended the earliest.
In the overwhelming majority of succession lines, the time period for which a title has been held is given as a range of plain years (e.g., 1973–1975). However, as mentioned above, it is possible to give full dates (e.g., September 9, 1909 – October 10, 1910). There are two ways to write dates in Wikipedia articles: the so-called International format (DD Month YYYY) and US format (Month DD, YYYY). The format used in a succession box should reflect the dominant style of the nation of the office or title, as per Wikipedia Manual of Style guidelines. When a time period has not finished but is ongoing, write the word "present" instead of the end date, lower-case and without any special formatting (e.g., 2007–present or 14 November 2007 – present).
As can be seen in the examples above, the connector in all date ranges is the en-dash, which can be written either in code (–) or simply as – (Windows: Alt+0150; MacOS: option + -). This character should not be confused with the shorter hyphen ("-") nor with the longer em-dash ("—"). En-dashes are not flanked by spaces when connecting plain years, but they should be spaced when either or both connected elements contain spaces, as in the case of full dates or dates BC (see the Manual of Style's section on dashes).
For periods beginning and ending within a single year, where full dates are given, the date range should include the year twice (e.g., 7 March 1980 – 31 August 1980 rather than 7 March – 31 August 1980). On the other hand, if no dates are given, the year should be mentioned just once (e.g., 1886 rather than 1886–1886). The same applies for certain categories of succession lines (such as electoral candidacies, awards and sporting distinctions) which concern regular events rather than continuous periods of time.
A particular subset of these is when the subject holds the same title for two or more consecutive times, in which case a single succession line is used (instead of giving each instance its own line and citing the subject as their own predecessor/successor). All the years are given in the same "years" field, separated from each other by commas (e.g., 1991, 1992 for an annual event or 2000, 2004, 2008 for an event occurring every four years). There are also two types of succession line which do not require any dates at all: lines of succession (to a throne or presidency) and orders of precedence. If you encounter one of those, simply leave the "years" parameter empty or omit it altogether.
When a date cannot be found, write the word "unknown" in its place, lower-case and without any formatting (e.g., unknown – 410 BC). For approximate dates, use "c." (see circa) according to the instructions of the Manual of Style on dates and numbers. Although dates are not normally wiki-linked, certain exceptions are made where links can offer additional information to the reader; the most basic exception is that election dates under the header s-par should link to the articles for the respective elections (see the relevant section for details).
The following guidelines regard titles as they appear in the core templates within succession boxes.
All peers should be referred to by their titles, not their names. Full titles are used, rather than the shortened forms Lord/Lady X—which, among other things, can be confused with courtesy baronies (see below).
The appropriate format for holders of substantive titles is "The [rank] (of) [name of title]", as in the following two examples:
If two or more different peers with the same title are named in a succession box—even if not in the same succession row—then the titles ought to be disambiguated by the addition of a numeral, as in the following example:
Unless they hold substantive titles of their own, the eldest sons of dukes, marquesses and earls may use one of their father's titles by courtesy; this way they are addressed as peers, although they remain commoners. The style for a courtesy peer lacks the definite article the and is "[rank] (of) [name of title]", as in the following example:
In lieu of a courtesy title, the younger sons (i.e., all but the eldest) of dukes and marquesses receive the honorific prefix Lord before their full name. Correspondingly, daughters of dukes, marquesses and earls receive the prefix Lady before their forename and surname. For example:
The wives of peers, courtesy peers and sons of peers use similar styles with those of their husbands; please consult appropriate reliable sources for the exact styles, keeping in mind the conventions listed above for the individual elements of the styles.
This section does not apply to the names in succession lines for peerage titles themselves (see the relevant section lower in the page for details).
Baronetcies are a hereditary British honour ranking in precedence between peers and knights. The appropriate style for baronets is "Sir [forename surname], Bt", and that for baronetesses is "Dame [forename surname], Btss", as in the following example:
Like with peers, if two or more different baronets with the same name are given in a succession box, then they ought to be disambiguated by the addition of a numeral. In this case the post-nominals Bt and Btss are expanded to Baronet and Baronetess respectively, as in the following example:
Knights also should be referred to by their names, preceded by "Sir" for male knights or "Dame" for female knights—unless they are Ladies of the Garter or Ladies of the Thistle, in which case the appropriate prefix is "Lady". For example:
This section does not apply to the names in succession lines for baronetcies themselves (see the relevant section lower in the page for details).
Remember to pipe-link the names to the correct article titles which, in cases of peers and baronets, are almost always dissimilar from the format demonstrated here.
When a noble passes down, or succeeds to, an office, they should be named in the succession box with the title they held at that time of ascension.
In the following example, Fox Maule had no titles until he inherited the barony of Panmure in 1852, while Charles Wood was only a baronet until he was created Viscount Halifax in 1866.
Likewise, a baronet/baronetess should not have the prefix "Sir"/"Dame" in succession boxes before their succession to the baronetcy, and a knight should not receive the prefix "Sir"/"Dame"/"Lady" before they are awarded the knighthood. The same naturally applies to the wives of male title-holders, as their own names and styles are also affected.
If a monarch inherits a title, it often merges into the crown. If it does not, the monarch should be mentioned in the succession box by their name and ordinal. If they were not on the throne at the time of the succession, they should be written with the title they held then; below the name add in small lettering the phrase:
as in the following example:
In the event that a title becomes over-long, include a <br /> somewhere in the middle of the title to shift the second portion down a line. This allows the succession line to feel more balanced. In some cases, a second break may be necessary.
Post-nominal letters are not to be included in succession boxes under any circumstance except for the aforementioned special case of baronets/baronetesses and the succession boxes for orders of precedence. Social titles like "Mr", "Mrs", "Miss", and "Ms" are likewise excluded, as are professional titles like "Prof." and "Dr".
The headers currently managed by this project are divided into the following three classes:
Each succession line may have only one header above it, despite the fact that some titles may merit multiple headers. In the event that multiple headers qualify for a title, choose the most appropriate. For example, President of the United States may qualify as a military position, by virtue of its holder's status as commander in chief of the US Armed Forces; however, it is above all else an elected leadership position, and thus falls under the "Political offices" header.
Each header should be used no more than once in a succession box, and all succession lines of a similar nature should go under a single header, irrespective of overall chronological or other orders.
The order of the various headers (which is to say, the order of the various office/title categories) in any succession box is not fixed. It is generally subject to editorial discretion, although a few rules of thumb apply:
Honorary titles may be difficult to determine, given that most such titles were once substantive. Honorary titles held concurrently with other titles (e.g. Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay for Prince of Wales) are not necessary to list. The only exception is when these titles were not always held together by the same individual, in which case they should be listed separately only for the period when they were held by different people, and shown to merge into (or split from) the higher title as applicable.
In groups of headers specialised by region or type, like those for parliamentary seats, the same template is used but it is disambiguated with a parameter. For example, the undifferenced s-par header reads "Assembly seats", but different parameters can produce headers like "Parliament of Canada", "Folketinget" or "Lok Sabha". The parameter is added after the template and separated by it with a pipe, in the format {{template|parameter}}. Headers produced by different parameters of the same template share a single colour and theme, but their text and overall result is unique. Therefore, they are considered separate and individual headers for the purposes of the rule on using headers only once per succession box.
S-par regards seats in legislatures. This includes both current and historic bodies, national and regional.
This template requires the use of a parameter to function properly. Although simply writing {{s-par}} will result in an "Assembly seats" header, it is too vague and is thus not encouraged. For a list of parameters, see Template:S-par.
The parliaments of England and Great Britain were, and the Parliament of the United Kingdom is, bicameral. The House of Commons is a democratically elected chamber and falls under the header of s-par. The House of Lords is partly hereditary and partly appointed, but never elected and thus does not qualify for the s-par header. Templates s-reg and s-rel should be used for members of the House of Lords, with a label to indicate that they were in the Lords (see the Documentation page for details). Note that Life Peers are not entitled to succession boxes for their peerage at all, as it is not inherited.
Members of Parliament for a given constituency in England before 1707, in England or Scotland from 1707 to 1801, and in the United Kingdom after 1801, should have the correct header above the succession box for that constituency.
Members of Parliament who served for one constituency before one of those dates and another (or the same, non-consecutively) after that date should have headers for both Parliaments, but each header should only appear once. Example: a person serving in the Parliament of England for constituency 1 and the Parliament of Great Britain for constituencies 2 and 3 should have the following templates, in this order: s-par|en, succession (1), s-par|gb, succession (2), succession (3). (Note that the order of the parliament headers should be ascending chronological, with England coming first, followed by Great Britain and then by the United Kingdom.)
Members of Parliament consecutively serving for a single constituency in multiple Parliaments should have the header of the later Parliament. Example: a Member of Parliament representing an English constituency from 1689 until 1710 should have that succession box placed under an s-par|gb header.
In constituencies which returned multiple members, all predecessors and successors should be listed, using the parameters before2=
/ after2=
, before3=
/ after3=
, etc. Members of Parliament simultaneously representing the constituency should be listed using the parameters with=
, with2=
, with3=
, etc. If one of the other members represented the constituency throughout the length of the subject's term, the date range may be omitted; otherwise, the years between which that member served should appear after the member's name.
When a Member of Parliament is the first or last to represent a particular incarnation of a constituency because it has just been created or abolished, different templates should be used. For newly created constituencies, replace the s-bef template with s-new, using the proper parameter as well: {{s-new|constituency}}. For abolished constituencies, replace the s-aft template with s-non and in the reason field write "Constituency abolished".
Years should be wikilinked to the election at which a given Member of Parliament was elected to the seat, or at which a successor was chosen, e.g. 1983 – 1989. Note that in the second example the Member of Parliament ceased to represent the constituency in 1989 (due to death), but the successor was not chosen until 1990, in a by-election.
Legislative positions in the US should be listed chronologically, beginning with the first elected title and continuing down to the last. If an individual was elected to a position in another legislative body, that title should be below a new header reflecting the change.