Do you use WikiTree's surname index pages?

Question

Hi WikiTreers,

As most of you know, we have surname index pages, e.g.

• https://www.wikitree.com/genealogy/JONES
• https://www.wikitree.com/genealogy/SMITH

We are making changes to them as part of our 2024 redesign and want to make sure they don't lose any important functionality.

Like most pages on WikiTree, they are meant to serve different audiences.

One of the audiences for these pages isn't human. It's bots, Google's indexing bot in particular. Surname index pages help Google find our person profiles so that they appear in search results.

Another audience is new and prospective members. If you're a Jones, the JONES index page might be one of the first pages you would look at on the site. The index is meant to showcase the breadth and depth of WikiTree: we have 100,000+ Jones profiles, a Jones Project, G2G discussion on Jones, etc.

In the past, we have considered advanced members (you) as the third audience. Surname index pages have offered some unique functionality. You can use them to sort and review people in ways that aren't possible elsewhere on WikiTree.

However, we recently improved search so that you can search for "* Jones" and sort the results in most of the same ways, do merging and matching, etc. As part of the redesign, we plan to display search results in a table. And we will add the ability to sort search results by privacy level, and include the last edit date as well. We think this will mean surname index pages no longer have unique functionality. If so, we can ignore advanced users (you) in their redesign, and just design them for new users and Google.

But ... is there something we're forgetting? Do you use surname index pages for some functional purpose?

If you use them for navigation, is it to find something you can't find elsewhere?

Thanks!

Chris and the WikiTree Team

Answer 1

I use them minimally. Usually the results are so broad that I am search for a needle in a whole barn full of hay.

Comments

Try sorting the list. There are many ways to do that.

Answer 2

I always use them before creating a  new profile to search for doubles that won't show up the normal way. I would like the possibility to sort them locationwise.

Comments

Is there a reason you use the surname page to find duplicates instead of the search page?

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Search gives way too many "variants" in many cases, especially if I want the lesser used variety (right now I'm hunting Gairdners, which would be totally swamped by Gardner etc results in Search). Surname contains the variants links, but they're optional.

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Name variants are optional.

Include name variant matches? 

 yes, include both first & last name variants
 include first name variants, only exact last name matches
 include last name variants, only exact first name matches
 no, only exact name matches

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yes but I'd have to turn them off, each search, manually, at the bottom of the page. Surname page fronts the options at the top.

Answer 3

Yes, I use the surname index pages very often to find parents or other relatives of the person I am profiling. I would be very sad for them to go away.

Comments

Is there a reason you prefer looking for relatives on the surname page rather than using the search page?

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1. Fewer non-relevant results to wade through

2. Easier to sort by given name

3. It's what I'm used to

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Jamie,

I use the surname pages for the same purpose as Nelda. I only do it for uncommon surnames, but I look for anybody with the same surname who was born either in exactly the same place or a nearby place. They might be grandparents or great-grandparents or even more distant, so the maximum +/- 30 year range on the search page means it can't easily be used to find all the potential distant relatives without doing multiple searches.

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Thanks, Paul. I appreciate you "seconding" my response.

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I just did a comparison between the results for the surname "Dowling."

Using "* Dowling" to search, I got 6624 hits, including people with surnames like Daling, Dolin, Dolling, Dilling, Dulin, DuLong, and some profiles of people with names which didn't include Dowling at all, like Agatha (Taylor) Knott and Agnes (Boyle) Curley. To eliminate those with alternative surnames, I went to the bottom to filter the results which reduced the list to 4367 hits.

Using only "Dowling" to search brings me to the Surname page on which I got 3323 hits of people with only the surname Dowling. There is a list of alternative surnames, if I wish to explore them. There are more "quick links" for actions. There is a link to the Dowling Project.

I could adjust to using "* Dowling" but I prefer just entering "Dowling" and being taken to the Surname page with its "extras" and without having the alternative surnames I have to filter out, which is extra steps.

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The plan would be to add a shortcut link to a search that gives the same results as the current results on the genealogy page. So selecting the options to not include variant surnames, and not including current names.

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That would be an improvement over the current search.

Answer 4

I use the surname index pages for many reasons...

I use it as a search for profiles before creating new ones, just in case it is already added.

I use it to see how many profiles are on wikitree for a surname (more often than one would think)

I use it to scroll through and at a very quick skim level notice numbers of them from certain countries. I was scrolling through McGuire the other day and was shocked by how many were born in Scotland for instance.

I like to see the images that have been added to profiles of different surnames.

Its a quick and easy way to look at recent G2G posts with the surname tag, instead of coming over to G2G just for that reason. I look their first to see if I will come on here.

I have also found it helpful for finding maiden names I was uncertain of before looking. For example I was searching for a female ancestor in an online index, and there was a few wives with the same first name, but no mention of maiden names so I didnt know which one was the correct one. Jumped on the surname index and found the majority of the women, and their maidan names, so I was then able to look at their other information and then identify the right individuals in the index.

Oh and its how I like to see if a one name study is associated with the last name too. All of that info on one page, its the least time consuming way of finding out so many things at once!