Chris I. Whitten

Mr. Chris I. Whitten

Born 1970's.

Child of [private father] and [private mother]

Profile manager: Chris Whitten

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Account confirmed 26 July 2012 | Chris's 39048 contributions | 1191 thank-yous received

Last profile change on 16 May 2013

16:36: Chris Whitten uploaded Testing-One-Person.ged for GEDMatching [Thank Chris for this]

Categories: WikiTree Staff | WikiTree Supervisors | DNA Project.

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Chris is the founder of this website, WikiTree. Previous to this he created WikiAnswers (aka "FAQ Farm", 2001-2007) and Free-Market.Net (1995-2001).

You can e-mail chris@ (wikitree.com). However, if you have questions, please first see How_to_use_WikiTree and the WikiTree Help section. If you don't find your answer there, post on our "G2G" Q&A forum, our Facebook page, tweet #WikiTreeOnline or contact the WikiTree team.

Biography

Chris grew up in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, with his mother Donna and brother Ted. His father Ted and step-mother Vicki were in the nearby town of Ashby.

In 1989 he graduated from Fitchburg High School and started at Lyndon State College in the beautiful Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. After two years in the small business program there he transferred to New York University to study economics. He graduated from NYU in 1993.

After college he stayed in New York City and worked as the managing editor of a mail order book catalog called Laissez Faire Books. Before Amazon.com this was the only source for many unusual books on libertarian philosophy and free-market economics. In 1994, he started experimenting with the Internet to sell books for Laissez Faire. The e-mail update list he created there was one of the first of its kind.

In 1995 Chris left his job to create a libertarian community and networking site called Free-Market.Net: The Freedom Network (FMN). This site has been called "the mother of all libertarian websites" for its early work in promoting usage of the Internet among free-market organizations and individuals.

In 1997 he created a non-profit organization in Chicago called The Henry Hazlitt Foundation to be a home for FMN and its newer sister sites including libertarian.org, ifeminists.com and Bureaucrash. The foundation grew to employ five people full-time and more than a dozen people part-time.

In 2000 Chris met Megan McClellan who was finishing her math degree at the University of Chicago.

In 2001 Chris retired from his non-profit work to be more entrepreneurial again. And to pay off his student loans.

In 2002 Chris created FAQ Farm, which later became WikiAnswers and then Answers.com. It is a collaborative question and answer site where users can ask a question about anything and other users help answer them. The Q&As become permanent resources so that the same question never has to be asked twice.

In 2004 Chris moved back from Chicago to New York City. Megan was offered a job on Wall Street. The next year, in 2005, Megan was offered a job in London and they took that opportunity to see Europe.

In 2006 Chris and Megan returned from England. They bought a home in Croton-on-Hudson in northern Westchester County, NY.

Late that year Chris sold his WikiAnswers business. During 2007 he worked with Answers.com to integrate the site into their company and take advantage of the new economies of scale.

In both 2007 and 2008 WikiAnswers was the fastest growing site among the largest US websites. It is now a top 25 website and gets millions of visitors per day.

In 2008 Chris began work on this site, WikiTree.

Only the Trusted List can access the following:

Chris's formal name
full middle name
e-mail address
exact birthdate
birth location
personal memories about Chris (1)
images (356)
siblings' names
spouse's name

For access to Chris Whitten's full information you must be a logged-in community member and on Chris's Trusted List.

Comments

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Public Bulletin Board

On May 8, 2013 Peter Beaton wrote:

Thank you Chris,
The Beatons are widespread. I had American relatives, (aunts) but I think all the lines are now ceased.
I will be away from home for the next 3 months. I will contact Wikitree when I return.

[Thank Peter for this] [reply on Peter's page]

On May 2, 2013 Bobby Phelan wrote:

Thank you Mr. Whitten for post.

[Thank Bobby for this] [reply on Bobby's page]

On April 30, 2013 Douglas Hunt wrote:

Thanks for the welcome note!

[Thank Douglas for this] [reply on Douglas's page]

On April 25, 2013 Jackie Overland wrote:

Thank you Chris for the "picture comments" answer. I thought I was going nuts. It worked at first then nothing. I am adding pictures to my tree, I will space out the time.

[Thank Jackie for this] [reply on Jackie's page]

On April 19, 2013 Trib Triboulet wrote:

Thank you for that Chris!

Trib

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On April 14, 2013 Jennifer Dunn wrote:

Thank you for the warm welcome to the community, Chris! I plan to start uploading Gedcom's ASAP. Can't wait to collaborate!

[Thank Jennifer for this] [reply on Jennifer's page]

On April 13, 2013 Deborah F wrote:

Thank you Chris. My profile is a bit empty right now. I am a bit shy about putting so much personal information out on the web. I predate most of the online genealogy having started my research in the 1990s. When the advent of online sites began I was thrilled to see archival material appear online and to have other researchers with which to discuss things. Sadly online genealogy has become a hot mess filled with sloppy research, no documentation, and "name collectors" who pay a pretty penny to well advertized genealogy sites to pick up a questionably researched family tree. I am really looking forward to sharing data and bouncing around a hypothesis or two with real researchers who have rolled their sleeves up and who have actually visited an archival library.

[Thank Deborah for this] [reply on Deborah's page]

On April 8, 2013 Robin Craig wrote:

Thank you for your help with my Dyer family merges. Colonial America/Puritans/Great Migration profiles are proving to be the greatest challenge I have faced on Wikitree, but it has been fun and educational.

[Thank Robin for this] [reply on Robin's page]

On April 7, 2013 Tim Harbinson wrote:

Thank you Chris, for nominating Allen-9252.jpg for family picture of the week funny thing is that you nominated it the day after I decided to take it down because I found in my fathers photos the original without my Great Grandmother's head cut off... Now I dont want to take it down, but I will still put the whole shot up...

[Thank Tim for this] [reply on Tim's page]

On April 1, 2013 Terry Wright wrote:

hi chris thanks uderstand now but how do you second a photo is it when you vote on the photo Terry

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