Updating info to WikiTree from my personal tree. One at a time?

Question

As I work on my personal trees (In my personal software) and gather more info, do I have to update that info one by one? Or does downloading a gedcom gather all that new info and update previous uploaded people?

Comments

Ok, so I get that there is a consensus about not using Gedcom updates, but still my exact question is not answered, so here is an example of what I am asking.

let’s say for example that I uploaded John smith to the tree, in 2017, the sources I had at that time say he was born in 1904, he was married to Jane and had 6 children.

Then three years later, after more research I upload a new GEDCOM and now John was actually born in 1905 he has 7 children and I have sources for all of it.

Does the new gedcom merge the two and have all the info? just the updated info? Does it remove incorrect sources?  

I get that going in and updating John and his family individually would be ideal, but my tree has 200 updates just like John, so I’d just want to know what happens when Gedcom introduces new info to a person.

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As Laura explained below - in a comment - sources do NOT do well with a gedcom update - they seldom get added to the profile and often the links just dont show up at all. which means they require a manual update anyway.

So IMO you would be far better off to just manually update each profile with new details and sources. Once you have been doing it for a while it wont take long.

I can now create a new profile within about 2 minutes from scratch with at least 1 source. It does take longer if I have more than 1 source.

If you are adding a whole bunch of sources - then copy and paste works fine!!

I dont bother with lots of formatting and ref tags which is why I dont like inline editing.

I personally prefer bullet list formatting which is so much simpler to do and easier to read.

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Thanks Robynne, could I see an example of your bullet point formatting?

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Also, is that a GEDCOM problem in general that sources don’t copy in, or just with WikiTree?

if the sources don’t update, what about the data, like the change in birth year for example?

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Examples of bullet points

My own profile is the biggest example for all the writing I have on it. LOL  But here are 2 examples.

My father for the biography

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Thompson-31032

My grandfather for sources

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Thompson-31033

And to get this you only need to add an asterix (*) at the start of each new paragraph.

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I think the sources update issue is only for Wikitree. (AFAIK but I dont know for sure).

The reason I think this happens, is because Wikitree is based on old software (well over 10 years old) which is why we dont have all the new cool tools.

Again any changes in the data boxes at the top of the profile,  such as DOB and DOD, must be done manually.

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I have seen plenty of profiles that were 'updated' with a Gedcom update and the biography portion has everything 'doubled' or 'tripled' if they did it three times.  Some things may be a little different, but it is adding to the existing biography and sources, not replacing things.

You don't want it to replace things because you could or someone else could have updated the biography and sources with new information.

Answer 1

This page will help explain what happens when you upload a Gedcom to WikiTree GEDCOM-Created Biographies.

 This link explains the best way to do it so that you don't create duplicates. No, your profiles won't automatically merge if you just upload them. GEDCOMpare. I hope that helps.

Comments

Thanks Laura, I recognise that an upload won’t automatically update, but if I go through the process of merging, comparing etc, will updates to previous people show up in their profile?

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Personally I would update each profile one at a time.

I actually no longer use my off site family tree software much any more. when I find new information, I just add it directly into wikitree so that what I have on wikitree is now way more up to date than my hard drive tree.

 Makes it easier to just send a link to others and tell them to click the link and have a look - rather than me sending a gedcom out every time. Because not everyone has the right software to see the tree from a gedcom!!

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With regards to uploading gedcoms for each update, there is no guarantee that previous details or changes will not be overwitten which means that you will have to "fix" the changes.

Not worth it in the long run - IMO.

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Robynne explained that well. Another thing is that your sources from your gedcom will not transfer as you have them in the gedcom or another tree. On WikiTree they will show up as a lot of funny-looking symbols like @AB123@ and those sources can not be identified. No one will know what the source is or where to look for it. Which means it will look like you will have a lot of unsourced profiles.

I just add mine one by one like Robynne does. I use my other tree as guidance. Eventually, you usually will be able to connect a family member already on WT and then your line is added.

Then I just go through to source profiles of the line I connected into that need sources, or that I have sources for that they don't.

Answer 2

Everytime you "update" with a new gedcom - you will have to go through the gedcompare program and compare every single name on the gedcom that is being added - and that can get repetitive, tiring and boring.

The usual procedure is to upload a gedcom - one time only - when you first upload and then just update profiles one by one as you find or add new information or add new names/profiles.

Comments

I agree that is why I will not gedcom my tree into wikitree. I add mine manually one at the time too.