Question

I would like to replace my tree with a more up to date tree - How can I do ths?

Comments

I have been doing this. Because there were additional people, and more importantly more sources for existing people, I made new gedcoms and merged, person by person.

I found this much quicker than updating the Wikitree profiles as Anne B suggested (sorry about that, Anne). I had found it to be a stinker of a job trying to update sources so the gedcom route was preferred.

However for those profiles where I ahd already tidied up their Biographies it was a right pain. Still with more than 6,000 still to upload I've got the rest of my life to sort it all out.

And, yes, I do know that watch lists should be kept below 5,000.!!

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Thanks for your replies - my tree has grown considerably since I first loaded it up - the time to add each new addition would be too much.

 

Can  I not delete my original and upload the latest version?

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Where mine had grown, as distinct from better sources, I produced little gedcoms, sometimes with only around 30 individuals. I was able to link these to people for whom there were already profiles managed by me.

I am at a bit of a loss to imagine why you want to delete people, surely adding is the way to go?

Keep up the good work.

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Robert, here's the difference about wikitree from other online family tree sites like ancestry and Worldconnect: once I've  uploaded a GEDCO here, it's no longer "my tree" -- it joins the other "trees" here and becomes one shared tree. "Our tree".

And because we share ancestors, multiple people may be improving the profiles of any one person.

So there is no more "my tree" to update with "your tree".

You're getting different opinions about uploading/ vs manual updating of profiles. Cleaning up the mess that uploading generates takes as long as making updates manually in my experience. So I do it manually.

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Thanks for all of the replies, maybe I misunderstood the nature of Wikitree - I assumed it was my tree.

If ... as it appears the idea / aim is to link all trees /  branches together, which I support, then I would have to have my "master tree" on Wikitree, rather than elsewhere or even on my own software, which I think is a little risky from a personal point of view.

To add an extra say 1000 people to "my" tree would take an age and therefore becomes an impossible task.

I presume I am not the only person in this situation and so the aim may be flawed as the only option appears to be to either abandon "my wiklitree"  or use "other" trees as part of my research - which is a little selfish.

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The idea is that "many hands make light the work" - instead of 1 million people each independently researching (and often duplicating effort) everyone can focus on improving existing information and adding people that have not already been documented. Unlike copy/pasting between trees, as is frequently done on sites where each person maintains there own tree, discrepancies, errors and ommissions can be discussed and corrected instead of propagated.

For example Sarah Nichols is one of the ancestors from "my" family tree, but I did not create a profile for her because one already existed, I simply linked her husband to her. I also did not need to create the profiles for 10 of her documented ancestors because they already existed.

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I have over 20,000 names in my genealogy database. If I had to add all those people to WikiTree, I'd be here for about 20 years! Luckily, many, many of them are already here. All I have to do is connect the branches. I think you will probably find the same. It really isn't that bad. And just look at the result, a truly global family coming together before our very eyes, with so many people helping out.

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I uploaded my GEDCOM right after I heard about Wikitree. Then I found that many of my locations had gotten messed up when I switched from Heredis to MacFamlyTree. I spent a while fixing them and now I feel I should replace the error-filled prior GEDCOM. I don't really want to do them all one by one (again).

From what I've read here, someone has probably gone through and vetted all of my prior GEDCOM's additions, so the prior GEDCOM no longer exists as such on Wikitree. Now it appears that there is no way to upload my corrected data without going through them one by one, so I guess I won't do that correcting until I have a huge block of time to spend on it. Sigh.

Answer 1

The best way to do this would be to update each WikiTree profile individually, with the new information.

If you uploaded a new gedcom, you would simply create duplicates which you would have spend time merging and cleaning-up. Instead spend the time updating the profiles in your watchlist etc., adding new profiles where you have them. This is a much more efficient way to handle it in the long term.

If you have entirely new families, who are not on Wikitree yet, you can upload small gedcoms for them, but remember you will still have to do Gedcom clean-up on those individuals.

Answer 2

No, it shouldn't be done that way.  Doing it that way creates duplicate profiles.  Duplicate profiles create somehing in the software background called a redirect.  Redirects are not healthy for software, it causes extra steps in the computing process.  Extra steps take time, time is cost, like one domino pushing the next.

I understand the problem you face.  However, it's like there's already a library and you have come upon a newer collection of the same books that are already in the library.  The librarian must replace each individual volume one by one, as painstaking as that task is, making sure each volume is catalogued and nothing gets misplaced.  The librarian wishes the new books would have been provided in the first place, however, that didn't happen.  So the librarian must do it the hard way, even if it takes him/her a great deal of time.

I don't mean to make your chore seem impossible, but with so many profiles, you are most likely to have a near relative come along and help to sort out all of these profiles.  At least you already have the profiles on the Wikitree.

Comments

Great analogy Vince.

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Vincent, excellent way of explaining what happens here when one uploads duplicates. When I see someone I have on Wikitree already and needs more family added, I just add a small gedcom of just the family group with newest sources, then link to the wife or mother/ father and then cut-and-paste the updated source info from one of the uploaded profiles onto the older profiles. It does take a little time but at least one knows they are updated.