WikiTree's 2020 Year in Review

Question

Hard to believe another year has come and gone ... and what a year it has been!

Here’s a look back on some highlights:

• We made significant changes to commenting on profiles.

• A “Genealogist Section” was added to profiles of active members.

• The change explanation fields were updated.

• New navigation buttons were added to profiles.

• Greg Clarke introduced his Fan Chart app and Relative SpiderWebs app.

• Chase Ashley introduced his Ancestor Listmaker app.

• We added a Surname Contributions count feature.

• A policy page on Recently Deceased Ancestors was introduced.

• Improvements were made as to how G2G appears on mobile devices.

• The US Black Heritage project was relaunched.

• Steven Harris introduced a WikiTree Tools extension.

• Discussion Rules for G2G and comments on profiles were discussed and implemented.

• The Accessibility Angels Project was started to help people with disabilities access, enjoy and contribute to WikiTree.

• Our Connection Finder was rebuilt and improved.

• A “Copy ID” feature was put in place.

• Aleš added a Maps option to WikiTree+.

• Kay Knight introduced her Bio Check App.

• We changed how we list autosomal DNA test connections on profiles.

Community Marathons:

• Scan-a-Thon- 16,696 items scanned.

• Spring Clean-a-Thon - 158,784 errors and suggestions cleared.

• Connect-a-Thon - 60,123 connected relatives added.

• Source-a-Thon - 57,577 profiles sourced.

Milestones:

• In April we passed 23,000,000 profiles.

• 20,000,000 people were connected and we hit 24,000,000 profiles by the end of July.

• At the end of October we passed 750,000 members.

• In early November we passed 25,000,000 profiles with over 7,000,000 DNA connections.

• By the end of November over 21,000,000 people were connected on our global tree.

Some projects also did their own year-end reviews.  See all the great things they were up to!

• Adoption Angels

• Canada

• France

Thank you to all of you WikiTreers for your hard work and dedication towards making all these things happen. WikiTree would not be what it is without you. We are excited for what 2021 will bring!

So what did we miss in our list? What were some of your highlights for the year?

(Please reply as an answer. Comments to the original post will be hidden once they are read.)

Answer 1

Rob Pavey introduced the WikiTree AGC (Automatic GEDCOM Cleanup) Chrome extension!

Answer 2

Michel Vorenhout introduced Genealogietools.nl to nicely format citations of the Dutch primary resource WieWasWie.nl giving permalinks.

Answer 3

With the enormous enthusiasm of a small group, led by Olivia (née Susie!!!, or should that be the other way round) The Wales Project got underway again.

All locations now have CIBs, work is progressing on Welsh Castles, Historic Houses and cemeteries.

With tremendous help from a few (you know who you are) we have found ways of managing the medieval history of Wales. The Ancient Kingdoms now have been given their cantrefs and cwmwds.

We are trying to follow the patronymic name conventions.

Most of this will be of no interest to most of you, but it's one helluva step forward for us.

Answer 4

The Weekend Chat averaged close to 50 answers per week (up from the high 20s to low 30s). We started off the year (2021) with close to 70 answers.

Comments

Good job with the chat, Pip. =D

Answer 5

The weekly Saturday Sourcing Sprints encourage fellow WikiTreers to help source profiles in need of some much needed sourcing TLC. Every Saturday we have several dozen members participate, including a core group of members who contribute faithfully each and every  Saturday.  This year the Saturday Sourcing Sprints contributed sources to 20390 profiles, and increase from last years tally of 16018.

To all those who participated in the Sprints in 2020, and especially to those core members who never miss a week, thank you, your help is very much appreciated. Well done folks.

Answer 6

The members of the Dutch Roots Project connected every deceased prime minister of the Netherlands to the main tree, and have found all eight great-grandparents for all of them but one.

Comments

Was great fun, Greg!

Answer 7

I started on September 15th the "WikiTree G2G Roundup" page.

Latest entries can be seen here.

Current/Past entries can be seen here.

Answer 8

Greg Clarke and I were on the Family History Fanatics YouTube talking this site up. Link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3ThJ40r83M

I successfully rebooted the Italy Project with the help of some amazing friends like you. 

I created a new One Place Study for the city of Haverhill, Mass and a category based on the book "Italians in Haverhill".

I worked with genealogist Megan Smolenyak to spruce up the trees for President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris.

I undermined Pip at every chance I got. But, I do that every year. =)

I became a WikiTree Ambassador and started talking up the site online and in my blog. 

Genealogy-wise, I corrected several mistakes I made. But, that's genealogy for you. I added several new profiles and created a Team Italy for the thons. 

Not sure what else I did. But, it was an okay year on the site.

Answer 9

Amazing, wonderful work to all.

In the milestones, 2020 saw the G2G Astronaut ranks grow to 17 members!

Answer 10

Scotland started their Tartan Trails.

Southern Colonies has restarted.