Do you keep living people's information on Wikitree?

+5 votes
330 views
I recently got an email from a cousin with lots of info on living people. I know wikitree keeps these people unlisted but i would still have to be the profile manager. Do you make profiles for living cousins? If not what is a good app or program to keep them on?
in The Tree House by Nancy Wilson G2G6 Pilot (145k points)

3 Answers

+5 votes
If you want them to contribute, add them and add their email to try to get them to play along. (hasn't been wildly successful for me, but hey, never know).

If they are in a publicly accessible source you've added (say you added their parents and they are also listed in the census as part of the family) then sure, seems fairly reasonable.

But, couldn't hurt to find out if they want to be added first.
by Jonathan Crawford G2G6 Pilot (275k points)
+6 votes
This is a sort of yes/no question for many people. I think of it as a huge responsibility if I put living persons on WikiTree, because it means I am the sole person responsible for managing their private profile. If I somehow become unable to continue managing the profile, it's either going to get transferred over to someone who is not related (good possibility, if I've maintained a relationship with someone who says they'll take my profiles and set up the appropriate documentation) or they'll be deleted, in which case, the benefit was all for me, which seems a bit frustrating if we're trying to grow a tree. And you may encounter limitations like living children of distant cousins can't be added, but I suppose instead of profiles you'd have to put them as lists on their parent's profiles and be sure to expunge them if that person dies so that information on living persons isn't somehow leaked out.

If you're using these for a bit of a lure to draw in cousins to come to WikiTree, see their own profile there, and get interested, then by all means, I think that's a wonderful idea. But I agree with Jonathan - it's the horse to water principle: you can bring the horse to the water, but you can't make him drink. You can build the profile, assign their email, and "hope" they come by for more than a short visit, but you can't make them stay and help out.

As to what program would I use for living persons? I use WikiTree for a few that I want to maintain, and probably end up with the rest on paper for now until I can figure out the best approach.
by Scott Fulkerson G2G Astronaut (1.5m points)
I agree with Scott. Except for living direct line ancestors, I generally don't create a profile for a living individual, if I would be the only PM/TL member on the profile. My understanding is that when I'm no longer willing/able to participate here, any profiles of living individuals for which I am the only PM/TL member will likely be deleted. So I'd rather spend my time working on profiles for which my work won't be lost and the time I've invested here won't be wasted.
+1 vote

There are a number of proprietary genealogy programs which would allow you to build the tree of living related persons. The downside is, you MUST back the information up, or it will be lost. (It's not uncommon to see posts in G2G of people who have lost their entire tree due to disk failures.)

Except for immediate family, I do not put living people on Wikitree, because, as others have pointed out, their profiles will likely be deleted after I'm gone (unless they precede me in death.)

There also aren't a lot of useful legitimate sources for living people, so that makes it less likely that you can create a profile with sources. US Census records aren't available after 1950. Birth certificates are generally unavailable (except through on-site local searching and paying a fee), and marriage certificates are similar. Land records are about the only accessible records for living people.

So, even though you might know the names, birth dates, spouses, and children of living relatives, you would have difficulty meeting the Wikitree standards for sourcing to create their profiles.

I think the best option for creating a family tree of the living relatives is software like RootsMagic, Family Tree Builder, Legacy, or Family Historian. But have a good backup system. (I use Dropbox.) And make sure someone else can access it if you happen to pass away.

I have created printouts of all the things someone would need to know, if I passed away, to get into my accounts, and notify the appropriate people.

If there's one thing I've learned doing genealogy, it's that people who don't plan ahead leave behind squabbling relatives that fight over their estate, sometimes for decades after they are gone.

by Paul Schmehl G2G6 Pilot (147k points)

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