Mentors Tips - What's your WikiTree Add "Style"

Question

Slow and Methodical -
Some WikiTreers add profiles one at a time, methodically adding sources, while searching for and adding more sources as they find them.  That's my style - I am slow and methodical (I admit I may take a long time to come back around to working up bio's).

Fast and Furious -
Some WikiTreers add profiles while working from a source, adding many, many profiles as they work down the source.  They create the citation for the source on one profile, copy it, then go back to each profile they made and paste the source to the profile.  After that and possibly over a few days or even weeks they may go back over the profiles and add Bios.

GEDCOM -
I gues this could be a part of fast and furious, though you can be slow and methodical about GEDCOMS as well.

Which ever way you work, always include in your style, time to carefully look for matches to make sure you don't create duplicates to our great big ole tree.

Profiles on Wikitree  <--- look this over about profiles on Wikitree.

What's your add style?

Mags

Comments

Admittedly, when I began wiki tree about 6 weeks ago, I was fast and furious - just wanting to get profiles made so I could invite my family (but always checked for duplicates.)  I included sources (mostly from Ancestry.com) but I didn't know anything about the source style guide.  Now I am a little wiser, I am studying about footnotes, editing, source style guide, citations, biographies, G2G, The Tree House, etc.  There is a lot to learn for a newbie.  One by one I am going back to make everything Wiki Style.   I am learning to become slow and methodical.

Cheryl Aldrich Skordahl

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Nice Cheryl. I feel like after two years of WikiTreeing, I have earned a Master Degree in Collaboration! Mags

Answer 1

OK   I am  #1  Slow and methodical, checking to see if there is an existing person on WikiTree, making sure I do not create those dups., and, looking for the references

Did take longer.  But aren't we here to enjoy this site? 

Answer 2

I started off a bit more quickly when there weren't as many dups, but I found that as I got further back in time, there were more dups to contend with. As a result, I now carefully go through information for a person I want to add, trying to ensure I have sources for most (if not all) data items. I find that sometimes, with multiple duplicates to contend with here, that work is painstakingly slow, but it is worth it to get the information correct.

Answer 3

Great Post!

I am extremely slow at writing biographies for profiles of distant relatives.  The concept of "If it is not sourced it is mythology not genealogy" is why I feel this way. Sources are constantly being uncovered and added and many profiles will have sources that are contrary to another source.  This is a primary reason to start the bio on a profile in hopes that a preponderance of evidence will become clear as collaboration builds and extends these profiles.  Everytime I see the default source generated by WT, "First hand knowledge as remembered by ---"  on an aged profile, I just chuckle and hope that someone will find time to provide something verifiable there.  This is when the template for unsourced|country is a fantastic tool for categorization of these unfortunate profiles.  The software update that provides possible matches prior to creating a new profile and requiring dates, if only using the template for DateGuess, is also a fantastic improvement.  IMHO, what sets this site above other sites is the mission of building ONE TREE and not a bunch of PRIVATE PUBLIC TREES.  Hopefully, everyone will use the "Search for Duplicates of my Watchlist across WikiTree" on a regular basis.  Maybe someday folks will realize that a the vast majority of the information found on pay sites is available for free and provides a more useful reference for all to verify with.

Comments

I agree with everything you said, but I still find way too many profiles that have no or very poor sources and have not even had the unsourced template put on it. I simply try to find at least one source to avoid adding to that list.

Answer 4

At first I was trying to find as many sources as possibel for existing profiles on my watchlist, working on one profile at aa time. Now I try to extract as much information out of each source and even create new profiles when they are not already on here but I still concentrate on the profile I started with and work from the profile that has the earliest edit date first. Bios are still a hsrd thing for me to do but I have slowley been working on a few and hope to get around to all of them someday.

Comments

I agree with you on adding others from the source, though I haven't done that too much as I still have family profiles to add!  Good on you!  Mags

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I am normally working on Family profiles when I start out but found out that I tend to forget to go back to add the others on the source if I don't do it right then so.....

Answer 5

I tend to be a mix of the two. I try to be slow and methodical, but get distracted by shiny objects. :D

For instance, I'll start out looking for all the records I can find on one person, including every census in their lifetime. But then I'll find them in a census with their family, so I might as well add profiles for their family members, and then add the census to those family members' profiles, and then find those family members in the other censuses, and then...

However, I am currently participating in Thomas MacEntee's Genealogy Do-Over, and that's going to involve a lot more of the slow and methodical approach. Part of that is creating a research plan/to do list, so that instead of following all those shiny objects immediately I just make a note to come back to them later. Here's hoping that makes me a little less easily distracted! :)

Comments

Ditto on the shiny objects, lol :-)

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Thanks for the link to the Genealogy Do-over Lianne, it looks really interesting.

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oooooo shiny!  Mags

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Me too - those sparkles do me in every time.

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Just call me "magpie" ... if it glitters ... wait, where was I? .... best thing about a to-do list - gets me back on track.

Answer 6

Add profiles? Huh, I haven't found the time to add but one the whole month of December. There are so many of my (and others') 1600-1750 ancestors on Wiki that need attention, that I almost never find the time to add profiles.

Comments

That's just great Anne!  Volunteers like you make WikiTree great!

Answer 7

I started by uploading a GEDCOM with my ancestors (wanted to upload with siblings and cousins but that was too big). and now I am going through each profile and adding the right sources, pictures and so on with the basic information. I started out in May with my maternal grandmother's mother's branch and I am just about to finish it. I intend to go back and add information about the places where they lived and adding siblings (at least the names if not the profiles).

This has been a great way for me to look over genealogy that I did years ago and I also realised that my maternal grandparents are related so in the process I am also taking away my own duplicates.

Answer 8

I guess I've been more the FAST and Furious up to this point. Now starting to Add sources, Then will work on bio's which I know I need to do a better job at. I tend to get a little long winded ! :-)  But There is a reason for the speed at which I'm going up the main lines of my tree. Most of the Profiles I have put on were all created and researched by My aunt Betty DuBois Brown. She put a ton of effort into her work traveling across the US, collecting data where ever the next lead took her. That all started around 1976 or 77, after Her father passed. When aunt Betty passed I started looking at some of our tree and decided to pick up the tourch! Aunt Betty DuBois Brown Passed in 1989.

I started by following her foot steps with an exception. She did not do anything on the computer and I thought it would be nice to be able to do that "IN HER HONOR". So here I am. On my Ancestry Tree I have 1300+ profiles. Lots of work to do !!! Will I ever get done? Probably Not !! At least here, even if the family don't cary on I know all the hard work will not be lost and forgotten !

Comments

What a great story!  Mags

Answer 9

Great question! I have been mostly slow and careful, but two shiny things attract me. (1) I realized how powerful Wikitree can be for genetic genealogy in terms of inviting people I match with to look at my wikitree to see if they can help identify our common ancestor. That has meant trying to quickly fill in my direct ancestors as far back as possible with only minimal documentation and a big 'Under construction -- I'll be back' type of sign -- and knowing that the pre-1800 profiles are going to take a lot of work, so I might not be back very soon. But at least the profile is there and others can contribute. The other shiny thing is when I see that by adding a couple of profiles not yet very well documented, I can link my family tree into another part of the great wiki-Matrix, I can't resist... and again with minimal documentation and 'I will be back'. Each time my tree spills into someone else's tree or out into the greater matrix -- I get an adrenalin charge. Meanwhile for the slow and careful, I try to consistently create well-sourced profiles for the complete family of my ancestor, and the spouse and children of all of their siblings -- to serve as bait for connecting to other people's trees.Been at it over a year now and working back in time am just finishing my great grandparents' generation.

Answer 10

I started "Fast & Furious" with few sources and biographies and I have now slowed to "Slow & Methodical" ensuring that I add information and sources as I find new information. I chose not to upload a GEDCOM instead using the opportunity to do further research as I go to fill out the profiles as I enter them into WikiTree. I am pleased that quite a few of my wife's and my cousins have contacted us having found their family members on WikiTree.