Do you want to try GEDMatches?

+5 votes
1.1k views

A few hours ago our brand new "GEDMatches" system went live. I was anxious to get this released before the end of the year. I think it's super cool.

As described in the new (rough draft) GEDCOM FAQ, GEDMatches has two purposes:

1.) Enable new members and guest members to do an easy search to see if their ancestors already exist on WikiTree.
 
2.) Enable Wiki Genealogists to create new profiles on WikiTree through a GEDCOM import without creating duplicates.
 
Do you have a GEDCOM? If so, upload it and give GEDMatches a try.
 
Don't worry about doing damage by experimenting. GEDMatches doesn't import anything unless you approve the import.
 
Post your feedback or bug reports here. Thanks!
in Genealogy Help by Chris Whitten G2G Astronaut (1.6m points)

1 Answer

+1 vote
I tried GEDMatches the next day (probably) after you asked the above question. I went through the form and made the needed check marks, then pressed "All Done: Import to WikiTree.

After that, the more I looked at one of the names, the more I thought perhaps it was a duplicate so I followed the directions (I thought), went in and changed the name and pressed "Save Progress." I don't really remember at this point whether I clicked on "All Done: Import to WikiTree" again or not. I wasn't certain what to do.

My file has never showed up in my watchlist so I don't know if I did something wrong or didn't do something I should have.
by Debby Black G2G6 Mach 8 (86.4k points)
Hi Debby! I did see that. It's http://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Special:UploadGedcom&action=report&gu_id=5250
The status indicates that you didn't approve it for import, i.e. you didn't click "All Done" after reopening the report for editing. If you want to approve it I'll make sure it's imported. Cheers, Chris
Thanks, Chris. I was probably afraid that if I clicked the "All Done" the second time, two duplicate GEDCOMS might be the result. Shows my lack of understanding of how these things work.
Because my husband's ancestors were already on WikiTree, I marked them off the GEDCOM list as duplicates. Unfortunately, because of that, the GEDCOM didn't retain the relationship of the siblings so I've been going through the files adding the parents back in for each child. I don't know if this is a bug in the system or something we'll simply have to tolerate.
Thanks SO Much for creating this tool.

I just uploaded a small (50-or-so person) GEDCOM. Predominant surname is JONES, so you can imagine: many possible dupes.

The GEDMatches bot seems to do a better job than current online search/match options, but still brings up possibilities that don't seem appropriate:

1. Same birth year, but different birth place (could understand if one of the birth places was blank, but in the cases I'm thinking of, they both had places in that field, and they weren't close at all. Different state, different country.

2. Same birth year, but different parents when both listed. Pretty much same as #1 but where the GEDCOM being uploaded has a set of parents listed, and the Matchbot suggestion has a completely different set of parents.

Of all the proposed matches-- 53, I think-- only a couple were really close enough to make me wonder. The bulk were clearly not matches.

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