Cleaning up....

Question

I was a very early and enthusiastic uploader to WikiTree, and the 'working' database I uploaded was more than a just little sloppy in sourcing, details, etc.  (My sincere apologies.... )  Then life intervened, and I have not been active for some years.  

I am now going through my database, one small subline at a time, and adding multiple sources, census and vital record information, images and transcripts of data points, life details, conflicting information to be talked out with others.

My question is how to incorporate the changes and improvements without driving your staff and your system crazy.  I looked through the help section, and didn't find a clear answer on this.

Can I upload a new gedcom just for the corrected subline (20-50 people), and use the merge system to merge individuals, and then add further details not carried by the gedcom via the Wiki?

I understand that you **certainly** don't want people reuploading a gedcom when they make changes.  But these greatly improved and well sourced small chunks would take a great many hours to correct and add all the details to in each individual and each family.  And there will be more of these small subline corrections to follow, in the future....

Advice?

Linda Schreiber

Comments

Welcome back, Linda. Debby's answer below is excellent. You can't update with GEDCOMs. Creating a few intentional unmerged matches with our new GEDMatches feature would be OK, but that would be just for a handful. It's not intended to be done on the scale you're talking about.

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Matching_and_Merging_FAQ#Is_it_ever_OK_to_intentionally_create_a_duplicate.3F

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Thanks for the info.

In this cluster, there are only one or two people that will have truly significant and complicated updates.  The rest I can deal with by cut/paste in individual edit screens.  Tedious, but It was my own fault....

Answer 1

Linda,

Thank  you for being conscientious enough to return to the site and improve the profiles you created. Making changes won't cause the staff or system to go crazy.   I admire the people who can make such a complicated system run so smoothly.

There is a section in the help pages that answers your question as follows:

Can you update profiles with new GEDCOM imports?

No. You can add...individuals with new GEDCOM imports, but you can never update existing profiles this way.

There is no way to automatically "sync" WikiTree with other systems.

Our community is working on one set of profiles in one worldwide family tree. Automatically overwriting shared profiles would be unfair to other members of the community who may have been seeing these profiles in indexes and trees and making their own contributions.

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/GEDCOM_FAQ

~*~

Many of us are going through our profiles one at a time, adding research and sources. I can sympathize with your situation because it does take time. It's so good that you care enough to do it.

 

Comments

And I have to add, this photo you've shared is wonderful!

http://www.wikitree.com/photo.php/0/08/Silas_and_Martha_Ellen_and_family.jpg