Question

Is it just me, or is Wiki Tree really complicated to use. This an ongoing issue for me and am ready to quit this

Comments

I found the easiest way to do something was to find a profile I liked the look of, and copied its styling.  At least, that's how I started out doing things - then I discovered things weren't as complicated as I had thought and started doing things to better suit me (my own "style", so to speak).

If you have problems with things, that's what the mentors are for, and also asking for help here in g2g.

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If I have a question I just email info@wikitree.com.  That gets the email to all the main people and they might be able to answer your questions.  However, it takes patience and time trying to figure this out especially when you are trying to copy your tree from Ancestry to see if it is accurate.

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Perhaps you could try adding a profile or two, then ask your Greeter, or anyone who has posted to this thread, to review them and give you feedback.

Answer 1

Almost everybody finds WikiTree has a pretty steep learning curve.  But, as you plug away at it, refusing to let it beat you haha, then gradually it gets easier and easier as it becomes more familiar.  One day, you do something almost automatically without even thinking about it, then realise you used to find it really difficult.  It gets better, I promise. :)

Answer 2

Also, don't feel like you have to do everything at once. Start with creating and sourcing simple profiles and work out from there.

There are a host of things that I still can't do after almost a year on it, but all-encompassing knowledge is not necessary and there are always people to help if you get stuck.

Answer 3

Hi Darcy, welcome back to WikiTree! I noticed that you joined several years ago and did not get the link for the help page 'How to use WikiTree'. I will post it on your profile, it has a lot of great information to help you get started.

Answer 4

I also find it very difficult to use, if you are doing more than adding people and the documents for resources etc. I think cause I’m so used to Ancestry ( unlike by most here) however I find it easier to maneuver than this site. It confuses me terribly.

Answer 5

Baby steps...Read the help pages. Be patient with yourself. If you can't find what you want, ask here and someone will help you find the relevant help page or may be able to just tell you how to do it. Some helpful folks even will go into your pages which are not privacy-locked and make changes for you if something doesn't turn out like it should.

Some helpful pages:

New_Member_How-To 

Help:Adding_Family

Help:Biographies

Help:Sources

Help:Editing_Tips

Start with something simple. Go to your own profile. Under your name you should see a little link that says "father?" and one that says "mother?" Click on that little link. Fill in the data fields as completely and as accurately as possible. If you have a source, add it in the big box at the bottom. (It is best to add the source now, but if all you have is personal knowledge you can say so and come back later and add the source.) Click the big green button at the bottom that says "ADD FATHER (or MOTHER) OF..." You will have created your first profile which links to you. It will have the required elements of a biography--the headings--and a very basic biography. You can make changes to the biography and add sources by clicking on the "Edit" tab at the top of the profile. Start by listing your sources below the "Sources" heading--you can learn to do inline sources later. When you are finished making changes, add a reason you made the changes, and save the page.

As Melanie said, if you see a page you like, you can use it as a pattern for one of your own. To see "how it was done" click on the "Edit" button at the top of the profile which will let you look at the "code."

Good luck! As Ros said, it does get easier!

Comments

I have gone to all the 'tip' sections and really don't find them all that helpful. Too advanced for a beginners. my opinion.

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Some people learn better by doing, some by reading, some by examples, some by seeing. But the more you try anything new, the better you get at it. If you will go to YouTube and do a search for WikiTree, you will find some tutorials there. Perhaps they will help. Some are a little old, so there may be a few changes, but the basics are pretty much the same. I hope you will find them helpful. And G2G is always a click away for suggestions, advice, answers to your questions, showing and telling you how it's done, even doing it for you if you ask, and, of course, encouragement.

YouTube - WikiTree

Answer 6

I agree.  I have found that if I use gedcom when adding family, it is SO much easier.  Otherwise, if I add family one-by-one, it is really difficult for me to add the sources, more like writing computer programing - which I have not been trained to do and I find VERY frustrating.  So, I would like a simpler way to be able to add these things.

Comments

Have you tried any of the apps, particularly the Sourcer or WikiTree BEE?  For me, the BEE has made a huge difference, removing much of the tedium of adding sources.  You can find a list of all the apps from the Find menu at the top of this (or any) page.

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Julie, Thank you for your suggestion!  I had no idea that BEE even exists,  I will definitely check it out and give it a try.

Answer 7

Start at the beginning; add your parents, Mr Trenwick and his wife your mother, you will need your mother's maiden name or LNAB, last name at birth.  

You will need birth and death dates for them, if your parents are still alive you can add them but their profiles will be private, no one other than you will be able to see them.

Next add their parents, your grandparents, they will be Trenwicks on your father's side and on your mother's side Mr and Mrs ---your mother's maiden name.

After that your great grandparents, if you don't have information for them ask here in G2G with as much information as you have for your grandparents and someone here will help you find records for them.

It isn't as difficult or complicated as it might seem at the beginning of recording your family history.

Please feel comfortable asking for more help. I am happy to help.

Comments

Please don't add parents and grandparents as "Mr" or "Mrs".  Just use their first names and last names (at birth).

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Indeed. The prefix field is not meant for marital status.

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I was just being polite as there is no information available for the first name of the father.

I was not suggesting that Mr, Miss, Mrs, etc be used as a prefix or a first name.

Answer 8

Ellen,

These are all excellent answers. If you still find it difficult to figure things out, let me know. I will be happy to help you.

Answer 9

Hi Darcy, 

From the WikiTree Honor Code (additional emphasis added), "We know mistakes are inevitable. We don't want to be afraid to make them. We assume that mistakes are unintentional when others make them and ask for the same understanding."

Hoping only to be helpful, I was drawn to WikiTree in 2011 after a cousin added WikiTree profiles about which I hoped to collaborate. Separately, I had also found a WikiTree profile associating one of my early ancestors with the wrong parents.  

Initially, I mostly posted comments to profiles. I took a long break, and then returned. I took another break later, but also returned. 

As to adding and editing profiles, I did start slowly. Did I make mistakes? Yes, and in that process, I learned a lot, pretty quickly. (I still make mistakes, as do we all; I still find mistakes I have made that need to be corrected.)  

There are many good suggested offered in this G2G. Some things that worked for me follow (your mileage may vary), 

1. Eventually, I added one or more personal WikiTree free space pages, and used those to practice entering and formatting sections, text and sources. (I still use some of the same free space pages for that purpose.)

2. The time I spent reviewing posts on G2G was helpful. Some of those posts were "how to do this or that," others allowed me to review how different WikiTreers had built well-styled profiles. I learned, as you have, to also post questions on G2G.      

3. As earlier, I added comments to profiles, but learned to keep a list of particular profiles in my personal "scratch pad" with links to comments that would need follow up. 

4. I opted not to add profiles en mass or via GEDCOM. Partly because I hoped to add "current" research to WikiTree profiles, and partly because I had too many ancillary profiles in my personal database (profiles about folks associated but not necessarily related). 

5. I don't feel pressured to rush a profile update. If I feel the urge to "push it," I know it's time to take a break and make a fresh attempt in a day or so. 

As others have commented, as your time permits, do keep with it. Believe you'll find the collaboration opportunities on WikiTree are unmatched. --Gene

Answer 10

It's not just you - WikiTree really is complicated to use.

While one can eventually learn how to use it, it is not intuitive, and requires learning a lot of markup "coding". And while there are plenty of great help pages and instructions, many are not very easily found or accessed without a lot of searching or luck.

This aspect of WikiTree is what continues to prevent it from growing significantly compared to other sites. The majority of my amateur-genealogist friends have tried WikiTree but stopped immediately due to this.

That said, it is the quality of the data here that retains me as a user, and it may be that this complexity weeds out casual false data entries by requiring some work to make entries - those other popular sites are also full of misinformation. This aspect makes WikiTree worthwhile for me personally (and the great user, administrator, and owner community!)

A solution to work towards someday may be overhaul to an intuitive wysiwyg interface, but with mandatory sourcing for each data item entered.

Comments

BTW I don't mean to seem ungrateful - I personally use WikiTree daily, rely on it as a free way to share data with others, and laud the owner, admins, and other users for their selfless contributions.

I only seek to offer honest, constructive criticism.

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Have you tried to use the icons above the biography text?  The 'C' or Cite your source on the far right will create the 'ref' entries automatically, so you can paste a previously copied citation between them.  Learning how to use the 'ref' entries is usually one of the hard parts.  

Using the Sourcer app has helped most people because it helps you to search ancestry, family search, and some other sites, with more sites coming, as well as creating a complete citation, including the 'ref', if you want it to create an inline citation. 

Answer 11

I am just too old and this Wiki Tree just isn't for me I'm sorry.

Please deactivate my entire information Marion 9086

Thank you,

Lynn Marion