I blame you WikiTree…

Question

So, I’ve been here about a month and it’s pretty obvious by now that I am addicted. The coup de grâce was joining the Orphan Trail of the England Project. I am neglecting my own family tree, my one-place-study, my music lessons and all my other interests. Sure, I keep the house running and I'm handling the olive harvest, but that’s about it. I’ve been totally sucked into the WT rabbit hole.

I need words of wisdom from those who’ve been there before. Help!

Answer 1

It's almost 3 years for me on WT, about 11 years doing serious family history research.

If I have some other seemingly important tasks to do, I have to start the day with the other tasks, or they just disappear into ....who knows where, maybe the other end of the rabbit hole and are never seen again.

Comments

Eat your frogs before you chase your rabbits!  

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Thanks for the star Francesca !

Answer 2

I find it very easy to spend most of my time on WikiTree.

Answer 3

Sometimes you just have to force yourself to shut off the computer. Although after 8 years on WikiTree I haven't managed that yet (sigh).

Comments

The only time I’ve bee able to shut off my computer has been during a blackout, after the UPS backup had almost run out of juice (sigh).

Answer 4

I worked a nine-to-five job in the outside world.  Now that I am retired from that, I work nine-to-nine on WikiTree because it is so absorbing and enjoyable.  Twelve hours a day, including weekends - but I would not go back to that nine-to-fiver... :)

Comments

I knew it… there is no hope. I am headed in the same direction. 

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Resistance is futile

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Is there still an outside world?

Answer 5

I know the feeling.  Welcome to the WikiTree Addicts Club.

Comments

I limit myself to 3 hrs per day just because I can no longer sit at the computer any longer. My problem is staying close to the blood line. I get caught going down lines just because the info is readily available. These folks are like the husband of my 4th cousin 5 times removed.

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Dave, I often fall down rabbit holes.

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I flop on my stomach on the bed teenage style with my arms over the edge playing on my laptop which sits on a box. Very relaxing for this old bod, and good for the brain.

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Ooops! Sorry Joan, in a spastic moment I clicked on Down Vote. Evidently no way to correct?

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Stuart - click it again.

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Thanks Melanie.

Answer 6

If you like a good puzzle and have addictive tendencies, seek help now!

Answer 7

I love the title of this g2g and post. 

I guess we’re addicted to Wikitree genealogy 

Comments

I am not alone 

Answer 8

Now I'm confused. Is there life outside of Wikitree??

Comments

I'm in rehab. My counselor is on her computer trying to find her GG grandparents. Should I help?

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LOL, K! thanks for the good laugh

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So you are in rehab for your Wikitree addiction, and you are converting the counsellors while you are there?? Great job.

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I was kidding, rehab is for quitters! I will try moderation first. I still have a couple of GG grandparents to find of my own.

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I like the sound of it though. We need a Wikitree rehab retreat, where we can go, relax, and never recover!!

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Are you kidding, this is my penance for all my history lesson I slept through in school. Some days research political figures, the next outlaws. The days I am not on WT, I ponder which of my ancestors fell furthest from their full potential. Most of my outlaws are only responsible for only a few deaths. Historically speaking, we have a terrible track record, as a species, when we take a closer look.

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Yep. We need a location, where we can promise that we will no longer be addicted, and then spend the whole time getting tips and tricks off each other, so we can continue being addicted.

Answer 9

I find it helps to schedule WT time in my weekly calendar. Treat like an appointment.

Comments

We have two productivity tips already!

I just have to make sure I don’t schedule the WT stuff instead. 

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Brian you approach your (retirement?) life in exactly the same manner as my husband: as if he were still working. He too disects his day into appointments  whereas I'm in a more freestyle mode. As long as I keep the house running, the indoor animals brushed and happy, fuss over myself abit as all women do, keep the gardens green and healthy despite unpredictable weather hardships from climate change (insects appear to be the only life on earth which thrive in the heat related incidents) after-which I spend the rest of my time, laptop in hand, either working in WikiTree or updating my back-up tree research in Ancestry.com or 'hitting the books' researching. Some days, when my brain is caught by a research binge net, life gets a bit fuzzy, time itself looses meaning, and my cats get pissed I'm not paying enough attention to them. Out-of-state family membere call to make sure I'm still breathing. When I look back at my early life I don't remember love-affairs that were as all consuming as WikiTree. My psyche, my inner self, has been bewitched by the magic that is our history...  

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Leigh Anne, we seem to have a lot of tasks in common. I wish my indoor animals would let me brush them, especially my cat Martino (a.k.a. Mr. Grumpy). And don't get me started on the unpredictable weather and the pests killing my plants and crops. Most of my will is going to be about climate change and saving the pollinators (including bats). After all these replies to my post I am going to feel less guilty about the time I spend on WT. :)

Answer 10

I am in the same rabbit hole as the rest of you! Sometimes, life gets in the way but I seem to always find the path back to one rabbit hole or another! Glad to know we are all in the same club!!

Answer 11

I think my wife was telling me that I spend too much time on Wikitree but I'm not sure. I wasn't listening terribly closely because I was busy tracking down some elusive cousins

Comments

My partner and children are always telling me WikiTree is taking over my life, but there is so much to do and who knows how much time.

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LOL! I think my husband may have said something like that as well ... but I was only half listening as I was trying to read a very old will at the time.

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Could me. My husband and i call it my Dead People Work. Whenever i tell him something interesting, he says "is that drom your dead people work"

Answer 12

I see that so many of my WikiTree addicted colleagues are responding. We could start a 'support group', but none of us would want to interrupt our WikiTree addiction!

Welcome to the club, Francesca!

Comments

I want one of your buttons, though.

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Feel free to use the button already posted (it's why I included the url for the image) — unless you meant a different button.  

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Nope.  That's the one I wanted.  Thanks!

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Choices to foil the addicted CDO 

https://www.wikitree.com/photo.php/7/71/Images4G2G-22.png

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I now have this as my desktop - it makes me smile!  An addiction to support!

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Now try to decide what the words are actually saying.   

Another group support button, from a slightly different view.

https://www.wikitree.com/photo.php/c/c6/Images4G2G-23.png

(Maybe I should do one with a mouse.  Hmmmm.)

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Marion Ceruti wrote:

Melanie, maybe we can turn this button into a badge or a sticker, to be awarded to anyone who gets six consecutive 1000 club badges.

I got my 48th consecutive Club 1,000 badge this month. It's some kind of jubilee - 4 years of obsessive WikiTreeing. I suppose that I'm beyond help at this stage.

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Definitely a lost case, Leif.  

https://www.wikitree.com/photo.php/3/38/Images4G2G-24.png

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Melanie this is wonderful  

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I had to do a last minute change to the "phone number", because I didn't want someone trying my made-up 1800-dial-a-frend and finding it was an actual number.  
(For HELP call Pre-1700 source-a-profile might be better anyway. )

Answer 13

I like to have my morning coffee with wikitree when I get up.
I am hoping using my brain will help delay Uncle Al.  Most of the current projects require more computer skills than I have but I sure can find sources for those unsourced New York profiles and add them.  In the last month have finished profiles born in 1830, 31, 32, 33, and working on 34.

Comments

Uncle Al… yes, let's hope we keep that beast at bay. Have fun with 1834. :)

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i am doing the same for New Jersey. Trying to get the 1800s down to 1 page. i am currently working my way up from 1886. But then i have to make sure family members of the unsourced have sources.

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You will be lucky to get down to one page per year if the number of unsourced profiles are like New York in those early years.  The best I have done is down three pages (9-3=6).

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When I started, just with the one category in New Jersey 1800s, there were about 2700. Down to 1226, meaning 226 will get me down to one page.

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Great work from you.  1800-1899 in New York right now has over 10,000.  I'd have to live 500 years to make a full dent.

Answer 14

I know exactly what you mean, but i am so old that it doesn,t really matter, good to have something to fill the day, regards from Norway.

Comments

I feel like I found my tribe here. :)

Ciao from central Italy.

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I like that , Ciao from Norway

Answer 15

God grant me the serenity to accept the profiles for which I cannot locate better sources, the courage to change the ones I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Comments

When I asked for words of wisdom, I did not expect this. 

I will make a note of this for when I have enough knowledge under my belt to know the difference.

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Brilliant. So true.

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Perfect wisdom. I can certainly relate.

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That's great! ...and the tools to find the profiles that lack sources

Answer 16

Just had my Winter flu and a Covid jab - 1 in each arm, so not feeling like hefting more than just enough coal/logs for the stove today!  And it's raining "old ladies and fiddle-sticks" all day so far.

So the many answers here really cheered me up as I have yet to get the WT bug as bad as some - perhaps because I have brickwalls to demolish in several family's trees on the PC and some non-WT sites to maintain work on ( or for the more picky WTers " Upon which to maintain work".).

As for rabbits - .22 rifle and pistol seem to scare them tho some can be quite brazen.

Anyway well done WTaddicts  for reaching 30 million profiles.

Comments

Didn't you know? — These rabbits are 100% bulletproof.  

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Hilarious. And so true.

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Love it!!

Answer 17

Oh, I can SO relate to your dilemma. I started out 4 years ago researching 5 ancestral lines and it has mushroomed into a One Place Study encompassing the entire town. I won't live long enough to finish it, especially if my husband kills me over my addiction! (He won't, but he bellyaches about it.)

Answer 18

I wish I had more WT time!  My new granddaughter takes up lots of my time.  She needs Grammy snuggles weekly!  Her brothers like Grammy too just not the snuggles much any more.  I use to go down many rabbit holes and be up until 3 or 4 am.

Answer 19

I hear you. There is an endless supply of wonderful things to get involved with on here and I too find it hard to drag myself away sometimes. One of the biggest things I would say is to check in with yourself and ask if you have the capacity to do the next thing you feel drawn to get involved with. It might mean having to put something else down first. Don't worry, you can always pick it up again later... :-)

Comments

Yes, I need to do that because I don't like that I am neglecting everything else.

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The keyword here is "endless."

Answer 20

Welcome aboard! Full disclosure: it only gets worse, addiction wise. Which really means it only gets better! Lots of awesome WikiTreers out there. Have fun!

Comments

It is already getting worse. The only remedy is to add more profiles and supporting material to existing profiles.