is there an easy way to tell if you've managed to connect a profile that's not on your own watchlist? [closed]

+8 votes
288 views

I understand the goal of the Connectors Project, and Connect-a-Thons, but I cannot figure out how you can tell whether or not a profile is connected.

I just spent a couple of hours trying to figure out if I had succeeded in connecting the profile of Tennessee Governor Malcolm Rice (Hamilton) "Ham" Patterson. I found his father's profile on [this list], so I'm guessing I haven't, even though the bottom of Josiah's profile has the paragraph with all the "degrees" of this week's connections.

Is there a simple way to see if the Governor's profile is connected?

WikiTree profile: Malcolm R. Patterson
closed with the note: answered - thanks y'all!
in Genealogy Help by Liz Shifflett G2G6 Pilot (626k points)
closed by Liz Shifflett
If you are a member of the Connectors Project, we see a little puzzle piece on UnConnected profiles.  Once a Connection is made, it can take up to 24 hours for that little icon to go away.

BTW - Malcolm is showing as Connected.  I'm guessing the last time you checked was before the database updated for .the day.

Also, that little unconnected icon looks like this - 

The 24-hour update is for the list of connection anchors at the bottom of profile pages.

For connections in general there is an update roughly every half-hour, which you can check by the "Connection to me" item in the dropdown menu for the profile's WikiID (Patterson-6838 for example).

It seems that this is not widely known, but (after being enlightenened by an answer by Aleš in a discussion) I use it regularly. I'm creating about ten profiles a day and find it very reliable. Yesterday the update seems to have missed a couple of beats, but that was an exception.
Thanks for letting me know Malcolm's connected Melanie. I'm not a project member, so I don't see those icons. (I knew to wait 24 hours - I finished working on getting him connected on the 14th. I didn't see a date on the page that listed his father as unconnected, but the text said it was updated on Mondays, so I thought that it was current, since it's Tuesday where I am.)

And thank you Eva - I had thought that the connection info was the easy way to see that someone was connected, but had been told previously that wasn't true (either I misunderstood or the person who told me that was misinformed).

Cheers, Liz
The bottom panel is the easiest way, but not the quickest ;-)

I'm working mainly on expanding my CC7; creating relatives for profiles already connected. In that context I check the connections frequently to see I'm on the right track, stopping at the right point.

But it also turns out that there are many emigrants in my circles six and seven. If I can find them in America on FamilySearch, and they're part of a tree there, I check to see if there's a relative a few steps away who has a profile in WikiTree and in that case I often build the connection. (I'm really improving my FamilySearch skills this way, learning to connect family fragments I find there).

When I do work on a connection like this, I keep the Connection-to-Me for the existing profile open in a tab of its own - it's usually about 26 or 27 steps. Then a little while after I have built the connection, I refresh the Connection-to-Me and take a childish pleasure in seeing it go down to nine steps :-)

1 Answer

+9 votes

There is four main ways to tell if a profile is connected. There is the paragraph with "Connections of the week" at the bottom of the profile. There is the "Connection to me" item in the dropdown menu. There is the Unconnected tab on your watchlist. Then there is the puzzle piece which only shows if you are part of the Connectors Project. Sometimes the connections can be updated daily or even sometimes sooner. 

The reason the father was on this list is likely because on last week Monday, He was likely still unconnected. These reports are run weekly and are not updated to reflect any changes during the week. 

by Darren Kellett G2G6 Pilot (413k points)
Thanks Darren! Now I know that if the profile has the weekly connections listed at the bottom, then it's connected.
Liz, most of the data on WikiTree+ related to profiles is updated weekly.

WikiTree+ is recognized by URL being
https://www.softdata.si/wt/
or
https://wikitree.sdms.si/
and it the future it will be
https://plus.wikitree.com/

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