If I can't correct wrong info on my family, what good is this program

Question

Information on my family listed, some is incorrect

Comments

Dee, I'm all about a better mouse trap. To give you an example of, "What good is this program?" This weekend, I was adding children of ancestors. I came across a close match but, not exact. I was looking for Clay Brooking Smith and came upon a Clayton Sherman Smith- same DOB same DOD same wife, no parents no location of birth wrong location of death. Source listed was firsthand info by stepdaughter. After contacting the profile manager, I learned she had secured a birth certificate and his name was Clay Brooking, not Clayton Sherman. Assumptions were made based on her memory when the profile was made. Second point, after making that connection, my CC7 jumped by 35-40. Now I have a living contact person that has info on living descendants that I would have no way of ever hoping to contact. Left to my own devises, Clay Brooking may have been added by me with little to no additional information while Wikipedia has a page dedicated to him.

Answer 1

Hello! I noticed you have guest membership, I think that prevents you from making changes to profiles apart from your own. It’s free to upgrade if you would like to contribute further.

You could leave a comment on the profile that is wrong if you prefer to say what information is incorrect.

Answer 2

this program is not people friendly.

Comments

WikiTree does have a learning curve, but it gets easier the more familiar with it you become.

Perhaps if you tell us exactly what and where the incorrectness is, we could help you sort it out.

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Hi, Dee -- once you upgrade, the Greeters will give you a link to a tutorial page that will make the learning curve a little easier to climb. :-)

You can get a head start by going here: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Category:New_Member_How-To

Also, our forum here is very active. If you have questions, just go ahead and post them, and you'll get answers pretty quickly.

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I have attempted to make corrections but I can not get the program to respond.  Obviously, I don't know what I am doing wrong, but I would like to learn.  How does one become a full  member of WikiTree and where can i learn how to use it correctly?

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Hi Robert. You are already a full member of WikiTree, because you signed the Honor Code on 19 August 2020. If you want to start with the basics, you could try this page:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Category:New_Member_How-To

For specific issues you're having, it's probably best to start a new G2G question using this link:

https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/ask

Choose the WikiTree Help category, and give as much detail of the problem as you can. Lots of people will be willing to assist.

Answer 3

This isn't something we do for your benefit. This is something we all do together. If you find a mistake, supply the correct information with a source. It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.

Answer 4

Hi Dee and welcome to WikiTree. As has been mentioned your lack of ability to change things goes away when you step up to the free full membership.

I would hate for you to be put off by your experience so far. For early starters into WikiTree it can sometimes appear to be rather daunting but the really great thing about WikiTree is that there are thousands of other users ready and willing to help and guide you. That is a real bonus.

Because WikiTree is a one world or unified family tree it is unlike the family trees that you may find on some other sites. Your great grandfather is also someone else's great grandfather and his 'profile' only appears once so you will often find that improvements to the profile are made by people other than yourself. This can in the beginning be a hard thing to get your head round but once you gets to grips with the concept you will see its many advantages.

You may go to add your great grandfather to 'your' tree only to find the information already exists. Then when you look at your existing great grandfather you find a whole family tree going backwards and downwards about which you knew nothing.

Believe me when I say that working on a collaborative family tree has many benefits and sometime surprises!

Please do consider becoming a full member and experiencing the real benefits of WikiTree.