New WBE Auto Bio needs some testing

+25 votes
2.1k views

I've made a new Auto Bio for the WikiTree Browser Extension.  It may be quite good, but there may be a lot of problems, too. I'd love some people to test it out.  It's on the Preview version (Chrome or Firefox).  If you want to help me find and fix any problems, please install the Preview version of the WBE and try it out. (If you already have the stable version installed, you can switch on Developer Mode in Chrome.  This reveals a switch for you to disable the extension while trying out the Preview version.) Here are some features of the new Auto Bio (mostly optional):

- Interpret census tables and citations in general and turn them into a narrative with inline citations.

- Automatically add location categories.

- Timeline.

- Fix locations.

-- Change 'USA' to 'United States'; OK to Oklahoma; or UK to United Kingdom. But it also looks at dates and it can remove 'United Kingdom' from locations before 1801 or 'United States' from Louisiana before '1812-04-30' (or add these when they're missing).

- Options for the wording. You can choose 'died' or 'passed away', the date format, and some other things.

- Get full citation for Find A Grave if the profile has a Find A Grave memorial number without a citation.

- Add an {{Unsourced}}  template if BioCheck judges it to have no sources. 

Also in this Preview update are - from Jonathan Duke - a Reading Mode and Accessibility features.  Please take a look at these, too. These two will be integrated soon, but take a look at how they look now and offer feedback. 

So... Please install the WBE Preview, test it out, and let me know about any problems (preferably on Discord).

Thanks.

Important edit: You can find it under Biography in the toolbar above the biography editor thing.

Edit: Added information about disabling the stable version.

Update (2023-03-19): I've had some really useful feedback both here and on Discord.  Please keep it coming.  Thanks.

in Genealogy Help by Ian Beacall G2G6 Pilot (391k points)
edited by Ian Beacall

16 Answers

+12 votes
 
Best answer
Thanks for working on improvements! I've gotten a few truncated sentences with auto-bio:

In 1950 (aged ~57), Beecher was living in Union with.
by Mindy Silva G2G Astronaut (1.1m points)
selected by Cheryl Hess
Thanks, Mindy. Can you give me the ID of that one?
Thanks Sandy!
I've taken a look at this and made some changes.  Thanks.
You rock Ian!!
+14 votes
Thanks Ian!  I am excited to take it for a test drive.
by Sandy Patak G2G6 Pilot (363k points)
Thanks, Sandy.

Ian -  Take a look at this profile, Henry Furnkas. (I reset it back to original form).

When I left click or right click on Auto Bio, it is keeping the original "Henry was born in...." text.  

Also, it is doing something odd with the Obituary source by adding it at the very bottom of the profile with a empty line separating the entire source data.

Otherwise, I seriously love the way you have the bio all written out at the top.  Very concise and neatly done!

Ian - Could you look at this profile too and click the left and right buttons for the Auto Bio:  James Hanson Linger

  1. It is duplicating the stickers
  2. It is duplicating the inline sources and putting them at the bottom as bullet items.  Do I have the settings wrong?  I have Inline checked.
Sandy, are you clicking the right button? It's not the big Auto Bio button from the BEE, but under Biography in the toolbar with the WT+ things.

For this Profile, it duplicated almost everythng.  Actually, it might have just added a new complete set of data & brief bio (except Categories).  The newer version is on top. It also did not pick up the ==Military== section that was pre-existing.

I am using a different computer that never had the new WBE installed.  It only has the WBE (Preview} installed.   I did use the "AutoBio" under the Biography and did not go near the green AutoBio button. Thanks for pointing that out. wink

Ok so now new text, in the edit screen telling me to edit new bio above and delete old bio below (or click the Delete Old Bio button).  Not sure if this really matters but in case it does... I didn't delete and clicked save.  I went back into the edit mode and the Delete Old Bio button doesn't appear.  

No big deal since I can manually delete. smiley

Thanks, Sandy.  That's a bit messed up (Furnkas-8). I'll sort it out.

Maybe I should put the 'Delete Old Bio' button there for cases like that. The idea is for people to edit the page before saving it, so the message and the old bio shouldn't be there the next time it's opened, but I guess it can happen...
I so love the way you are doing the first paragraph "bio" and the marriage and then death paragraphs.   Looks great and really makes a profile easy to read & engage by clicking on the parents/spouse/cemetery.

Really Great Job!
Thanks, Sandy.  I've done some more work on this and fixed the problems with Furnkas-8.  Let me know if you see any more problems.

Ian - Check out the differences between the green button Auto Bio (left click) and the Auto Bio under "Biography".   Not a bug but a difference that I thought you might want to see.  Mary C Smith

Thanks, Sandy.  I've taken a look and made some changes.
+11 votes
Thank you Ian, for another great tool.  I'm tech illiterate, so took some stumbling about before an auto bio appeared - am delighted with the result.  Now to see if I can make that happen again before exploring the other things it can do.
by Patricia Roche G2G Astronaut (1.1m points)
Thanks, Patricia.  Let me know if you come across anything strange.
+10 votes
I will test drive it for you Ian.
by Kathy Nava G2G6 Pilot (413k points)
Thanks, Kathy.  Let me know if you see any problems.
I love the button but I am having an issue with it. Sometimes it will create the bio really quick like a few seconds. Other times I have waited at least a minute and the tree icon is still moving and no bio. I am not the greatest at tech stuff but I think I am doing everything right.

Even after 2 minutes still no bio on this profile https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Lane-19905
Thanks.  If it doesn't work for you, you may have found a bug, and I'm glad to hear about it - please tell me the ID of the profiles where you find problems.  But... I just tried Lane-19905 and the Auto Bio worked fine for me, so I'm not sure what to say there.
I had a feeling you wouldn't have a problem using auto bio.
Thanks, Kathy.
They should be OK now (in v.1.3.6.1).
Thank you.
+9 votes
oooooo, bio tools!  ok, i'll have to test this out when i get the chance. :)
by Caroline Verworn G2G6 Mach 9 (96.0k points)
+11 votes
Hi Ian,

I'd love to try it out. I already have the WBE installed in Chrome. Do I have to uninstall it, before I install the "preview" one? Is it possible to have both installed without causing problems? I use a Macbook Pro. Any issues with the preview version on MacOS? Will the Control-Click work the same as a Right Click on Windows Computers?

Kind regards

Mack
by Mack Morrison G2G6 Mach 8 (88.4k points)
Hi Mack,

Thanks for your interest and help.  In Chrome, you can switch on Developer Mode in the extension manager. This gives you switches to enable and disable extensions, so you don't need to uninstall anything - if you install the Preview version, you can disable the stable version.  I don't think there are any issues with the extension on MacOS, because someone would have probably told me about them, but I can't say for sure. I see no reason why there would be extra issues with the Preview version as opposed to the stable version (as they're very similar). I assume the control-click would work the same as a right-click, but I don't think there is anything in the extension that expects you to right-click things, so maybe don't worry about that.
Thanks Ian - I'll try what you suggested.

Kind regards

Mack
+8 votes
I'm excited to install and try it!!  THANKS!!!
by Donna Harris G2G6 Mach 2 (24.0k points)
Thanks, Donna.  Please don't get your hopes up too high as there are probably lots of problems that you'll find quite quickly which I haven't seen.
+7 votes
I guess I need hand-holding again.  I can't find "WBE Preview".

I opened a profile, under Find menu opened Apps sub menu, and under the Ws, only found Wikitree +, Wikitree BEE, Wikitree Browser Extension, Wikitree Sourcerer, Wikitree X.
by Peggy McMath G2G6 Mach 8 (86.0k points)

There are links to it in the 'question':

I've made a new Auto Bio for the WikiTree Browser Extension.  It may be quite good, but there may be a lot of problems, too. I'd love some people to test it out.  It's on the Preview version (Chrome or Firefox). 

+7 votes
Ian,

I just tried it for Root-3792. It thought she was unsourced. But since she is well after 1700, an online family tree is a valid source. I will be discarding changes, and will be updating her profile after I add her parents.

Here is what AutoBio gave me:

Dorothy Root was born in Mason City, Cerro Gordo, Iowa, United States 29 July 1919.

Dorothy married [[Metzler-817|Paul Duane Metzler]] (born 27 December 1917 in Sioux City, Woodbury, Iowa; son of [[Metzler-502|Dr. Clyde Carleton Metzler]] (1881–1950) and [[Dailey-2327|Ethel D (Dailey) Metzler]] (1882–1941)).

Dorothy died 11 December 2011 in Michigan, United States, aged 92.

and here is how I would edit it (clues for preferences):

Dorothy Root was born 29 Jul 1919 in Mason City, Cerro Gordo, Iowa, United States.

Dorothy Root and [[Metzler-817|Paul Duane Metzler]] were married. He was born 27 Dec 1917 in Sioux City, Woodbury, Iowa the son of [[Metzler-502|Dr. Clyde Carleton Metzler]] and [[Dailey-2327|Ethel D Dailey]].

Dorothy died 11 Dec 2011 in Michigan, United States.
by Kay Knight G2G6 Pilot (654k points)

Thanks. Comments:

  • The date format is an option (you can set it).  The missing 'on' is something I'll fix. 
  • The order of time and place is debatable - possibly something to add as an option.  
  • I'm not sure about your wording for the marriage and the spouse. Again, it's possibly something to add as an option. 
  • I'm not sure why you wouldn't want the age at death in the bio, but again - possibly something to add as an option.
I've added two of these options.
+7 votes

Hi Ian, some of the date formats don't seem to be working correctly for me. I selected date format "24 Nov 1859" and words, and for the family lists I chose long dates and do not show death dates. See an example here.

Also I tried doing an auto-bio on this profile but I just see the shaky tree and no auto-bio is produced.

Thanks!

by Valerie Penner G2G6 Mach 8 (89.4k points)
Thanks, Valerie.  I've fixed all of these issues. Please take another look when you have time.

Thanks Ian looks like these are fixed for me now :) I am now getting several empty in-line citations automatically generated: <ref name='Birth_1' /> (see example here). I have the "inline citations" box unchecked.

Thanks, again.  I'd missed a dot in my code.  I've fixed it now.
+6 votes

Hi Ian,

I like the Autobio. I  have 2 small things to be 'repaired' or at least commented. Profile Borger-149

Harmke Goukes Borger was born on 1 November 1812 in Rotstergaast, Schoterland , Friesland, Nederland.

Harmke (25) and Oene Christoffels Wagenaar (22) were married on 8 July 1838 in Schoterland[1]. Oene was born March 28, 1816 in Heerenveen, Schoterland, Netherlands. He was the son of Christoffel (Oenes) Wagenaar (1790–1827) and Jacobjen (Jans) Post (abt. 1792–1872). Their children were:

I made the Date-Setting DD Month YYYY which works with the exception of the birthdate of the persons father. 

The 2nd point: why is in the childrens block the word on before the deathdate? (I made these bold)

Thank you

by Klaas Jansen G2G6 Pilot (112k points)
Thanks, Klaas.  Those are both mistakes and I'll fix them.
+5 votes

Hi Ian, I'm trying out the new WBE Auto Bio and have run into some problems. See Guilbeau-277.

  • The auto bio creates a date of "about 15 May 1832" but the date field is "about May 1832". Why is it making up a day on the 15th which doesn't exist in the profile?
  • Would it be possible to include an option to exclude ages in the marriage and death sentences? 
  • I would also appreciate an option to exclude date ranges for parents and spouses.
  • In the list of children, could you please remove the period after the last child listed?
  • I like how it converted the Findagrave link into the full citation. But I would like for it to NOT create it as a named reference, since this one is only used once in the profile.
  • This is the biggest issue, and I'm not sure if it can be fixed. The way the birth and marriage sources are entered into the biography is understandably misinterpreted by Auto Bio as biographical text rather than cited source material. So Auto Bio has removed this information from the biography. Those lines are actually quoted from the Hébert reference shown in the list of Sources. Users familiar with south Louisiana sources know this. I understand why Auto Bio doesn't, but it is unfortunate because we have hundreds maybe thousands of profiles in Louisiana entered in this way. I can't recommend using the Auto Bio for these profiles (which desperately need biographies) until this issue is addressed, because it could result in the deletion of important source information that isn't otherwise easily available. And this is a simple profile, there are others with more complex usage of this source for other events.
I did not save Auto Bio's work for this profile so you can see for yourself how it behaves. If you want to discuss the details privately on how we can resolve this last issue, please feel free to contact me. Thanks!
by Joyce Rivette G2G6 Pilot (189k points)
> The auto bio creates a date of "about 15 May 1832" but the date field is "about May 1832". Why is it making up a day on the 15th which doesn't exist in the profile?

That's a mistake.  I'll fix that.

> Would it be possible to include an option to exclude ages in the marriage and death sentences?

Yes. That's possible.

> I would also appreciate an option to exclude date ranges for parents and spouses.

Also possible.

> In the list of children, could you please remove the period after the last child listed?

OK.  (I thought I'd done that.)

> I like how it converted the Findagrave link into the full citation. But I would like for it to NOT create it as a named reference, since this one is only used once in the profile.

Why do you think it matters how many times the reference is used?

As for your last point, until I take a closer look, I don't know what you're talking about. I'll look into it.
Regarding named references, I don't use them unless I need them, Technically, it doesn't hurt anything to have them on every citation, but without a purpose they feel like unnecessary clutter to me and I prefer to keep coding to a minimum when possible.

I understand not wanting clutter.  I'll think about adding this. It's just easier for the coding to give every reference a name and then it can easily be again elsewhere in the biography (by the Auto Bio or the editor).

---

I've looked at the profile you referenced.  I have a couple of comments on this part of the 'biography':

GUILBEAUX, Honore (Placide & Julie CORMIER) bt. 21 Oct. 1832 at age 5 mths. (Laf. Ch.: v. 4, #90)

GUILBEAUX, Honore Placide of Laf. (Placide & Julie CORMIER)  m. 22 May 1855 Anne E. THOMAS (SM Ch.: v. 9, #134)

1. This looks to me like a citation which should be with the rest of the citation, either like this:

== Sources ==

<references />

* Title: Southwest Louisiana Records, 1750-1900: compact disk #101; Author: Donald J. Hébert; Publication: Rayne, LA: Hébert Publications, 2001; GUILBEAUX, Honore (Placide & Julie CORMIER) bt. 21 Oct. 1832 at age 5 mths. (Laf. Ch.: v. 4, #90)

* Title: Southwest Louisiana Records, 1750-1900: compact disk #101; Author: Donald J. Hébert; Publication: Rayne, LA: Hébert Publications, 2001; GUILBEAUX, Honore Placide of Laf. (Placide & Julie CORMIER)  m. 22 May 1855 Anne E. THOMAS (SM Ch.: v. 9, #134)

... or like this:

== Biography ==

'''Honore Placide Guilbeau''' was born about May 1832 in Lafayette, Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, United States,  son of [[Guilbeau-72|Francois Placide Guilbeau]] (about 1795–1865) and [[Cormier-1089|Julie Cormier]] (about 1802–1882). <ref>Title: Southwest Louisiana Records, 1750-1900: compact disk #101; Author: Donald J. Hébert; Publication: Rayne, LA: Hébert Publications, 2001; GUILBEAUX, Honore (Placide & Julie CORMIER) bt. 21 Oct. 1832 at age 5 mths. (Laf. Ch.: v. 4, #90)</ref>

Honore (23) married '''[[Thomas-19998|Anne Elisabeth Thomas]]''' (16) (born July 23, 1838 in St. Martin Parish; daughter of [[Guidry-405|Arthemise Arthemise (Guidry) Thomas]] (1803–before 1842)) on May 22, 1855 in St. Martinville, St. Martin Parish. <ref>Title: Southwest Louisiana Records, 1750-1900: compact disk #101; Author: Donald J. Hébert; Publication: Rayne, LA: Hébert Publications, 2001; GUILBEAUX, Honore Placide of Laf. (Placide & Julie CORMIER)  m. 22 May 1855 Anne E. THOMAS (SM Ch.: v. 9, #134)</ref>

If the parts of the citation you've put in the Biography were connected with the rest of the citation like this, the Auto Bio would probably be able to pick them up and add them inline as above (though the code may need a little adjusting to recognise this format (or source)).

...

The other thing is that - as I think you suggested - it's difficult for me (the Auto Bio) to go through the current biography to find text which is actually a citation but not marked as such (as I think your text is there).  However, this doesn't mean that the Auto Bio is not working.  It just means that you may need to do a little work after hitting the button.  The Auto Bio is meant as a base to build on.  There will often be something useful/relevant in the current bio that has not been added to the generated bio automatically, as it's not easy to parse all the text (without AI or something).  But this is what the message is for:

<!-- 

 --- WikiTree Browser Extension Auto Bio --- 

NEXT: 

1. Edit the new biography (above).

2. Delete this message and the old biography (below). (You can just click the 'Delete Old Bio' button.)

Thank you.

-->

...

Joyce: Looking at this birth date issue...  I can't see how the Auto Bio would introduce a 15 to the date, and I see that you changed the date to 15.  Was that a mistake?

https://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Guilbeau-277&diff=171340950&oldid=94247098
+6 votes

Hi Ian. Thanks for everything that you do!

This morning, while trying to connect Avie (Cormier-689) to his wife Rita (Cormier-5712), a message appeared indicating that they were of the same sex (female). I clicked on the button Continue Anyway, wishing to complete the connection and to correct Avie's gender to male afterward, but nothing happened. I couldn't go backward either, caught in a loop. I started over, made the correction, and connected them. However, since WikiTree allows marriages between same-sex couples, this might need to be fixed.

by Gisèle Cormier G2G6 Mach 7 (79.7k points)

This is a known problem, unrelated to the Auto Bio (or anything else in the WBE).  It seems that Jamie is working on it.

+5 votes
Ian,  A frequent issue I'm running into with Auto Bio and with Auto Catagories is that when a person has St John, New Brunswick in their profile, the suggested category is St. Martins, New Brunswick instead of Saint John, New Brunswick.  It doesn't happen every time, I suppose it depends on the use of Saint or St but I haven't been able to confirm that.   Certainly "Saint John, St. John, New Brunswick, Canada" triggers the error and that's the most common way to refer to the city.

I suspect your lookup table has an error.

Thanks
by Stu Ward G2G6 Pilot (228k points)
Thanks, Stu.  I'll see what I can do about that.
+6 votes
Hi

If I have an inline source in the refrence section, basically when I create a new profile i put the inline souce in the Source section.

When I select auto bio the source is created twice with an extra <ref/> after the second source.  

Carol Ann
by Carol Ann Mason G2G6 Mach 1 (10.8k points)
Ah! Maybe this is a problem that someone had yesterday... It sounds the same... (Sorry, talking to myself.)

Erm... Don't put inline citations in the Source section? That's not where they go. The Auto Bio is not expecting that.
I put them there so that I have a source when I create a new profile. I will remove them from now on and see how I go. Thanks.
+7 votes
Hi Ian,

I have had to fix up some profiles that were mangled by inappropriate use of this tool. I wonder if you should have some notice on it to remind people to take care and not simply accept everything it suggests.

some specific issues:

I sometimes have list of children that don’t yet have profiles. These were deleted and replaced by a shorter list of existing profiles.  

It seems to delete Research Notes

It seems to delete other information (eg a paragraph discussing marriage will be deleted and replaced by your template, but losing other miscellaneous information.)

References get removed and added as general sources.

The person who edited “my” profiles was doing literally thousands every day, many seemed to have similar issues with deleted information.

Thanks

William
by William Thorpe G2G1 (1.8k points)

Cautions are already built in. The 'manual' also gives extra cautions. Please read the help text from the word 'Caution'.

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