I feel like a hummingbird in a flower shop...what are your tips for focusing in WikiTree?

Question

I love WikiTree...I am a cemeterist, I have adopted profiles (big heart), I love G2G and helping others, I have added some sources to unsourced profiles, I still have not totally cleaned up my gedcom upload, as I learn I realize I'm not happy with the way I have entered some of my profiles and  biographies and want to edit them, how do you all keep focused?

Comments

I hope you get lots of responses Brett.  I added some tags to try and get it out to as many of the right members as possible.  Again... excellent post!

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Brett,

I have been here since July and am experiencing the same feelings you are.  I am a cemeterist (cemetery project which is ongoing) and am just getting my one name study up and going.  I am helping with the black sheep project.

I still experience lots of problems with creating free space pages!

Taylor

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Brett, I tell myself  " I am not a greyhound. I not not Chase rabbits over the river , thru the woods and into deep dark holes and then Chase the next rabbit. With out catching the squirrel I started chasing to begin with." And gave me the best advice when I started , slow down. Then I write down everything I want to chase and catch it later.

Answer 1

I try to change things up every so often to keep from getting bored( my son accuses me of having ADD). Some days I will work specifically on a Magna Carta trail. Other days I will work on English unsourced profiles. Other days I will work on improving my family line profiles & sometimes I will focus on G2G.

Comments

Ok, I think I must have the same problem, I sort of do the same thing. So I'm ADD then.

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Doug,

I was on amazon yesturday and they have a book on the Magna Carta.

Have you been to the Openlibrary   http://openlibrary.org   I found that source yesturday millions of books to read online.

Taylor

source, resources

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http://openlibrary.org is posted on: http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Kitty%27s_Library. Previous to : 06:16 CST 3 April 2016. :)

Answer 2

This is a great post Brett!

Here in G2G we have Tags that members use and put on posts that share advice with others.  You can get to them by typing in the search on the upper left of the screen or by clicking on that Tag.  Try these:

Tips - advice shared by any WikiTree member

Mentor Tips - advice put out by the Mentors Project

How to WikiTree - under the direction of the Team

You can also try Tags such as Gedcom or Biographies

 

Comments

Thanks Keith I will do that...I would still like some feedback here on G2G if I can be indulged.

Answer 3

What I try to do is find the oldest edit date on my watchlist (go to Watchlist and click on edit date) and work on that one to start.  If a source lists multiple people I will add it to every profile that it applies to so that I don't lose track of that source.  I would move on to the next profile on my list after I have exausted all sources for the one I started with.  Some days it means that I stick with only one name and some days it would be working on a lot of profiles.  If I feel like a change of pace I would try to find sources for a profile in the Unsourced catagory.

Comments

I do the same and try to work off those on my watch list starting with the oldest.

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That's how I work too. On the oldest first!

Answer 4

While I seem to bounce around G2G answering questions that lead me down all sorts of tangents, I try to focus my greatest effort on questions that align with my current research... ones where finding the answer to someone elses question, and also reading the responses others give, will 'inform' me. This is often how I find or learn about resources and 'tricks' that are later useful for my own research. When I see a place named in a document I now have a half dozen sites bookmarked to look at maps - when I can't find a record where I expect to find it I often already know an alternate place to look or a different type of record that will provide the information I am looking for.

For my own research I simply try to set specific goals - my previous goal was to document all my paternal ancestors to my 5th great grandparents with all three vital records for each profile where possible, as well as documenting in the narrative all other known children for each family. (but not building profiles for them all). I made a spreadsheet where I could put the names, and keep track of which vital sources had already been added to each profile (aside from helping visualize what still needs to be done, it gives you a sense of chievement on how much you have completed). I have profiles now for 116 of the 128 paternal ancestors, I have found 95% of the 348 vital records, and I have named 353 other children to those 64 families.

My current goal is to document every descendant of Dirck Ton (regardless of family name) to either the end of line or to at least 1900. First pass I did all the children, second pass I did all their spouses, third pass I did all the grandchildren, then their spouses, and so on. I try to start at the bottom of the descendants list and work each individiual in a give generation until I am at the top of the page, then I start the next generation - I am roughly 1/2 way through the 2nd Great-Grandchildren. That's currently 588 descendant profiles and 141 spouses. On 15th June there were only 183 descendants and 57 spouses (I can't take credit for the entire increase - another Wikitreer was working on a number of profiles as well).

Comments

Rob, that's a

Answer 5

I sometimes wish WikiTree would have been in existence when I started with my research, because no matter how you look at it, with ADD or without, reentering decades of research is never as interesting as the original discovery. Thankfully, WT has lots of opportunities to digress from the tedious, and I use projects, one name and one place studies, and G2G to do a little original research inbetween.

The main goal, though, remains to get as many of my relatives as possible profiled which is going to keep me busy for a long, long time ... My family comes from an area with almost complete documentation from the late 16th century/early 17th century on in the form of digitized images of the original church books on line for free. Literally tens of thousands of cousins just a click away.

Answer 6

What I would love more than anything is a check box on my watchlist for profiles I've finished. I tried a to-do list and somehow it went away. <<computer idiot

That at least would keep me working on my watchlist.

~Cari

Comments

Cari,

Did you set up one of the Free-space To-do lists? If so, go to the drop down menu at the top of the screen that is under your profile number, then go to "Watchlist". At the top of the page are tabs, and one of those are Free-Space Profiles. Your to-do list should show up on that tab.