Question of the Week: What improvements would you like to see on WikiTree in 2025?

Question

You might have seen the "WikiTree's Past, Present and Future" post with notes on what's coming this year.

What improvements would you like to see? Are there any features you'd love to have in the WikiTree Browser Extension? Any ideas for Tree Apps? We have an amazing community of volunteer developers who might be able to help.

Please post your wishlist below. You could also answer on Facebook.

Answer 1

I reported a bug regarding the DNA Descendants view in 2020 (which apparently had been known since 2018), which has not yet been fixed.  While it remains a useful feature when reviewing my direct paternal and maternal cousins, it would be great if we could fix this so I don't have to change viewpoint to examine local branches.

Answer 2

My number one wish is multiple language support in the WikiTree user interface. (As in, all menus and help pages available in other languages.) By that, I don't mean all 27 languages listed in the drop-down when creating a profile. Or at least, not right away. But even having the user interface available in one language other than English (whichever one has the most WikiTreers who speak it) would be a huge "Welcome" sign on the front porch of Wikitree, telling the world that we really do want to be one single tree for the whole world, and that everybody is welcome (even if it's going to take a while to get support for every language up and running).

Comments

My number one wish too - thanks, Greg! Many of those whom I invited stayed at guest level and never contributed because they don't understand English. 

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Also see https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Project:Language

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This is absolutely essential if you want to go truly global.

I thought the interface redesign might have been a good opportunity for this to be implemented, but didn't see it mentioned anywhere.

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Thank you for linking to the Language Project, Michel. I didn't even know that it existed until Kylie posted a message a couple of weeks ago. (I got so excited that I handed over management of a page that I had put up to help in making profiles in other languages to her for use by the Project.)

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Tatsächlich habe ich noch ein paar andere Funktionen, die ich schon seit einiger Zeit sehen wollte. Das sind wahrscheinlich nicht die Dinge, die die meisten Leute auf einer Genealogie-Site suchen, aber ich denke, sie könnten dazu beitragen, WikiTree noch nützlicher zu machen, als es bereits ist. Aber das Sprachproblem ist so wichtig, dass ich die anderen Ideen einfach zurückhalte, bis sich in Bezug auf die Sprachunterstützung etwas tut.

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Not just the interface. I’d also like to be able to write profiles in multiple languages.

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Even being able to enter the Unicode code-points for multiple languages in the way it is done in html would be an improvement.

But at least easy way to enter multiple name & title variants: James I of England, IV of Scotland comes to mind.

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@Lewis: Biographies can and are being written in different languages on WikiTree. See the list on Different Languages Used with example biographies for every language listed. Some profiles have been written bilingually, e.g. German philosopher Emanuel Kant (1724-1804) in English and German.

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What I try to do when I create a profile for somebody who spoke a language other than English is have one biography in their language, followed by a bio in English for those of us who are monolingual. (I use Google Translate, so if you happen across a profile that I created, feel free to fix up any clumsiness in the biography in the subject's language. I won't be offended, and Google won't care.)

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@Oliver: I know, but it's so messy, especially if other languages' interfaces would be introduced. I hate how much it can mess up the references, just look at the sources for Jean-Henri de Berckhoffer.

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@Lewis: Those sources don't look messy to me but more like a normal list of academic references in a European context.  There was a time when any academic would have been multilingual because one language didn't suffice to understand a published paper - and academia was richer for it. How else do you expect "to be able to write profiles in multiple languages"? Maybe, I misunderstood your comment about "Not just the interface ...".

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@Oliver: I was thinking more like Wikipedia: you'd only see the language version of the biography for which you're using the interface. This would scare off fewer people by having to scroll past a wall of text that you can't understand.

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OS & LC comments both have merit. I can hack a little French, poorly, with incorrect prepositions/tenses. But spoken/heard AmerEnglish, BritishEnglish, & French even use different frequencies, resulting in records variations via different ears/hand-writing. A fave econ book was originally Austrian German, but even the AmerEnglish translation is sprinkled with Latin, Italian, Greek... Grad students published a separate glossary.

But how to implement the WickedPedia-like language version, with diff FQDNs designating language (de...., fr...., en....)? Lots of volunteers with specialized knowledge? Automagic translators? Sounds complex.

Some sites have rejected my source citation or URL attempts, mistakenly claiming they are plagiarism, so I keep them in my own notes, but...

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Agreed - the implementation sounds like a nightmare. At this current stage, different language biographies are not comparable - well, neither are WP articles -, resulting in info you get in one language not being available in another and vice versa. Suboptimal! Reminds me of an experience just yesterday when searching for info on unconnected notable Wilhelm Brasse, and the only mention of his grandfather was in the Esperanto version of his WP article. Who would've thunk!?! 

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Actually, automagic translation isn't a bad idea. Have fields like "Biography-DE", "Biography-EN", etc., and if an Anglophone is reading the profile for a German speaker, use Google Translate (I assume, possibly incorrectly, that there are APIs to do that) to display in the Biography field if the "Biography-EN" field is empty.

Answer 3

I would like a separate sortable column for death data in our Watchlist table.

I would also like for out Watchlist to be sortable by LNAB/birth surname, rather than current surname.

Comments

L, have you seen the WikiTree Browser Extension?  There's a feature that gives you a sortable death date column.  (I'm afraid it doesn't sort by LNAB, though).

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I have no interest in using that extension.

I feel that sufficient functionality should be built into the core program, rather than added as an afterthought app.

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OK.  I think that would be a good thing, too.  Who needs afterthought apps, eh?    

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I don't understand why you wouldn't want a feature just because of where it's found.  I understand wanting it in the core, but that may mean waiting years before limited resources can add it.  If someone makes it available earlier - that's awesome!

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Not everyone wants to add apps/extensions to their device's browser. Some people see apps/extensions as potential security breaches.

Database sortability should be a part of a website's core programming.

Answer 4

I would like to see a similar separate language naming system to geni. It would help make names more searchable for immigrants especially, as some people changed their names quite a bit or came from a Cyrillic or other alphabet. I think it could be made compatible with having LNABs as the link to the profile, as more than one link (i.e. each alphabet's spelling of the LNAB) can redirect to the same profile.

One that I hope is fixed in the redesign is the unusable area for tables in pages. Tables tend to fall off the right side of the editable part of the page. The only way to make decent-looking tables in my OPS required making them take up 150% of the page width, which could break on mobile or with the new UI design. Examples here.

The last very small thing: When adding categories to a profile, could there be an option to either select multiple or have the drop-down box stay when you click one? I find it annoying having to click the category button and type in the exact same thing multiple times to fill out a profile, especially with census categories.

Answer 5

I would like to have an API endpoint to get profiles by category. It is present on the website, so should be possible to get that into an API endpoint.

Yes, this can be achieved on Wikitree+, but there the data is always a few days off.

Answer 6

I would like the standard bio text to not use "is" (present tense) when the profile is for someone over 110 years old. Please then replace by 'was'.

Comments

In a very similar vein, the standard bio should not use "is" if the death date is flagged "about/uncertain but non-living". This should be an easy fix.

Answer 7

I would love to have the system automatically check 'no spouse' and 'no children' when the profile is of a person who died under the age of 10 years.

Yes, small thing, but why do we need to do this manually?

Comments

Great idea, Michel!

Thanks for posting it.

I'm in favor.

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Michel, that is a good idea

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Excellent idea, no controversy, makes sense.

Answer 8

I also work with the FamilySearch tree and, even though I prefer WikiTree, there are some FS features that I wish were in WT too.

Foremost is the handling of multiple versions of an individual's name. The current WT system is based on Anglo-American naming conventions which doesn't work well with other cultures, specifically those where the family name comes first and those where there are no family names (South Pacific). In order to become truly international and multi-cultural, WT should rethink how names are stored - I like the FS array of Alternate Names where each name can have its own language/alphabet and format/sequence. I would also remove the existing name fields and tag each of the Alternate Names as "Birth Name", "Married Name", "Adopted Name", "Also Known As", "Anglicized Name", etc. The fields "Current Last Name" and "Other Last Name(s)" would become redundant.

Once the core issues with names are addressed, it'll be much easier to expand WT to other cultures and languages.

Comments

I second this, I mentioned geni's multiple language naming system in my response but I think FamilySearch's is good. Current last name and other last name are needed for searchablity for Anglo names, but I'm always working with patronymic names and Norwegian farm names that aren't quite a "last name".

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Oh, yeah, just search on "naming conventions" in G2G and you'll get scads of hits. Some time back, I suggested renaming the existing fields and adding a bunch of extra fields:

• change "Proper First Name" to "Given Name"
• change "Last Name At Birth" to "Family Name At Birth"
• change "Current Last Name" to "Current Family Name"
• change "Other Last Names" to "Other Family Names"
• add "Patronymic"
• add "Matronymic"
• add "Only Name" (to account for cultures where or time periods when people only have/had one name - and make it so that, if there is no entry in the "Family Name At Birth" field, the WikiTree ID is based on the "Only Name" field.)
• add "Naming Convention", which would be a picklist: Chinese, English, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish are the conventions I know about. There are probably lots more. (And more name fields needed.) Once you select a naming convention, the system builds the display name out of the existing fields, and puts them into the correct order for that naming convention.

It would probably be a lot of work setting up a system like that, but once it's set up, it would be extensible: when somebody needs a new naming convention and none of the existing ones will work, just build a new formula/script for the system to build a display name out of existing name fields according to the new convention.

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Greg,

IMO, renaming and adding additional name fields isn't enough. My challenge is my wife's Ukrainian grandparents who migrated to Canada between the wars and who each have several variations on their names based on the languages used by the officials involved. Note that it is the forenames that vary more than the surnames - something that WT doesn't handle well at all. Here is a list of names for my wife's grandfather:

Nicolaus Fitak - Latin (Greek Catholic Baptism record)

Мико́ла Фітак - Ukrainian (Cyrillic)Mykolaj Fitak - Ukrainian (Roman)Nikolaj Fitak - Polish (passport and other 1925 travel documents)
Nicholas Fitak - English
Nick (nickname)There's likely also a German variation of his name from when Galicia was part of the Austrian Empire.
As a former application developer and database designer, I know that the above names would be best handled by a variable array of Name objects, each containing one variation on the subject's name. The FS Alternate Names is an example of such an array and it works well. Though I would go a step further and move the main name fields into the array too - one instance could be flagged as the primary name and the rest would be alternate names. Even as I wrote the previous sentence, I recognize that a Ukrainian user would probably want to see the Ukrainian name as primary while I (a mono-lingual English Canadian) would want the English name as primary - an array of name objects with appropriate flags on each object could make this possible.

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Great idea.

I have a surname that is listed in at least 2 trees.  The name, Gilbert, morphed from Jelbert, notably, and it's diverse spellings.  There is a Jelbert tree somewhere.  I'm sticking with Gilbert for the sake of less confusion.

My link:  My Stephen Bawden married Elizabeth Jelbert/Gilbert/Jilbert...

Even Bawden has morphed into Bowden, Bowdoin, Beaudin, etc.  The name as it's spelled - Bawden - was seated in Cornwall.  I'd like to honor that.  There is a guy who insists on using Bowden, even with the Bowden shield.  He will not change, which means he has compromised all my hard work. : - {

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Yes, patronymics (Shlomo ben David) and epithets ("the great", "the fowler", "Constantius Chlorus") handled in some reasonable way. Some of the big personal genealogy sites already do these things openly or with hidden fields so that searches work.

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I agree that the current naming system does not reflect how names are used.  First I think that this requires a lot more discussion as there are so many different practices and views. Second, how about adding this to the pot of each name: Status which could be any of:

::1. Birth name,

::2. Alternative name but not fixed,

::3. Changed name with approx date of change,

::4. Name at death.

::I have found it very useful to go through the parents names in the records of their children's baptisms as this can date any change of name.  It does need a sheaf of documentation to explain what has probably happened.

Answer 9

Please can we have a separate (searchable) (with no character limit) field for someone's title (at the end of their name), and not have to use the nickname field (in the middle of the name) (as they might also have a well known nickname as well as a title).

Many thanks, Jo

Answer 10

I would really love for the way photos and images are handled on profiles to be inproved.  I want to include them in the Biography and it just looks weird also having the photos on the right side.

I know I could load the photos and images on a separate space page but why would I do that?

Comments

I agree with Sandy. Remove the column on the right and put the information (and photos) elsewhere. Then there is more width to the Biography section, which makes it more prominent and readable.

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Yes I too find this feature to be the largest single distraction to the profile page. I think I saw an idea in the new page design proposals to feature a single image with forward/backward arrow to rotate through the entire collection. Providing you could select the first default view I think this could be a rather neat and desirable solution.

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Awesome suggestion.

I'm all in.

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I don't necessarily like that idea, because the test of the redesign still showed the "single photo with rotation control" on the right side of the profile page. So there is still a right-side column that takes up a large portion of the screen. It really doesn't solve the underlying problem in that we need more screen real estate for displaying the profile.

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I've never understood why images show on the profile view at all.
When I first started on WikiTree, I thought it was strange they were there as well as under the images tab.
I still don't see why they can't "reside" just under the images tab and not show on the profile view at all - which would do away with the space pages many of us use to avoid that double-vision Sandy mentioned.

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Mel - I agree!  And now that we have the new Images table view that Ian created, your point makes perfect sense: let them reside in the images tab.

We can pick them out of there when we need them.

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You can insert/embed photos in a biography, I hadn't figured out the how to's until yesterday but it turned out to be quite easy

How do you display a photo in the text of any page?

Images normally appear along the right-hand side of the profiles they're attached to, as well as on the profile's Images tab. But you can also display them within the text of a profile page or category page, or within a template.

Click to the photo detail page and look near the bottom of the right column for a section entitled "Use Inside Text". There you will find copy-and-paste code that looks something like this: 

{{Image|file=MyPhoto.jpg

|caption=Caption text

}}

Make sure you have your cursor at the place where you want the picture to be. 

If it doesn't appear exactly where you want it, move the cursor up or down and try again. 

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The issue isn't inserting images into a biography, it is having them in the biography AND in the right side pane, thus appearing twice (double vision).

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The page I worked on yesterday, had the pics on the right, I wanted them in the bio/text.

I succeeded in putting them in the text, and now don't remember how the pics disappeared from the right but now they aren't there-on the right.

I think, I just removed them from the page.

And the pics stayed in the text but were gone from the right side.

I have more pics to add to the page so I will experiment and pay attention to what I'm actually doing.

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If images are not attached to any page/profile, they will be deleted in 30 days and will no longer appear in the biography.
Currently, if you do not want the double vision effect, a space page is needed so the images can be removed from a profile yet remain on WikiTree.  This is why I set up https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:NoDoubleVision for people who did not want to create their own space page, or who did not know how to.

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My pics are on FSP as well as on profiles.

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When an image is on a space page, it can be used in a profile's biography without it appearing in the right side pane of the person profile. 
Without a space page, images will always appear on the right side of a profile, even if not the one where they are being used in a biography.

Sandy's wish is for there to be no need for a space page to prevent the double vision aspect of images being placed in the biography text of the profile where they were uploaded, and also on the right side.

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I would not like to have the images rotate or be behind an image tab only.  It's so helpful to quickly see all images on the right side of the page.  That way I know if what I am looking for is there.  Though I do agree if it is embedded in the biography then no need to see it again on the right.

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Images are some of the best 'click bait'.

New members or members of the public have enough problems figuring out how WT works without having most pictures practically hidden in the 'spinny' thing.

One of the reasons I got interested in WT was, I was helping a friend with her family history, and could not find much at all about a person.

So I just Google searched the person's name, and found a photo of his grandfather on WT, they looked so much alike it could have been a picture of the grandson.

We really need to remember that so many people have difficulty with anything other than the absolute basics on WT, making it more complicated is not a 'selling point'.

Over the past few weeks since this question was posted and in other how to do, what to do questions in G2G many responses include use this App, that App or this feature.

The answer from the person who asked the question is often something like ' Oh please not another thing I need to try to understand'.

We don't all have advanced computers, or phones, or I-pads, many of us get very confused with new software, most of us probably never took any sort of course on how to do 'computer stuff'

Answer 11

I really want the surname tables back.

Yeah, I'm talking about the way they used to be. I don't like having the integrated search at the bottom. I don't like that it defaults to 100 results per page, and I have to click something to make it 500 results per page, but if I change anything in the search field, it doesn't remember that I selected 500 and reverts back to 100.
 

I don't like how I can't have a persistent link to the table, in a particular sort order (by birth), with a specific number of results per page. I used to be able to do that and I put the link in my One Name Study pages. But since the change happened it's all broken and where I once had a cool feature is now something that is a pain to deal with. It wasn't an improvement to me.

I just want a surname table. I don't want an integrated search function with it. I want to have control over how the surname table is displayed.

Comments

The surname tables aren't coming back, but you can use parameters to go straight to specific searches.

https://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Special:SearchPerson&wpSearch=1&wpLast=WEDDINGTON&skip_variants=1&last_name_match=birth&sort=birth&limit=500

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Ok, that at least helps to recreate what I had on my One Name Studies. Thank you!
Is there a list of available parameters that can be used?

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To get the parameters, you should be able to construct the search you want on the main Search page, then do a sort on the results, then copy the URL of that page. Without the sort, you just get the URL of the Search page itself.

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I do what Jim does to get the URLs, but I can look in the code and create a list of the parameters. Won't be until next week though.

Answer 12

You know when you edit something in the Biography, and you press Enter, and then the whole display shifts up? And now you can't find your cursor? Then you have to go to the scroll bar and scroll back up to find where you left off?

Yeah, can that be fixed? It's been driving me crazy for years.

Comments

I agree wholeheartedly!

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Drives me crazy too! Please fix it!

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YES!  Not only is it annoying, but sometimes I'll type anyway, then scroll up and see nothing... where was I typing?!! Did I just break a link?!  This kills me.  In truth, I though it was just something about my PC, so I'm glad to know it's not just me.

Answer 13

The Unknowns team has a request. Please make "Unknown" and "UNKNOWN" interchangeable....I retype it many times a day because if the profile is in lower case, the system can't find it if I type CAPS and vice versa. And newbie PM's cant find profiles either! Thanks in advance!

Comments

Oh, good point. There are other points where the cases are causing trouble (LNAB for instance).

A simple to_lower() at critical points in the code would fix this.

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That sounds like a job for EditBot: Just set it to change every instance of "UNKNOWN" in any name field to "Unknown". I think I've also seen "LNU" and/or "Lnu" (for "Last Name Unknown") in the last name field, and that should be standardised to "Unknown", too. (I haven't noticed "FNU", but it's probably out there, too.)

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Let's just keep it to UNKNOWN and Unknown...we've done lots of work on the other variations (you mention LNU and FNU - there are about 50 other variations) and we'll catch those....if just get this CAPS and lower case thing fixed, please...

Answer 14

I would like to see features added to allow WT to become a better competitor to Find A Grave.

Find A Grave does not have a focus on genealogy. There are several of us here who have had poor experiences in trying to get corrections done on Find A Grave with members there who hoard memorials and refuse corrections.

So what does WT need that Find A Grave does better?

• One click requests for photos for any particular person. Then we need to have a way for volunteers on WT to discover these photo requests in cemeteries in their area. Then a way to mark these photo requests as fulfilled.
• Make sure that uploading photos is easy to do and connect to a profile. WT does a pretty good job with this, I think, so far. But are there any ways to improve it? Make it easier?
• Make it easy to add a citation to a profile for the cemetery photo, that links to the photo. I know there's something in the WT help files about how to do this. But it would be great if there was something sort-of one-click, that would be great.

What else is needed to make WT better than Find A Grave?

Comments

How is a template to know if an image is allowed to be used?  Far better to do as is currently done - link to the memorial where the image is, if there is an image.  If someone has an image of their own, they usually add it themselves.
(I would not want that on profiles I manage.)

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@Melanie Paul: By doing this, the image is still stored at Find A Grave, but the template fetches the URL of the image and displays it inside the infobox. If this is technically possible, the concept must be approved by Find A Grave.

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Hi All,

Can this conversation about Find A Grave templates be moved to a new G2G thread please? It's off-topic to this G2G post.

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Dear Eric, it is on-topic with the answer you posted, which was about Find a Grave and wanting some way to have WT 'compete' with that site.

I will, however, bow out of this discussion.

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Please see the Original Post. Thanks.

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Please see the Original Post. Thanks.

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Thanks, SP. I'd already done the pinky-swear, etc. Have now re-done the "profile" questionnaire.

As to rest of this thread; FindAGrave is now part of the Ancestry.com umbrella. I also use thepeerage, fabpedigree, geni, FamousKin, Geneanet (notably TimD's pages), FamilySearch (used to hike to their local "FH library"), Rootsweb, AMGedge, LzrsLong, HeritagePursuit, locale sites (e.g. pa-roots, Texas handbook), discussions, other personal sites & ye olde books (which, acknowledged, not always reliable)... I don't have money & time to travel, buy historical docs at auction, spend time interrupting government records-keepers from their other work... though some cousins did some of that back in the 1930s to gather the family records passed down. I have to satisfice; sometimes engravers get memorials wrong, often governments get records wrong. We must do the best we can, and be ready to be corrected if better info comes to light. It's like the scientific method, theorize, hypothesize, then test, test, test, then revise.

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EW: "Find A Grave is far from being collaborative."

It depends upon whom you run across, then.

People are all the same... in that each of us is different, notice different things, don't notice different things, delight in different things, are annoyed by different things. Sensitives are overwhelmed, others oblivious. We work with it, do what we can. (But you've reminded me, I have some FindAGrave entries I've been meaning to xfer to someone not so much more closely related as active in & better equipped for improving the entries for people in certain cems.)

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It's time to stop this conversation.

It is quickly deteriorating into Venting/ Ranting

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I've been trying to get people to stop!

I've posted my suggestion, and explained the reasoning. That's all that was needed.

Answer 15

The WikiTree Sourcer App is a fabulous addition to Wikitree and it's a great App for picking up all the census information and more.

It would be fantastic if it could pick up all the household members for the 1881 LDS Census on Scotlands People and create the tables same as other census.

Comments

That needs to be suggested to Rob Pavey, sourcer is independent from wikitree.

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Copying everything some how seems like a copyright issue.

The 1881 Scotland Census is also on Ancestry and FMP.

Answer 16

I would like to have the profile search function include middle names. It would speed things up immensely, since one would have far fewer profiles returned; on a common name it could be critical in finding the desired profile. Yes, I know that not all profiles have a middle name, even if the person had one, but in the cases where the profile does have one, this would be invaluable.

Comments

Especially when first names duplicate!!!

I have 4-5 generations of the same first names. I need more info - spouse, children, etc.

Very confusing unless I have birthdate and place.

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Agreed Shelley. It would may searching much easier.

Answer 17

I would like to see the language project get all the support needed to get the multi language features working in 2025.

See e.g.:

https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1829384/my-proposal-for-fixing-the-language-problem-on-wikitree

Answer 18

I wish one of your tools could transfer an entire profile *with sources* from ancestry instead of my having to transfer them one by one with the source.

Comments

WikiTree sourcer already does that.

On the person's ancestry profile at the "facts" page you just need to click "save person data" then go to WikiTree to create a new profile. Then you can click on the person's name in the sourcer to fill in the main fields. The fields are all filled in for you with the sourcer with only a few things to add every now and then (example: like if someone married and the current last name field wasn't filled in with their married name because the marriage didn't have a source in ancestry or wasn't on the facts page)

After that, on the "facts" page of the profile on ancestry where all the sources are stored and click "build all citations." It takes a few seconds to a minute for the citations to build based on your settings. Once it's done, under the biography section simply paste from there. Sometimes it requires additional cleanup so you'll need to proof read it but more often than not it's pretty fast.

If the profile is already created and there's few/no sources you can simply skip the create profile step and just paste the sources in. If there's multiple sources in the profile already you have a little more work to do to clean up the profile but you can still copy/paste all sources from the profile at once.

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The ease of copying or transferring sources, no matter where the sources are from, whether from Ancestry, FS, FMP or other websites, the most important part is whether these sources are accurate for the person's profile.

Using any type of automatically copying, transferring sources from a website to WT, increases the chance that the sources are incorrect and inaccurate for the profile.

We value accuracy not just blindly copying from other sites.

Answer 19

I wish it were easier to find currently existing profiles to avoid creating duplicates. The automated process churns up many possible profiles from Tasmania and Scotland but does not find dupes with small surname variations

Comments

Yes, yes, yes!!!

I hate trying to delete dupes.  In Geni, all yu do is move the square where it belings, or delete it.

Of course Ancestry owns Geni and they don't want their world tree compromised.

I've had my dad as his brother, me as half sister to my sibs, the list could get long. Why not just delete???

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'Dupes' are also missed because of copying spelling errors and even obvious mistakes in sources. Please put more emphasis on using the correct spelling instead, and not adding the error as 'also known as'. So, when you read 'houd' when you know it should be 'hout', recommend to type 'hout' and not add 'aka houd'.

I know that sometimes spelling errors persist and are used by all descendants, but most often they don't. Some persons can be found with many different spelling of their names. In such cases the preferable one may be found by looking for the spelling used by their children.

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Yes!

I think there was a discussion about this a few years ago in G2G.
I'm happy that I don't get many wrong suggestions (possible matches) for my One Place Study in Italy, but adding my Swiss relatives with surnames such as "Keller" gives me what feels like 50 wrong suggestions from England, even if I add the location in Switzerland. It would be great if locations would be considered in the suggestions.
For me it's clear that there has to be a certain range of possibilities, so possible migrating persons can be found. But when I add someone who was born and died at age 1 in Italy, why do I get suggestions for other countries?

To be honest, I don't remember if this has already improved in the past few years.

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There often is no "correct" spelling. When siblings in a family each decide to spell the surname differently and when there were variant spellings in church records for the same person how dare we decide on speaking is "correct." Jeez

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My comment was for Dick and "on speaking" was supposed to be "one spelling" darn you autocorrect.

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Spelling of a name was usually decided by the person keeping records (baptism, marriage, etc.). Especially when it has a different mother tongue, strange things may happen. I've seen it many times in census records. But you have a point, Jane, 'correct' is perhaps too strong. Perhaps I should call it the 'right' name. If my parents spell my name ending with 'hoorn', that is the right spelling, even when some clerk writes 'horn' or 'horren'. Only 'hoorn' should appear in my genealogy profile, except for notes. Not 'aka horn'.

It has happened in the past that a whole branch of my family changed name to 'horn'. That's no problem: for persons of that branch 'horn' is the right spelling. (actually, back in 16th century the name did end with 'horn': [[Van_Barsingerhorn-2|Louris Pietersz van Barsingerhorn (abt.1582-)]])

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Speaking of "correct spelling" is really not correct in my opinion. There was no official orthography for a very long time (end of 19th century for German). I rather think of "spelling variants" than "correct spelling".
There are many variants of surnames in Italy, and some made it to the todays official variant.
Same for migrating surnames, eg. Jörg in Switzerland became York in the United States, or von Graffenried became De Graffenreid in the United States. Both are official variants today. And as we are working with sources back in days without officiall orthography, we need to document all those variants.

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My grandmother was Maree Kessler on her birth certificate but spelled it Marie in later years. My father used Stewart and Stuart interchangeably as middle name through his life. I didn't think you or I can choose one name and make it be "correct." One daughter of a family named Burkley decided her name would be Berkeley. If we don't provide alternatives a lot more duplicates will be created.

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Search for the person under

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Special:SearchPerson

before creating the profile.

Or at the very top of any profile page where it says first name then last name, you can tweak the search after starting the process.

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"Search person" doesn't help either, I just tried with my newly uploaded gedcom.

Ancestor already on WikiTree:
Proper First Name: Angelica Carmina
Last Name at Birth: Di Minni
Current Last Name: Di Minni
Other Last Name(s): Di Minno

Now I have her birth record, which goes by Di Minno, which I changed in my software, but not at WikiTree, as I would need to change the LNAB.
"Search Person": Angelica / Di Minno. Profile not found.
In the Gedcom, it also can't find said profile.

But for siblings there are two suggestions:
For Raimondo Carlo Di Minno the suggestion Charles Dumaine. For Angelo Giovanni Antonio Di Minno the suggestion Anthony Demaine. One suggested profile is born in England and one in Germany, while my profiles are born in Italy.
Edit: bad examples about the place names, as in this case I only had the location for Italy in the baptism field, which isn't imported to WikiTree.

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You can search without dates and/or locations for all existing profiles with the same or similar names.

Search of any sort will only help if there are people with the same or similar names, and reasonably similar dates already on WT.

You could put Italy in the location field in the location on the search field.

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The "search person" example above was withouth dates and without location. It seems the "Other Last Names" field is not searched, which should then be changed.

As for the matching / suggestions at gedcom import: I would say this are the same or similar names, and it even was the exact same birth date and still it didn't appear as possible match.

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I always thought 'other last names' referred to previous  marriages so I never entered.  My surname was seated in Cornwall, England, but way back, it's been transcribed alternatively.  I used to get mad because of the 'seating' and thought this person compromised all my hard work.  There is one person who consistently uses another spelling, and posts the shield of his spelling.  I asked at first to make corrections, and his answer was a flat no, I'm guessing cuz his tree was too big and it would compromise many other things...children, etc.  I've since told him to stay away from my tree.  I have never honored merges from him. If he has info that is missing from my tree, I write it on paper and transfer it myself.

After reading these comments, I'll take a breath and consider recording the alternative spellings, but I don't want them continued!!!

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I do have instances of local legal changes:  Glaspell to Glaspey, which is just from mistranscriptions, but from the same family.  I will go back and enter the Glaspell so geners will know this, now that I understand the reason for 'other last names'.

Answer 20

I would like an option to see all of my profiles where I am a manager - sortable and on the menu option.

This used to be available in part when searching for a specific surname with an option to only show my managed profiles.

Thank you In Advance

Comments

Is this very different from your watchlist?

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Thank you Ian - I did not realise this was available - This meets my requirements - always learning

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But the watch list is a seperate page.  Let's make it a menu option.

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Carol: What do you mean?