Be able to put anyone with their family even if you don't have their birthdate or deathdate

Question

You should put in anyone in the family in even if you do not know their birth dates or death dates even.

Answer 1

Go do a search for the name Sarah Clark or any other common name. There are 1260 of them. Now imagine that list, without any dates. How would you even begin to guess which Sarah you were looking for if there were no dates at all on the listing. This is exactly the way it was when I started at Wikitree. I personally spent weeks, researching, and putting dates on about 50 profiles of Sarah Clarks.  Where I couldn't find dates I added husbands names, or at a minimum an approximate birthplace. The result is that the list is now useful and eliminations can be made easily. You don't have to open each profile to identify which Sarah she was.

This is why wikitree now requires a birth or death date.

Comments

That makes a lot of sense and is certainly a good enough reason to continue to require at least one of a birth or death date. Thanks for the explanation, Anne.

Answer 2

I like this idea. Sometimes I have names for the person's children or parents, but I don't know when they were born or died. Especially if I found their parents on their marriage certificate. Lately, I've been adding known relationships without dates to the comments section on the person's profile.

Comments

Jourdi, Your solution is the best thing to do - that way, if a date is ever found, all the information about the person you put in the family member's bio can be used when the new profile is added - it gives a head start on writing the bio plus preserves the already hard-won research results.

Answer 3

I think I understand what you are saying. The caveat, of course, is that you are going to research them and then write a biography using what information you have found in your research and source that information.  I don't think the system will let you create a profile without a minimum of the "approximate" year they were born.  That can always be changed as your research improves.

Rory Bowers

Fort Smith, Arkansas

Answer 4

There is two options you can use to record the family members together. First one is to record them in the Biography of the profiles you do have in Wikitree. Then make a personal category so you know to come back to the family once you have found some sources to support the new profile. This is the best way to record information that is not yet completely sourced with birth or death dates.

Second way is to guess the dates based on the sources do have. It isn't a good way as it can throw off finding other sources but can be useful. For instance you have a marriage record so you could guess that the couple would be about the same age and get a birth date that way. Or you have a child's birth sourced so you could go back 20 years to estimate the Parents birth date then. It is not the best as any estimate could be completely wrong based on facts not yet known, I.E. estimate parents birth based on youngest child yet you may find an older child making your first guess inaccurate.

Answer 5

If these are fairly recent relatives, can you use decades?  Explain that is what you did in the Biography.  But it is sometimes easier for someone to think, I know that person was in high school in the 1970s that means they were probably born in the 1950s.  (I fit that demographic).  I often use the middle of the decade like 1955 for the birth because it allows up and down of 5 years.  

Or you may have a marriage record of someone.  Their children would be generally at least 20 years different and their parents would be at least 20 years earlier.  If you use 25 you cover the up down factor again.