Now suspending GEDCOM upload, transitioning to new system

Question

Hi WikiTreers,

As some of you know, we have been working on a completely new system for handling GEDCOMs for a long time. I'm excited to announce that it's finally ready to release.

Under the new system you won't create a bunch of new profiles all at once through a traditional GEDCOM import. Instead you'll be able to create and edit individual profiles in a dynamic process using your GEDCOM data.

Those of you who are familiar with WikiTree X will recognize the basic framework. WikiTree X, created by Justin York, enables you to create new profiles and edit existing ones using data from other genealogy websites such as FamilySearch, Ancestry, Find-A-Grave, etc. Once you're comfortable with it, WikiTree X is a really powerful tool. It's much easier than manually entering or copy-and-pasting information from those other sites.

Aleš Trtnik had the idea to do this with GEDCOMs, i.e. treat a GEDCOM like data on an external site. That's what the new system will do. Your GEDCOM file will be like a resource for you to use as you contribute to WikiTree, if and where the file has valuable information and sources that aren't already on WikiTree.

Creating and editing profiles individually may sound daunting for those who are accustomed to importing whole files. But we have done a lot to make the new process as convenient and smooth as possible. And if you were familiar with our old system, you know it wasn't convenient and smooth! We had to force users to jump through all sorts of hoops in a painful compare-and-skip and approval process to avoid duplicates, unsourced profiles, pre-1700 people, etc.

The truth is, GEDCOM import never fit comfortably with the collaborative process on WikiTree. We all share one tree here, so "importing your tree" never really made sense. We believe this new system will integrate much better with all the other moving parts in our community. It will fit more comfortably into how we work together to grow and improve our shared tree.

Once we work out the kinks, that is. We are calling this a "beta" release. We know there are more improvements that can be made, but we wanted to release it as soon as we thought it was better than the old system.

It has always been the WikiTree way to develop things with the community. We don't really know how something will work out and what needs to change until members start using it. Now we can start the process of working together to make this WikiTree-worthy.

Just now we closed the door on the old system. The old system is a multi-step process and we don't want to kick out those who are in the middle of it. We will give them another week to work through the steps, if they want to. Next Wednesday, September 6, we'll stop processing files under the old system and start up the new system.

Onward and upward, for the single family tree,

Chris

Comments

Will Gedcompare continue to be available to allow people to see whether their ancestors are in WikiTree?

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Yes, Ellen. You'll still be able to upload a file just as a convenient way to see if anyone in your family is already on WikiTree. You won't have to do anything more with it if you don't want to, as it is now.

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I recently submitted two Gedcoms each overlapping the other taken from the same PC-hosted family tree file. I would like to back them both out of Wiki. I have partially profiled only less than 20 of the 300+people involved. Please advise.
My tree is ROMSTAD.

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Sounds really good, one should almost create a new gedcom and import just to see how it works. To bad I do all my editing/adding at WT and not somewhere else...

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Happy to hear that Chris. However, two questions: do I need to familiarise myself with this new tool when I have never done a gedcom before? Also - how is this going to impact the current collobarative input from the integrity of the bio point of view? As I commented below in regard to Emma's answer - I'm not so sure that the existing "junk" will dissapear; this new tool does not adress as I understand all current existing profiles and what is already on it. Including those already neatly integrated.

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This is welcome news Chris, thank you very much.    The problems surrounding the import of sizable Gedcom's into the site has been problematic for me as a researcher.     You are so right by saying "importing your tree into WikiTree doesn't make any sense"  and far too many errors have been made.  It takes a lot of work to straighten and only if you can get cooperation.   Well done and it is onward and upward for sure!

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I hope this will still allow the bulk importation of data rather than a Wikitree X-like create-one-profile-at-a-time process. (Don't get me wrong, I think WIkitree X is awesome for adding individual profiles.) While I know it is fashionable to complain about GEDCOM imports, it is an invaluable tool for those of us chipping away at importing a lifetime's worth of data (90,000 individuals) who don't want to make our carpal tunnel worse than it needs to be.

A merging process with existing profiles would be a major improvement over existing gedcompare. Having to tinker with 200-300 not-previously-extant profiles individually in order to import them is a step backwards. There are huge swaths of empty terrain on Wikitree.  I would hate to see the stridency I frequently read about profile perfection to ultimately obstruct the growth of this still-rather-small (in the grand scheme of things) tree.

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I'm very happy that bulk importation will be a thing of the past. It was never fashionable to me to complain about GEDCOM imports; they did create huge problems though and many duplicates and a lot of debris and other issues that we all had to deal with. It was not about GEDCOM bashing; it was about addressing the issue of size and the issue of pre-1800 duplication. The only thing is, that even if I wanted to add using this new tool, and I have a tree elsewhere on another platform, I would find it dificult to understand. I read the page and it all seemed acara cadabara to me. But if that means no more GEDCOM duplicates, I'm happy. Then there is more time for the issue of manual duplication.

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I spent days working on my GEDCOM, submitted it, made one correction per the submission message, submitted it again and now I get this mail saying I should submit my GEDCOM before Sept. 6!!!???

Now I can't find my GEDCOM.

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Jeff, you probably should send a message to the Team at info @ wikitree.com.

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Sounds similar to something I was working on. My idea was you could import data from your own personal tree created on ancestry.com or similar into an interim application. Then have the app match profiles to ones on wiki and let you update profiles with new data.I have a basic application that I use but currently it has no gui, it just creates biograohies for each person in tree that can be cut and pasted into wikitree.

However it wasn't planned to use it for importing new people, the initial import was still via the gedcom, and I had planned to do something to modify the data so the initial import was smoothly. For me this was the main problem of gedcom import, that it did a bad job of importing the biography.

So it will be interesting to see how this new system works, but don't you think it would be best to have both running in parallel as it is bound to disadvantages as well as advantages. And we dont see to have been given much advance warning, if I known about this earlier I would have made more effort to get more of my gedcom tree imported.

I often work surname at a time, and I have already checked none of these people already exist in gedcom, so I hope its not now going to become laborious.

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I have a family tree in My Heritage it's a GEDCOM how do I upload it to Wikitree if you no longer take GEDCOMS?

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We'll still take GEDCOMS, we're just changing the process for uploading/importing one.

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I'm looking forward to trying this out!

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Exciting! Looks like I joined Wikitree at just the right time!

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I just made a WikiTree profile and was excited to upload my father's GEDCOM from myHeritage.com, only to find I need to individually add and connect 264 individuals.

This process will take weeks, and I can barely imagine completing this in under 30 days before all my information will be deleted, per the warning message.

Can anyone help me? Is there a way to expedite this process, or even automatically match siblings/parents for each profile that I add?

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Save a copy of the gedcom on your computer. You should do that anyway. And If it was created in MyHeritage, you should install the free Family Tree Builder software from that company and load the Gedcom in that software.

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Max, you were one of a dozen members who slipped in while we had GEDCOM uploading open this morning. We closed it again shortly after you uploaded. I'm sorry we didn't communicate with you in time (I believe by now you should have been e-mailed).

Anyway, our first beta testers discovered a fairly big error that allowed unconnected people to be created. We should have caught that sooner.

We have a fix ready and will reopen GEDCOM uploads again in the morning.

Thank you for your patience.

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The new system is up and running. I submitted a GEDCOM file with 112 individuals. In my GEDCOMpare report I identified a few of them as matches, but rejected most of the comparisons. I marked all 112 profiles as complete.

Now what??? I don't see any button for submitting the completed file. Are matched files going to automatically create duplicates for merges? Are they going to automatically create links from the existing records to the new records I have just uploaded? My records have some additional information on the matches that the currently existing files do not have.

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You don't need to mark them Completed. The only effect that does is that they are grayed out and can be hidden.

The process goes like this:

• First you have to MATCH or REJECT all suggested matches.
• When you will be done, all remaining profiles will get ADD button, where you will be able to add new profiles to WikiTree.
• While doing matching, you can also add new profiles in atomic family of compared person (yellow page). But you must first MATCH or REJECT all matches in atomic family of compared person.

I hope this instructions helps a bit.

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Thanks for the help! My GEDCOM was re-uploaded and I'm going through the process of adding all my family members. All set here.

Can't wait to contribute to the community,

Max

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Thank you for the explanation. I didn't understand that I needed to add each individual one at a time. I was still thinking that the GEDCOM file would add all the individuals at once. This does take a lot more work initially, but I can see that it's going to save me a lot of time later having to go back through all the profiles to fix them. I can delete the extraneous junk, clean up the text, add sources or move them from my notes field to the Source list, and change names to match the WikiTree format (e.g. adding married names for women). I see that I also don't  need to intentionally create duplicates to merge later because the upload now creates the family links to already existing profiles.

This method will deter many people from contributing GEDCOM files, but considering the number of profiles I come across that were obviously just uploaded and forgotten, this is a good change.

I wanted to also comment on a remark made below about the number of profiles in WikiTree vs. other online genealogy systems. Before coming to WikiTree I was very active with Family Search/Family Tree (FS/FT). They claim to have over 1 billion records. However, and I have said as such to them many times, the number of duplicates in their database is astounding. If even half of their total are unique records I would be extremely surprised. When I started working in their system a few years ago I would typically find several, if not dozens of duplicates for profiles. There were even some instances when the number of duplicates ran into the hundreds. Merging all these duplicates was overwhelming their system until they had a significant software upgrade a year ago.

I have also complained to FS/FT about the lack of sourcing and the presence of so many amateur users who are constantly changing and messing up profiles with no understanding of genealogical proof. The overall quality of FS/FT is far below WikiTree. I have pretty much given up managing profiles on FS/FT. I use their database for finding sources, but then I transfer what I find over to WikiTree. I appreciate that WikiTree emphasizes quality over quantity. FS/FT is the opposite and their system is suffering because of it. The quantity in WikiTree will rise with time as more users add more records. It's a long term effort, not one that will take place even within a few years. I still have a few thousand records to add from my personal database. I'm sure many other users are in the same situation.

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Thank you for those comments, Mark!

Right now I'm working on improving the help page https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:GEDCOMpare and making it easier to find.

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I think I've found a glitch that needs to be addressed. Marriage information does not seem to be coming over from GEDCOM files.

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Max, as Chris mentioned, it's a beta program in the works. I am glad they fixed the family links connection issues today. Email Eowyn@wikitree.com if the problem still persists.

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Chris,

how/where do you want feedback on the system?

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I have also found that I need to create a lot of the family links manually in the file I uploaded a couple days ago. I'm almost done checking over the records. I'll try another file in a day or two (a smaller one next time) to see if the family links connections come over.

As Jillaine Smith asked, is there another location that administration has for feedback?

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Mark and others, i sort the table by birth date. This reduces the number of instances I get of adding an unrelated person.

If I get the add unrelated person screen, I go back to the table. It's usually a spouse of an existing family member I have t added yet. I add the family member then when I go back to the spouse it knows to attach her to the family member.

So basically we need to pay attention to family groupings when working our way through the table.

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A new message announcing the status and inviting feedback:

https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/461205/have-you-tried-gedcompare-2-0

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I'm finding the new system tedious.  I have to compare a person with a first, middle and last name, date and place of both birth and death, parents' names, etc against a list of 20 some people who share a first name at best, and maybe something close to the last name who were born - and died -  in a different country, often a different continent.  At least, if that information is provided. If I miss one of the comparisons, there is nothing that indicates I have already rejected that person, and I have to go through the 20 suggestions again.  I feel like newcomers to wikitree are being punished for the omissions of previous users - those entries I have to look at that might have a hint somewhere on the page that their person was from Texas or New Zealand. I'm giving up.

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That sounds like a canned answer developed by a PR firm to a bad situation. 

"Importing your tree" never really made sense here, where we share one tree."

That's a copout! If you have a problem with GEDCOM, that's one thing. But you SEEM to be saying, Regardless of how much time you spent and how accurate you were in preparing your information, we don't trust you so we will make you input THE SAME INFORMATION one keystroke, one file at a time.

IT'S THE SAME INFORMATION!

"This system is live, but it's not perfect. Early testers are helping us figure out what needs to be improved.If you'd like to be among these early testers, upload your GEDCOM." -

WHY!? You are not going to allow us to use it!

You are going to sing the praises of the "sanctity of ONE TREE" and keeping safe the information that has already been entered. Not only do I get it, I agree with it.

But just for fun, bear with me and pretend I'm stupid. Almost half of my "merge file" (let's call it that to distant it from GEDCOM) had NO comparisons. Why can't that new information be entered into my family tree automatically. There is NO comparison and NO difference to my RETYPING this information into Wikitree one keystroke at a time. Well, not difference to you! Big difference to me!

In fact there IS a difference to YOU! This information has been checked and filtered through SOME Genealogical program. And one would assume FAIRLY free of typographical errors.

Now, if I understand correctly, I must go back to those same programs and print out my work. Then, while I assure you I would be HIGHLY irritated, I am going to manually input every word and figure from many pages of data. And if it is a new file, I'm the "owner" and if there's an error, a new member will have to come to me to compare and correct any keystroke errors. oooh, sounds much more user-friendly & streamlined to ME!

Tell me AGAIN how you're now ALLOWING me to input my information ONE FILE AT A TIME and how much better it is. It's music to my ears.

If I have misunderstood this, PLEASE correct me & I will happily apologize and sing your praises.

However, if I am correct, how about stand up and just say, "we don't care if it's more trouble for you or not"

(sounds like the phone company)

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Michael, have you tried the new system?

I haven’t had to retype anything nor did I have to print anything out. And not sure what you mean by “you’re not going to allow us to use it”.  So, not sure what you’re referring to.

Where did you have (or feel the need) to do retype or print from your software program ?

I find this new approach less tedious; with the old system, I had to go back and clean up each profile.  I still have profiles floating out there that aren’t yet cleaned up— years after uploading. The new process allows/encourages me to cleanup as I go. That’s more efficient to me.

The compare options can definitely be improved. But overall, I prefer this new system over the old.

And if it discourages dump-and-run GEDCOM uploaders, that’s fine in my book.

Answer 1

Most important question: what will Eowyn do with all her free time?

Comments

World peace?

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Piece of cake after gedcom reviewing....

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Most inventive answer of 2017.

:-)

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I like the idea. Where do I start?

Jon P Czarowitz

[[Czarowitz-1]]

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World peace and piece of cake, both sound good to me.

Answer 2

Big step in the right direction

My feeling is that the "duplicate problem" is bigger in the US part of the tree and not a major problem in Aleš part of the tree.....

The future will tell how this impact quality and how genealogy interested users who start to use WikiTree will like it - Good luck 

Would be interesting if we get some quality measurement on WIkiTree t track changes like this.... I feel its a never ending learning process...

Answer 3

Presumably this will also provide a way to update your tree from a later gedcom - not really possible with the old system.

Comments

Yes, that's exactly right.

Answer 4

Will the pre-1700 ban be lifted (subject to badges)?

Comments

Yup, your ability to add and edit pre-1700 and pre-1500 will just depend on whether you have the badge. At least that's the plan right now.

Answer 5

Will gedcoms still be vetted?

Comments

Why would they need to be vetted if we are just adding one profile at a time?

Answer 6

That's fantastic news, Chris!  Does the new system still generate the same kind of timeline-style biographies?  Will we have the option to bring in the sources as a simple clean Chicago-style list?

Comments

Hi Herbert,

Right now way the biographies and sources are formatted isn't substantially different than how it was before. One difference, though, is that you can see the narrative text before the profile is created/edited and make adjustments if you like.

I do hope we can circle around soon to improve the formatting of text and sources.

Chris

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Thanks, Chris. Looking forward to seeing it live!

Answer 7

Are we going to have to use WikiTree X to use this new system? I've heard good things about WikiTree X, but it only works in Chrome, and I don't want to have to install yet another web browser on my computer. (Surely four web browsers is enough.)

Comments

best answer / question

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Nope, this is separate from WikiTree X.

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It just uses the wikitree part of wikitree—X system and that part is not browser dependant. So Chrome is not necesary.

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More great news.  Thanks!

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That is good news because I don't want to have to install Chrome my self too.

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Personally I would uninstall the other four and use Chrome ;).

Answer 8

This is fantastic! :) The new system will definitely be great for those who want to update their info without having to remember to do it at the same time as doing it elsewhere. :)

Answer 9

Woohoo!  I can't wait to try it out.  I am going to do a very small upload to see what they system is like in order to know in case newbies have questions.   I am so looking forward to the disappearance of Gedcom junk!

Comments

What Emma said.  :-)

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Amen Emma!

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Yep. Me too.

Thank you to Chris and the rest of the WikiTree Team!

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I'm not so sure that the existing "junk" will dissapear; this new tool does not address as I understand all current existing profiles and what is already on it. Including those already neatly integrated.

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You are correct Philip.  I meant new Gedcom junk.  Now we will have more time to clean up the old junk with no new junk coming in.

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Ditto to what everyone said.

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I see less problems for newbies & that means less problems for everyone!!  Thanks for making this happen!  I do love WikiTree!

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Respecfully, I wish you would explain how this is less problems for newbies.

I am a Newb, It was suggested to me that Wikitree would be the place to have the most accurate data. 

I did a lot of work preparing a GEDCOM and going through a GEDCOMpare to learn it was a HUGE - HUGE - HUGE - waste of my time. As of now, I have over 25 thank you messages for clearing up the mistakes of OTHERS, but I only have 6 people I put in my Family Tree. I'll wait and see just how big a fiasco this thing is before I waste any more time.

If I misunderstand the situation, I've been asking for months for someone to straighten it out.

(crickets chirping)

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Michael, what problems are you specifically having with the gedcompare system (which is actually much easier than the old system)?  Is it the format of how it uploads?  

Unfortunately, a gedcom is a gedcom and no upload software is going to nicely upload a gedcom.  I downloaded a gedcom from Ancestry and re-uploaded it with the intent of creating a pared down tree.  None of my French accents uploaded.  I have to go through and clean them up. Many of my sources disappeared.  And this was uploaded to the same site it came from!

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Emma,

Thank you so much for your prompt & well appreciated response.

First thing, "compared to the old system". I have no idea what the old system was as I am just getting to the party.

I am NOT stupid, my Mother had me tested.

And I have been banging around personal computers going back almost 40  years (DOS 3.1) In fact, the "user friendly" appearance of Wikitree does bring back memories of those days.

To the point, based on online suggestions, I used Roots Magic to create a Gedcom from Familysearch. (and I have no idea who Gedcom is, if in fact it is a who.)  I even went back and cut my Gedcom, limiting it to 4 generations 332 people for easier manageability

Went through GEDCOMpare and some of the comparison's are puzzling AT BEST. I don't blame Wikitree for that. I'm just scratching my head when I get 3-4 comparisons. Two are dead wrong the others are maybes or some of the information is wrong, some is right. I do not know EXACTLY what to do in that instance. And the aim of Wikitree is to be precise. And apparently I know a LITTLE as according to my profile or whatever, I have 4 badges (?), 144 contributions and 25 Thank Yous after spending a LONG time working on the GEDCOMpare. 

The results - I think - of my GEDCOMpare are - out of 332 people 

Compare: There are 20 suggested matches to consider. Rejected matches: 139. Confirmed matches: 62.

Add & Edit: If you reject or confirm all suggested matches you can use comparison pop-ups to create and improve profiles on WikiTree. People in GEDCOM: 332. Marked as completed: 318. 

Now what? Out of 318 completed, most are new profiles to Wikitree. While that doesn't guarantee their accuracy, it does guarantee that they are unchallenged AT THIS POINT.

After all this work do I now get to restroke all this information in order to get these  unchallenged  people into my Family Tree? Thanks but no thanks. Navigating around FS is SO much more user friendly, I'm better off using Wikitree solely as a research tool for my records there. And if others are as frustrated as I, and decide not to play, then Wikitree is the loser because those records do not go into the "One Tree". 

I'll just leave it here for now. And thank you again for your reply.

Answer 10

This will make it possible to do one's research work offline and transfer the results to WikiTree painlessly. One request though: the import must be able to recognize an edited WikiTree GEDCOM export. I.e. if it finds the fields

1 WWW https://www.WikiTree.com/wiki/Smuts-66 

and

1 REFN 4454727
2 TYPE wikitree.user_id

it should not offer distracting alternatives.

 

Comments

Hi Dirk,

I'm sorry to tell you this, but right now we have it disabled completely for WikiTree-exported GEDCOMs. What you have in mind is very different from what we expect the average user to be doing.

I do apologize, but we have to work on the typical usage first.

Chris

Answer 11

How will EXPORTS from WikiTree work with this new system ?

Comments

Hi Maggie. We haven't made any changes to how we export GEDCOMs.

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How will we import to Wikitree from other systems?

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Linda, your question was not answered. One would still generate a gedcom from those other systems and then run that gedcom through wikitree’s gedcompare process.

Answer 12

Could we have a new video showing how this all works when its launched, perhaps it might help some of us who have been manually inputting to go a bit faster (600/10,000 re-input so far)

Comments

Very good idea.

Answer 13

What if you don't have the Chrome web browser? How can you do it with WikiTreeX then?

Comments

WikiTreeX won't be involved, and using Chrome won't be a requirement.

Stay tuned...

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What will be involved?

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Also when will this new stuff on GEDCOMS start and will you send out videos to all the WikiTreers on line and directions on how to do it - directons?

Answer 14

It's great to hear WikiTree is continuing to change and develop and I hope this will be a great success. However, I am concerned about the impact this could have on our future growth.

Fundamental to WikiTree's success is the idea of the "single family tree". As it says in the mission statement:

"Our community's mission is to grow an accurate single family tree that connects us all and is freely available to us all."

This vision is impossible to achieve unless we have the numbers. A smaller tree is much less likely to be connected. This page I wrote puts it into perspective:

https://www.werelate.org/wiki/User:AndrewRT/Size

We now have 15,000,000 profiles in WikiTree. That's a good size - I'm delighted I have found a few distant cousins on WikiTree and dozens of people with shared surname interests. I have had a similar experience with Ancestry, MyHeritage and Geni. By contrast, my experience with WeRelate - a wiki similar to WikiTree but only a fifth of the size - is that I found no relatives and only a couple of people with shared surname interests. This is primarily a function of size.

However, I still don't think 15,000,000 is really big enough to achieve the mission. It's much smaller than the big commercials - Ancestry, MyHeritage or Geni - or the long-standing RootsWeb World Connect Project. And it's a tiny fraction of the 20 billion people who have the born since 1650 - a good rule of thumb for the maximum potential size of a single family tree. I suspect people joining from outside the english-speaking world find themselves far less connected to others on WikiTree.

GEDCOM imports have been a significant driver of growth. WeRelate found that when they restricted GEDCOM imports the growth rate fell off a cliff and never recovered. The GEDCOMpare being discussed here sounds very exciting and I'm hoping will be a great tool. WikiTReeX certainly is!

However, I hope you monitor the impact of this change very carefully and make sure that it isn't having an adverse impact on growth.

Comments

Andrew you have a good point. But...... :) Think you felt the but coming! :D 

Only at the Dutch Roots we have thousends of unsourced profiles. Not talking about profiles with just one or two sources and not finnished. And we like to complete profiles. 

I am working daily on the unsourced profiles to get them sourced. And I am lucky as in the Netherlands birth- marriage- and death certificates are easy to access. But some puzzling takes time............ In the mean time I am trying to add profiles I like to be add at WikiTree as they are my family or I think they are of importance.

If we hadn t to review or source all the profiles that were DROPPED here (people dropping thousends of profiles and leaving without sourcing at any)..... and I m prejudiced as I see so much advantage of manual adding....... and yes many will not see that as it takes time to get used to how to and how to add sources etc.......... but that is just what this is about - as we re using our time to clean up profiles with a lot of GedCom things and sourcing the profiles we never made, of families we never met - we would be able to add profiles with sources and connect them to the tree. 

I do not know what works faster. Dropping thousends of GedCom profiles and let others solve and source or let others add profiles they like to add and source. There is no evidence or research for that.  

I just know from my own experience as I come across another unsourced GedCom Family I take a verrrrrrrrrry deep breath....... :) 

Again as said we do not have evidence on what is better or faster. Yes growing the tree probably is faster on adding free GedComs of thousend profiles. It will make the Tree grow fast. The tree is big! - so this is a discussion of quantity an quality. 

Of course quantity is important first to become interesting. But to stay reliable you need qualty. 

WikiTrees main goals - as I see/interpret them - are: - one profile for every person that lives or lived on this planet. 

And second, for me the most important here: SOURCE anything you add! No copies of copies. (Weakness at the commercial sites!)

Third: (second important to me, but also very important to me) all info at WikiTree IS FREE! I just hate I have to pay for getting access to MY (OWN!!) family info. 

I work here hours just to get my own family added with good sources and help others to find their ancestors good resourced for free!!! My work is for hours here is for free! I volunteered. :) 

And proud on that. As all serious here: WIkiTreeers are volunteers providing free but sourced genealogy! Cooperating, discussing and providing. 

But this is just my humble opinion. I am not a visionair :) 

Just sharing from my experience at genealogy land. And again Andrew you have a point. Quantity is important. but I think in the end quality will win. 

Very kind regards from the Netherlands, 

A. 

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>>And second, for me the most important here: SOURCE anything you add! No copies of copies. (Weakness at the commercial sites!)

Given a choice I would prefer a source which was a link to a digital record that I can easily check rather than a reference to a physical item that I cannot, after all digital docson the major sites  usually have a reference to a physical  original.

The Gedcom import could have simply been improved to ensure that records contained sources, why didnt they do that.

>>Third: (second important to me, but also very important to me) all info at WikiTree IS FREE! I just hate I have to pay for getting access to MY (OWN!!) family info.

Its nice if they are free but I don't see it as a neccessity. More important is the best quality information and sites like Ancestry would not have the resources to collate all this data if it was a totally free service

 

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There are obviously a lot of people out there just looking for another free site to park their gedcom on.

But I guess WikiTree stopped being that site a while ago.  From what we're told, it's already the case that most people who upload a gedcom never actually import it.  Worrying.

Vetting might be part of the reason.  But the old import process must have been too big a hurdle for many people.  The new system is supposed to be less off-putting.

Answer 15

Where / How does one try out this new system? It's Sept 7 in my part of the world, but menu links to gedcom still go to the old system with a red notice that links back to this thread.

Answer 16

Bravo!

The new system is well thought out.

No more irresponsible auto GEDCOM updates!

The middle names are now offered in the right place.

But marriage data gets lost, and I still look forward to the day that marriage sources get included in each of the spouses profiles.

Comments

Also the date definer e.g. "About" is not being carried through.

Answer 17

This sounds great but what about the downloading of Gedcom.?

 

Jon P Czarowitz

[[Czarowitz-1]]

Comments

Hi, Jon. I believe the option to extract a GEDCOM remains; haven't heard of anything that says it won't.

But a caveat to those who haven't tried it yet: the last official GEDCOM "standard" was v5.5, released over 21 years ago. And as family tree applications changed and improved, that standard (even the 1999 draft of 5.5.1 that was never adopted) rapidly became a non-standard. That to say WikiTree is--by necessity--not strictly GEDCOM conformant. The export you get can be loaded into GEDCOM "compliant" applications, but won't come through as expected/desired. If you run the output through a GEDCOM validator, you'll get a ton of errors. One significant issue is that source information ends up as notes in individual records, not as identifying SOUR fields. GEDCOM X was proposed in 2011, but subsequently dropped as anything other than a FamilySearch open source project.

This also explains why most GEDCOM uploads into WikiTree came through looking so wonky, with so much odd-looking, seemingly extraneous information.

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I take exception to the phrase "by necessity". "By indifference" is more like it.

It's just that GEDCOM exporting is of low priority. It's a nice-to-have, but the proper functioning of WikiTree does not depend on it.

Having said that, I must add that WikiTree GEDCOMs are less eccentric than most. The NAME field is still a complete name with surname between slashes, as it should be; the dates are properly formatted. You don't need much more conformity to standards than that,

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I'm Sorry. I missed some of the Chit Chat on this. Where do we get the Wiki x or whatever to do the search and where is it that we can search?

If we no longer upload Gedcoms, Where are we going to search? I  understand the ability to search, but where?

Jon P Czarowitz

[[Czarowitz-1]]

Answer 18

I don't know whether these problems have been noted in the discussion, but I believe that they need to be highlighted.

I'm in the process of adding profiles from a GEDCOM file I uploaded. I sorted the list by birth date and I'm adding them in that order. It seems to fix several problems.

A couple problems still come to light. If I add a child to an existing profile before adding a spouse, the marriage information with the spouse is not added.

If a wife's maiden name is left blank, but the GEDCOM file contains her married name, then the married name is inserted as her LNAB rather than "Unknown". This is the biggest issue I've seen. I didn't notice it until later and had to go back and fix several entries.

If a person has 2 spouses, and a child is added, the program asks to identify the other parent of the child even when the parent is identified in the GEDCOM file.

Otherwise it's working well. It's a slow process, but it's still a lot faster than entering all the names and information individually. I'm happy to see it take a while because of all the sketchy profiles I come across from earlier GEDCOM file uploads.

Keep up the good work.

Comments

Howdy Mark, sorting by birth date seems like a good idea for many situations.

I always add both parents before adding the children, works much better.  If a parent has 2 spouses, I would add the parent then the spouse who had the children, then the children, then the other spouse.  If both of the spouses had children, I would add the spouse with the most children first, then her children, then the other spouse, then her children, and would expect problems with that last set of kids, as you have seen. (I haven't tried that myself though)