I want to delete my old tree.

Question

I have update my tree by uploading a new GEDCOM.  I want to delete my old tree.

Comments

Hi Arnold, nice to meet you.

Guy shared some good points below.

The way to update profiles here is to edit them individually, first adding sources then editing the details to match the sources.  It's also a great time to review the other information and to spiff up the profiles with any photos or biography notes.

Glad you're here... we need as many good genealogists as we can get!

Cheers from Vermont :)

Answer 1

The new WikiTree gedcom system allows you to edit your profiles with new information from a gedcom.  You will be given a chance to match the people on your new gedcom to your existing profiles and then to edit them one by one with the new information.  

It is a fantastic new system!  You need to be very diligent to check for matches on every person though so you don't create duplicates that will need to be merged later.  Here is the link to uploading gedcoms:  https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Special:UploadGedcom

And here is the help page for how to use the new gedcom system:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:GEDCOMpare

Comments

My new tree has 3,000 persons; my old one had 2,000.  To match them one by one is not something I intend to do with the few remaining years of my life. What I will do, since I value WiTr, is to jump ship and then board another WikiTree ship with an alias. If that does not work..., well..., sorry. My 20 years of genealogical research will ship out elsewhere.

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The first sentence of the WikiTree Honor Code says: We collaborate. When we share ancestors we work together on the same ancestor profiles.

The page about collaboration further explains: To grow one shared tree we need to share the same profiles. Every person who ever lived should have one and only one profile on WikiTree.

This means that it is against the Honor Code for a member to make more than one profile for themself.

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Arnold I just uploaded a tree of 1200 people, 1000 of these were from a gedcom I added previously. It could be easier but it wasn't too bad, I did it over a couple of weeks.

The great thing is you can work family by family, you don't have to check everyone before you start adding new people so the task is maybe not as bad as you think

Answer 2

Your "old" profiles cannot be deleted.  If you download another GEDCOM with the same profiles, you will create duplicates and will have to merge all of them.

Comments

I have no/zero profiles to my knowledge, or, at least, I have not knowingly made any.

You say "I will have to merge them". I am sure you  did not intend to use such bossy language, but I have a little button on my computer that says I dont HAVE to do anything.  That button says, "Delete".

I found WiTr very useful over the years; it seems I have hit a speed bump, a 3,000 person speed bump, a 3000 person X 30 seconds = 1500 minutes (25 hours) to fix this problem.

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That *is* a real speed bump!  If it were me, I'd probably want to break it up into much smaller batches.

I certainly don't want to tell you what to do, but I really hope you'll find the time to add at least some of them.  The thing I want to remember is, we aren't just fancying up computer pages, we aren't just filling in profiles of strangers, we are honoring and serving real people, whether dead or alive.  So you have the opportunity to serve and honor 3000 people, whether publicly here on WikiTree or elsewhere.

Answer 3

Hi Arnold, it sounds like there's a bit of a misunderstanding around trees and gedcoms. A gedcom is not your tree -- its a transfer file format that contains the basic information in your tree.

WikiTree has a two stage import process. The first stage, is called GedCompare. In that stage, one uploads their GedCom file to compare with what is already on WikiTree.

The second stage does the actual transferring of information into the public, shared tree here on WikiTree.

If you did not complete that second stage, then there is nothing to delete (actually there is, but no one else has access to it, and it will be automatically deleted after 30 days -- find the link to delete at the bottom of your compare page)

If you did complete that final import stage, then uploading a second, larger or more complete GedCom will obviously contain duplicates of the first one that will either have to be skipped or edited. There's no other way around that.