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Question

I have checked Wikitree for a few of my ancestors and just joined and uploaded a gedcom that is in the process of being checked. I was impressed by the sourcing and discussion on a couple of them.

 I have so much to do in research and begining to write a family history for a few New Egland ancestors that will interest my non-genealogist family, (but also be accurate and have sources at the end in case any want to explore further) that I am time challenged, as I'm sure are all of you.

I just sent in my DNA kit to Ancestry.com and have one sent out to my brother who will, I hope, get it in soon. We are the oldest of our family.

Wikitree is overwhelming! I hope I can figure it out and eventually be helpful.

Comments

Welcome to WikiTree!

Answer 1

I see you posted an hour ago and no one said welcome yet. WELCOME, and we look forward to participating with you.

Comments

Thank you!

Answer 2

Yes, welcome!  I joined a few months ago and experienced a bit of, uh, overwhelming-ness I'm not used to.  Hang in there and ask a lot of questions, it gets easier and more fun.  

One thing I might say is to enter your profiles one by one, skipping the Gedcom pain of checking 5000 potential matches.  Check each one at a time.  Anyway, I found that once I did that, it was a LOT more fun.

Comments

Thank you, I added my gedcom already, but only direct ancesters leading to the New England colonies. Still have a lot of work on those sources though. If I understand it, I need to enter something on each profile or it will be deleted after a period of time. I forget how much time. I really have a lot to learn!

Answer 3

Welcome, I've only been on WikiTree since March and have learned so much.  Hang in there, everyone is very helpful.  I read the help section many times & sometimes it's easier to just ask.  I really appreciate the sourcing emphasis on this site, and willingness of the leaders to help correct errors. I haven't added much of my research yet because adding one by one with good sources also takes a while:)  And I got sidetracked by correcting & adding to my colonial line that I'm currently obsessed over.  But welcome and really hope you'll stick with it.  It does start to feel less overwhelming over time.

Comments

Thanks for the welcome. The sourcing emphasis is what attracted me to Wickitree. I've limited myself to my colonial ancestors (8 of them) and hope I'll live long enough to finish those while trying to work on my Ancestry.com tree, my Legacy Family tree, and now the Wikitree profiles. All while trying to read about the colonial times and try to figure out how to write a narrative history instead of a list of facts-- which means I'm also trying to learn more about my open sourced word processor footnotes, endnotes..etc.. I should have started all this twenty or thirty years ago!

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Wow!  That's a lot of learning!  I'm starting to work on publishing my research, that's why I'm so focused on my Noble line.  And I keep forgetting to update my personal database when I find something on WikiTree.  I've let my FamilySearch tree go by the wayside.  I have to focus on learning creative non-fiction writing so my family will want to read my list of "facts" and the colonial times.  How are you doing with your narrative history? Talk to you tomorrow. :)

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That's exactly why I want to write it - so family will enjoy it, adding the sources so they are there if someone wants them, but unobtrusive. Probably end notes.

I haven't started the actual writing yet. Still trying to pick one ancestor to start with and keep getting sidetracked when I discover more about another ancestor. I bought one book on Amazon about making family history interesting to non-genealogists, but it was only aimed at more modern tips and examples while I need to go back into the early 1600s.

I got one book from the library that I started to take notes from but there was so much I ended up ordering the book so I can underline/highlight. Still waiting for it. Have another one ordered from the library that I hope will be helpful.

Bringing Your Family History to Life Through Social History: Katherine Scott Sturdevant  is the one I ordered from Amazon.

I'm also saving a lot of historical information on that time and place and even have some fiction from that era that I want to get from the library soon. Seems like I spend hours and there is still so much to do!

Good luck with your project.

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That book you mentioned is recommended by a classmate on the writing site that I e-mailed you about.

Answer 4

I recently joined Wikitree myself after getting my DNA results back from 23andme.  I understand how overwhelming it is.  At first I didn't know where to start.  I am just looking at pieces a little at a time to try to analyze because I think if I try to do to much I get overwhelmed again.  I feel like I am making small progress steps which are in the right direction.  If I can be of any assistance please feel free to reach out to me.