Aspiring genealogist here

Question

My paternal uncle has been gathering geneaology records for the Medlin tree for 25+ years now and I have recently reconnected with him. I remember him working for hours in office nights and weekends hamnerring on his Commodore 128. I'm not sure what program he originally used. But, I d9 know that he is now using Roots Magic.

As a child of the era of OSS, I am very interested in open and honest collaboration. However, my uncle is more guarded, concerned with inflated family trees. For what purpose people would do that, I still do not fully comprehend. Either way, I am eager to contribute, and have added some tags for more family trees that which I am more familiar.

How do I get reviewed for approval?

In the meantime, should I fill out my personal tree? I would rather avoid rework or complications with duplicates.

Answer 1

To get started, just click on Help at the upper right of the page. Look down that Menu to where it says  Intro to Wikitree.

Answer 2

Start adding your parents and grandparents with sources. (even if it is just birth and/or death certificates). For each person you add, a list of possible duplicates will show up. Go down through the list and check that none of them match yours. You can right click on any links to check out the details. If it says unlisted then you wont be able to see it because it is a living person.

If none of the duplicates match yours (for name, date or location) then you can continue filling in the whole profile and then hit save page.

Just make sure that you have the MINIMUM of first name, last name, at least one date (either the year of birth or the year of death), gender, and a verifiable source.

Do the same thing for all of your ancestors - and eventually you can branch out to siblings for each generations. Eventually you may find an ancestor already on wikitree that you can connect to.