Question

I just joined. WikiTree urges me to upload my gedcom. If I do, will it be public?

Answer 1

Hi Phil! Uploading a GEDCOM here is unlike uploading a GEDCOM anywhere else.  Your GEDCOM does not automatically populate on WikiTree. You first have to review what is called GEDCOMpare to make sure none of the people in your GEDCOM already have profiles. Then you decide whether or not to create a profile or profiles from your GEDCOM. Some of us (me) don't like to create profiles from GEDCOMs, but prefer to do it manually. As Alex said, you will also set the privacy level for each profile as you create it. Certain profiles, by policy, must be private--for example, living individuals. You may want to look at some of the help pages first. (edited for grammar.)

How to Start Climbing Our Tree

Help: GEDCOM

Help: GEDCOMpare

Comments

Thanks Alex and Nelda. I have been reading further and now understand the process better. As a newbie (here) I really first wanted to know if you already have any of my people that I can link to, so was pleased to read this in Getting Started (** is my emphasis)...

"Do you have a GEDCOM?

If you have used other family tree websites or software it's likely that you can export a GEDCOM file and upload it here. This is the **fastest way** to see if any of your ancestors are already on WikiTree. You'll get a GEDCompare report with likely matches".

That clearly implies you can just throw in a gedcom and get the answers. From your replies, and my further reading, that is not the case. So follow up question is; who writes the FAQs and how do they take this kind of feedback?

As I have over 5000 people and quite a few are not properly verified (read wrong!!) I will now take the hints and make a small ged (maybe 30) of an accurate portion of the tree and experiment with that. I'm intrigued by the several places where I've read that it's easier/quicker to just manually enter each person. That's an awful admission of the quality of the software!

But back to my question "will it be public" (without me fixing up privacy settings), I believe the answer is yes, it will be public (once I've got through the upload/compare process).

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It is the fastest way to see if you have multiple matches between your GEDCOM and WikiTree--you'll quickly get a list which will show you potential matches. That part is quick. Then you have to go through the GEDCOMpare report person by person--that is not fast, depending on how many people are in your GEDCOM and how many potential matches you get for each person. If you have Smiths or some other common name in your GEDCOM, it is awful how many potential matches you can get.

It is personal preference whether using a GEDCOM is the fastest or best way to create profiles. GEDCOMS come from any other software into WikiTree with lots of "stuff" (I don't know the proper name for it, sorry) which clutters up a WikiTree biography and has to be deleted. The sources which do come in via a GEDCOM-created profile will need to be reformatted to truly be usable. This, among other things, is why I'd rather do manual than clean-up a GEDCOM-created profile. Also, as I'm doing a manual profile build I check every single source to make sure the links still work (many don't), to see if there's anything I missed the first time I looked at the source (I often have), to figure out exactly which piece of information I'm including in the biography is confirmed by which source. I look for new sources. I look for sources on FAmilySearch.org (which is free) to replace sources behind a paywall (like Ancestry.com) I like a more narrative biography. GEDCOM-created biographies are more "listy" than I like. Again, personal preference is in play. What I usually recomment is try it both ways and see which way you like best.

I think you are very smart to try a small GEDCOM first. Remember, if you import a large GEDCOM it takes a while to get through the entire GEDCOMpare report and you have to do the entire report before you can add even one profile from it.

Best wishes to you whatever you decide to do! There's lots of folks here to help you if you get stuck.

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Limit at WT is 5000 profiles. Best to run the comparison for duplicated profiles and etc and pick out the the core families etc and ... yes, yes, all very tedious and you just want to "load" whether that's up, down or sideways even but ... haste makes waste and being overwhelmed leads to abandonment and time spent in prevention is much more productive in the long run than trying to cure ... but if you are going to "father" the gedcom, the responsible thing to do is load by sections (families connected) and clean up and source as you go (feed, house and train up the child) ...

Answer 2

Have a look here for help with Privacy. 

You can adjust the privacy levels of individual profiles. 

Welcome to Wikitree! There's lots of folks here willing to help, so please feel free to ask questions. 

Comments

Thanks Alex, I had already read that, but it does not state what the default settings are, i.e. those that are set when a gedcom is uploaded. That omission was the main reason for my question.
Again, what is the mechanism for correcting/improving the FAQs?

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The default setting for living individuals who are members is Private. The default setting for non-members who are living is Unlisted. The default setting for anyone who born over 150 years ago or died over 100 years ago is Open. I think when I set my mom's and dad's profiles up (manually) their default setting was Private with Public Biography and Family Tree--I do remember having to change those. So I would guess those who are born less than 150 years ago or died less than 100 years ago may have that or one of the other "less open" privacy levels as default.  But, truly, regardless of the defaults, privacy level is something you will set yourself one by one as you create each profile within the given restrictions on the page Alex linked for you, WikiTree will prevent your from having an open profile for someone living if that's your concern.

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P.S. There is a committee/project which is constantly working on improving the Help Pages. I don't know how to reach them, but I bet if you make another post titled something like "Suggestion to improve Help Page..." someone will see it and hook you up with them so you can express your opinion. And don't be afraid to express them. In my experience, every suggestion which has been offered with consideration has been met with equal consideration. Doesn't mean changes will be made or if they are made they will be quickly made, but it does mean that most of the people on this site are very receptive to constructive criticism and suggestions and are respectful of each other.

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Hmmm, I have many in my tree I am still researching, and I'm getting the message that they will likely be unsuitable to upload, and I must only upload my adequately proven people.
To do what you are all saying is admirable, but amounts to a total overhaul of my 5000+ tree to weed out the 'incompletes' and probably a few 'plain wrongs'. That's good to do of course, and it's what I am striving to do on my Ancestry/FTM tree.
I think a better approach might be to build a completely new and verified tree on Ancestry/FTM by copying people across to it, after veryfing them. And only then extracting a (small) gedcom to upload here.

(edit to add PS)
PS, this will take quite a while!

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Oh, goodness, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to imply you had to do all I'm doing at all. I was just giving you my reasons for doing it my way. As Susan told you, if you have at least one source per person that's really all that is needed to add that person here. Everyone has their own methods and ways--WikiTree is fairly adaptable to whatever your style, your speed. Please, add what you have now and don't worry about whether it's all "perfect" yet. All of our work here is "in progress." You will see all levels of completion of profiles and all are welcome additions.

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Don't worry Nelda, what you said was fine, I'm eager to learn how this thing works for people, and how I can adapt to my way of working. Perhaps I will pick one, or a few valid people to add. I know they don't have to be complete (they never will be of course) so long as their basic info is correct and sourced. Question then is which person/s to put on? I would like to get a list of existing surnames and if one of mine matches that would be a good start, otherwise I suppose picking someone from the earliest generations I have would be most likely to get linked up, is that correct?

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When you either run your GEDCOMpare or add manually, you will get a list of potential matches to check if they have a profile already on WikiTree. If not, add away. If they do, they don't create a duplicate. But if you do create a duplicate, don't despair. Most of us have (I have!) Duplicates can be merged.

I started with myself and worked back, adding my parents, then my grandparents, etc., back a few generations. Eventually I did find an ancestor already on WikiTree to whom I was able to link. You can start wherever seems logical to you and work in any direction. If you want to find an ancestor already on WikiTree and work down to yourself, that would be fine, too. Some people add profiles of deceased people they're not even related to (like celebrities) and link them to the because that's what they enjoy doing. Some people do "one-name studies," "one-place studies" or add people from cemeteries. Some people add from their special areas of expertise or interest. Do your thing or find your new thing. I hope you find you enjoy putting your research here on WikiTree. I love it! Truly--I've been "doing" genealogy for at least 25 years and WikiTree is the coolest online place for genealogy I've ever found.

Answer 3

You might want to upload in a regulated way, one family at a time, 2 parents, 4 gdparents, 8 gt grandparents and with each profile entered, clean it and source it.

So, 1st profile, clean and source, 2nd profile connected and cleaned and sourced, 3rd profile connected, cleaned and sourced .... it is slower over time to be sure BUT it will prevent your throwing up your hands and feeling overwhelmed by the amount of work AHEAD of you and just walking away from the whole project. Which is frowned upon by WT.

Sources need not be extensive FIRST time through, maybe a census URL or URL of a cemetery or birth / marriage / death record, or even a person details from familysearch with the LDS ID attached such as "Robin Cutter 1829-1917 X31J-21Z" with the familysearch URL for him / her

HAVING this first time actual source will avert having the WT dropping {{unsourced}} on the profile and/or another number of other error messages which will within 2 weeks begin to accumulate in Suggestions .. and which you are strongly advised to "clear up", correct etc

Even a source such as "Burial permit, Robin Cutter, 1917, Okefenokee, Texas, certificate #3187, issued from Beersin, County seat; personal possession by <your name>" is better than no source at all

Comments

Thanks Susan, good explanation.

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What Susan said! (what I was about to write - my fingers thank you Susan!)