Question

It says there 188 matches but I can only find about 20.

Comments

Hello Jennifer:

Welcome to WikiTree and G2G. I notice you uploaded two Gedcoms.

Is your question related to the Gedcom uploads?

---

Hi Jennifer,

Welcome to WikiTree! 

Just so you know, our search/match is limited to only 100 profiles, and then your criteria is sorted out of those.  This is the reason it is so very, very important to make sure every profile has a birth date, (estimates are OK, if no record exists)  Just use the {{DateGuess}} template, and explain in the biography how you arrived at that date.

If a lot of profiles have no date, the undated are taking up spots which could be used by "good" matches instead.  (at least this is how my un-technical brain understands it, might not be entirely correct) 

If every profile had a birth date (nirvana), it would be easy to scan the list for possibilities.  We wouldn't have to stop and open profiles to see if anything's inside.

Have you dated a profile today?  (remember the old, "Have you hugged your kid today?" bumper sticker?)

---

Each and everyone of my 1,000 family has a birth date. All my records are proven.

---

Wow!  Amazing work, Jennifer. 

---

Yes it is a lot of new things to understand. I am disappointed in that out of all Ithe so called 188 I can only find one match. All of my 1000 are proven, I was hoping to find certain descendants of proven people that I have so far been unable to trace in the 18th century I think perhaps this is not for me. Thank you.

---

Hi again.

I think I misunderstood your question earlier.  I didn't realize you were looking for connections to your existing gedcom.  (I thought you were trying to match one name to a list of possibilities.)

Just because the gedcom matching system didn't come up with much doesn't meant they aren't in here.  Often, especially with the earlier ancestors, someone's tree will only include one child when there may have been seven in the family.  So if John is here, and you have James, there will not show a match, but the parents of John and James are here!  It takes a human eye to see those sort of things.  Or a family may be here up to one generation away, and it only needs your information to connect a whole new branch.  These are things I've seen my own experience, not hypothetical.

Keep in mind that the project here is to create a world tree.  If you have new information to add, this could be a contribution to everyone who is interested in genealogy ... everwhere.  You might find distant cousins you didn't know existed.  Family members who aren't interested now might become interested later.

Up to you, but you are welcome to join us anytime if you change your mind.

---

Jennifer,  I just looked at your Guile ancestors. They're all in England. At the moment the vast majority of our members are American and we have American ancestors, except that one ancestor who crossed from England about the time as your Thomas (1676-). Your contribution because of it's unique "British" nature, may be of great help to someone else.

As we become more international in nature, which we do all the time, more people will upload their gedcoms, and they may come looking for you. As a member and the manager of those profiles, you will be contacted when someone makes a change like adding a family member, and perhaps they will connect Thomas' parents, or someone will want to merge your family with theirs.

While you wait, you can remain, and be as active as you choose. You could add sourcing to the profiles you uploaded. You could put in other family members. Or you can just read emails from Wikitree to see if something interesting happens to your family members.

---

Thank you, Anne!  Great suggestions.

---

Hello Keith, This is all very new to me. Thank you for replying. My question really related to my Hutchings family tree, the one with nearly 1,000 proven people. There were no suggestions for anyone on my Guile/Gile tree if I am understanding the process correctly. I actually dont know how my Guile tree got on there, I wasn't aware that I had put it on, must be getting very confused. I definitely haven't decided yet whether to put on my Hutchings tree as I dont still yet understand the process, ie do I have to do each person individually? That may seem daft but there you are. Kind regards, Jenni

Answer 1

If you started on the search page or using the search box(es) at the top: Then searched a name (188 matches) - then narrowed it down with a date or other parameter, the first number (188 matches) keeps being shown even though now there are only 20 more specific matches.

Answer 2

Jenni:

Thank you for your reply.  Don't worry, the learning curve in the genealogists' pursuit can seem steep at times - which is why it is good to have help.

If you've not yet been contacted by a Mentor here (this underlined section is a link to a list of them ), may I suggest you contact one of them?  They volunteer helper angels....

Good luck and have fun!

~ Keith