Do you still keep a personal tree?

Question

I have a GEDCOM that I am comparing on Wikitree. I also have it on Family Search, and get emails from Family search with new links. Do you keep a seperate tree? I think the info is all on Wikitree, but am afraid of what will happen if i don't keep a personal updated record somewhere else. What if wikitree were to disappear? Is there a way to save my watchlist on my own computer?

Answer 1

You should read this Help Page about the protections for WikiTree 

Answer 2

I still keep my tree elsewhere as well.  I keep a direct-line-only tree on Ancestry (private, so people can't copy and paste my tentative working stuff).  I keep a more complete tree on FamilySearch.  I keep my master tree (absolutely everything including theories and guesses) on my computer at home, using Legacy.  But my main online tree is WikiTree.

Answer 3

I only started serious research once I joined Wikitree. So almost everything is on Wikitree. I got the free version of RootsMagic that I use just for two reasons:

1. If I am building out a tree of a DNA match. I don’t want to put living strangers or their parents on Wikitree. I try not to create a Wikitree profile for a stranger born less than 100 years ago.
2. If I have a pile of uncertain information. For instance, I downloaded a huge GEDCOM from FamilySearch that seems to hook into my Swiss ancestry. I can’t document *any* of the information in that GEDCOM, so I don’t want to stick it all on Wikitree just in case it is really corrupted information. 

Answer 4

I absolutely keep a tree on my computer using FamilyTreeMaker. This serves two purposes: 1. Just in case anything happens to WikiTree or anyone makes a major change to my ancestral line here on WIkiTree, I will be able to go back and see what I have. 2. It enables me to work offline when needed. I can create biographies, make notes, clean up sources, etc.

Right now, I also maintain what I already had on FamilySearch and I still have my tree on Ancestry although my most up to date tree is here on WikiTree. Someday, I won't be paying for Ancestry or won't be able to do what I do now and WikiTree is my choice for the future of my ancestors.

Answer 5

I keep an offline tree. I have created very few profiles for living people here and intend to keep it that way. I have no one who wants to share the responsibility for them and if I drop off the twig, they will be deleted. So it's a bit pointless investing a whole lot of time creating them.

Answer 6

I began my research in the late 1960s, first by collecting information given me by my grandmothers.  So I have always had my own set of offline records.  I still find them useful in many different ways, including

•  a separate, detailed record for each direct ancestor, with notes describing all my sources of information, including where I first learned of the ancestor; and a list of sources to explore someday, among other details

• what I call "tree charts" for each family line, showing all the descendants of each early ancestor (as far back as I can get); I have not found any software or website that gives me the information in as flexible and understandable a format as I can create on my own with an Excel schedule

• a complete bibliography covering all my research and family lines

For my personal records, I do not use software, although I do have an old version of Family Tree Maker that I use for storing downloads and manipulating gedcoms.

I have a large tree on Ancestry because it is by far the most efficient means I've found of doing research.  It is also useful for making use of my DNA results, because I can provide my matches with information about my ancestry.

And I have created profiles for my direct ancestors on WikiTree because I want a free, public source for sharing my research.

Answer 7

My genealogy research began years ago, long before Wiki Tree existed, so my family tree, research notes, originals and copies of original records, etc., are all kept in files in my home. That information has also been entered into Roots Magic that I use for electronic safe-keeping and editing. The profiles that I have or connect to on Wiki Tree came from the information that has been researched and is sourced. I do not rely on Family Search because it's known to be riddled with errors and duplicate profiles for individuals. Unfortunately, the same is true on many profiles on Ancestry and here on Wiki Tree, too. I don't use Ancestry because I take issue with the way they do business, but that's a whole 'nother ball of wax. In Roots Magic I add scans of documents, photos, make notes and add personal information that I don't want to include on a publicly accessible website, and make each of my ancestors' profiles as personal as possible, rather than just a list of their names, birth and death information. I can run reports and customize them, too, in addition to printing them. This is helpful when putting together ancestry books for family members who have requested information on our ancestors. Those are some of the reasons why I prefer to keep my most up-to-date and sourced family tree in electronic format on my computer at home. It works best for me that way.

Answer 8

Since I joined Wikitree, I have not updated my offline tree on my hard drive. I do all my updating on Wikitree.

I consider Wikitree to be my MAIN tree - mostly because it is free and anyone can access it.

BUT I also do have a personal tree on My Heritage as well.

Answer 9

I abandoned my Gramps tree once I discovered Wikitree. Just updating two things was a palaver and I'd forget what I'd got up to with each and get in a muddle. And the Wikitree stuff seemed much more important because it's publicly viewable and less vulnerable to destruction. Having been through a few bereavements now I know that family may not have the time, space, or sang froid necessary to go through my possessions carefully after my death, let alone retrieve what's on my computer.

I do have a few boxes of treasured documents, photos and other memorabilia, and I am most of the way through labelling everything very clearly with explanatory notes.

Answer 10

My private tree is stored on Legacy software on my personal computer which backs up to an external drive regularly.   I keep a detailed record of everything I find there with the detailed source description.   i.e. Census records are transcribed listing all the people and details about each family member and any observations I make while transcribing it.  The entry is then copied to the profiles of all the people in the record.   I do the with everything including online,  books and personally held documents.   I end up with a detailed list of everything I have found about each person including alternate and disputed "facts".

I also have trees on Ancestry but don't add information found elsewhere so they are not complete.

I joined Wikitree but it is not what I consider my tree.  I joined and use my research to write sourced biographies that tell what I know and what needs to be confirmed.   I write them as stories  that non-genealogy buffs can read, get some information and hopefully enjoy.   

I  also write the stories with lots of photos about family members.   They get printed and gifted to family members.

Answer 11

Oh heck yeah. I keep my tree in Gramps, and the abilities it has for reports and queries are exponentially more powerful than anything I could do online.

I also capture biographical information that I don't see too many people capturing. I'm terribly interested in things like church membership, political views, and attitudes towards slavery, but I can also see people on a shared tree getting irritated at me for adding that info ...

Comments

For what it's worth I'd really appreciate information like that on a profile. 

Obviously one has to keep a fairly neutral tone, if only to reduce the likelihood that some benighted person deletes the information. 

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Dave, I agree with Deborah.  Those biographical details are part of what makes profiles interesting.

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Where do you go to get that information. I have some ancestors that moved from the northeast to the south and then to Indiana. I have unconfirmed report that many served In the Civil War.

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You can often find details like religion and politics in obituaries, and sometimes those old genealogical history books that were popular around 1900.

Civil War records are available from many sources.  Where do you do your research?

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Censuses can be a good source of biographical info, if you examine the image rather than just the partial summary FamilySearch or Ancestry etc. display. My favorite detail comes from the 1930 U. S. Census - "Has a radio." Some state censuses captured religion. State and federal censuses can capture education levels, employment details, and so on, depending on what questions were asked that year. Fun little details.

Just googling a name with a birth year sometimes turns up unexpected info.

If your ancestors came from a smaller town see if there is a Facebook group for that town.

https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/United_States_Civil_War_1861_to_1865,_Part_1

FamilySearch has a guide to Civil War genealogy here.

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I love that "has a radio" item and have used it for some biographies.  What an insight into the times!

Answer 12

No.  I don't.  

My computer died, not backed up to another location.  I'm sure I could have paid someone to retrieve my files but pretty much everything I had was on Wikitree.  So I didn't.  When I got a new computer I did not even put a genealogy program on it.  

This happened one other time years earlier and in re-creating my tree from a ged.com I had uploaded to RootsWeb I realized what a bad job I had done at documenting a lot of things--even if I had done better than many. I see no point in duplicating effort.  When it's on Wikitree anyone who is interested can find it.

Answer 13

I still keep my tree on Ancestry.com and MyHeritage.

Ancestry.com has some great sources (although far fewer these days, it seems), so I still use Ancestry for my main tree. I've given up with my MyHeritage tree, as it's too much work to maintain a tree on several sites. I find MyHeritage to be too cumbersome to navigate well. I am slowly moving everything over here to Wikitree.

Answer 14

I've been collecting genealogy data since 1997, and since 2005 I've stored them in my own self-developed database where I've deployed a lot of features not found in stock genealogy programs. Among other things, it contains a source register where I'm storing full-text parish record transcripts. Over the years the size of it has become staggering, and it now contains more than 50,000 baptisms, almost as many burials, and some 20,000+ marriages.

Because of the way the data is stored, particularly the sources, it's far easier for me to develop profiles in my own database, and then simply generate a biography for WikiTree, than to do everything from scratch here.

For me, WikiTree is a way to publish my research. I used to have my own Web site where I published my genealogy, but over the years I became more and more aware that the site would never be maintained by others after I'd left. It makes a lot more sense to publish them on a site like WikiTree.