Help:How to Dig a Little Deeper
Categories: New Member How-To | WikiTree Help
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Previous tutorials have covered the fundamentals: editing and managing profiles and participating in the community. This tutorial delves deeper into some of the many corners of WikiTree.
Keep in mind that WikiTree is huge. No member uses every feature and function. This page is just intended to introduce you to what's available.
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Explore Tree Apps
How to get there: 1.) The Tree Apps tab on a profile, or 2.) Profile Menu > Tree Apps
A person's profile is the main page about a person, and it includes their pedigree chart when you click the "Ancestors" button or follow a family tree link.
Tree Apps are special genealogy viewing tools developed and managed by community members. There are some powerful apps here and they are well worth exploring.
If you have questions about any apps, ask in G2G.
Put Your DNA Test to Work
How to get there: 1.) Click here or 2.) Profile Menu > DNA
Have you or another member of your family taken a DNA test for genealogy?
Your test can help scientifically confirm (or reject) the connections on our single family tree. Our ideal is to mark every parent-child relationship on WikiTree with a DNA-confirmed 
indicator.
See Help:DNA for an introduction. If you're a little more comfortable with "genetic genealogy" dig into the DNA Features page. But before you do anything, if you have taken a DNA test select it here. This puts your test to work on WikiTree without you having to do anything else.
Play with the Relationship Finder
How to get there: 1.) Click here or 2.) Profile Menu > Relationship to Me
The Relationship Finder is a great tool for a couple of reasons:
- It's a "cousin calculator" — it tells you exactly what to call your great aunt's daughter's child.
- It's fun to see the common ancestors you share with other genealogists you meet on WikiTree.
- You can see if the relationships that connect you are Uncertain, Confident, or Confirmed with DNA. This gives you a focused line to research and improve upon.
Play with the Connection Finder
How to get there: 1.) Click here or 2.) Profile Menu > Global Connections
Over 75% of the people on WikiTree are connected within 100 degrees of separation. Unlike the Relationship Finder, the Connection Finder includes relationships by marriage, so it's not about genealogy, strictly speaking. It's just fun to see how closely the world is connected.
How closely are you connected to Queen Elizabeth II or one of this week's other "connection anchors"? Click here to see.
Create a Free-Space Profile
How to get there: 1.) Click here or 2.) Add > New Thing
Person profiles are the basic building blocks of WikiTree. Genealogy is primarily about people. But there are places, events, and other things that tie us together. For these we have free-space profiles.
You can create a page for anything that's important to you or your family: a house, a pet, an heirloom, a cemetery, a family business, a military unit, ... Here's an example for the USS Bangor, a ship that participated in World War II.
They can also be used to organize a collaborative project or your personal research.
Create one for something related to one of your ancestors.
Research with RootsSearch
How to get there: Profile Menu > Research
RootsSearch is a super handy genealogy research tool. It makes it easy to search for records for any person on over 20 websites including FamilySearch, Ancestry.com, MyHeritage, Find-a-Grave, and more without having to enter their information over and over again.
The best way to understand it is to try it. Take a minute now to open one of your profiles and click on the RootsSearch link in the lower right corner, or the Research link on the Profile Menu.
Try Categorization
Categories are a way to group profiles that have something in common, e.g. people who were born in a particular location, buried in a given cemetery, served in a military unit together, or were involved in some historic event.
Look for this icon on the toolbar above the biography section of their profile: 
When you click that icon a text box will appear that says "Enter text here to select a category." Try entering the name of the town in which the person was born. If it appears, select it. This will insert a category tag that looks like this:
See Help:Categorization for more information.
Check a WikiTree+ Suggestions Report
How to get there: Profile Menu > Suggestions
Every profile with a public family tree has a Suggestions Report. It shows you a list of suggested changes to profiles in the person's family line.
This report is one of the many useful tools created by Aleš Trtnik. We call his suite of tools WikiTree+.
These tools are intended for users who really want to dig in. Don't worry if all the suggested changes don't make sense yet.
Send an E-Card
Every image that's uploaded to WikiTree can be sent as a nifty e-card. Look for the E-Card 
button beneath any family photo.
There are also special collections of vintage postcards that were uploaded especially for this. It's a fun way to spread genealogy joy to friends and family.
We especially hope you feel like you are now a part of the WikiTree family!
Previous: #3 How to Manage Your Watchlist Next: #5 How to Join in the Community
This page was last modified 13:38, 12 April 2023. This page has been accessed 23,713 times.