JGs Help
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Surname/tag: help
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Introduction
I have been helping newcomers by answering questions and giving tips. Once you get going on Wikitree the best place to ask questions is G2G as there is a pool of experienced users there willing to help, and the answers are available to all. Someone may find the answer to a problem before they knew they had it.
However in the very early days there is a lot to Wikitree and it can be overwhelming or sometimes hard to find what you want in the help system. You can always ask me anything by contacting me through my profile page Weston-4750. I will do my best to help.
Free versus an account?
If Wikitree is free why do I need an account?
It is free. You can access the web site via a browser, search for an ancestor and see their details. However to comply with European law, information for living people is strictly limited. You can see this data if you are a family member, but for this the system has to recognise you, hence the need for an account. Email address and a password of your choosing is all that is needed (no credit card required).
Membership levels
Apart from public (which is no membership. i.e. without an account) there are three levels of membership:-
- Guest - like public, read only access, full data for non living. limited data visible for living people, but you can create and edit your own profile.
- Family - As guest, but full data for related living people.
- Genealogist - Update access to open profiles, but requires signing of honour code.
More details on membership levels can be found here.
Resources for newcomers
GenealogyTV did a video tour: "How to Use WikiTree".
For another member's perspective, see the "Welcome to WikiTree" video series.
Privacy.
How to Use WikiTree.
How to Get Started with Genealogy.
How to Get Started with DNA.
Guide for NEWTs (New to Wikitree):-
- Start Climbing Our Tree.
- Edit a Profile.
- Manage Your Watchlist.
- Dig a Little Deeper.
- Join in the Community.
- Be a Successful WikiTreer.
(These are documented in the New Member How-To guide).
Unsourced Profiles
This relates to profiles post 1700. If you have an unsourced change for a pre-1700 profile ask for guidance in G2G and/or explain the findings in the Research notes.
When you create a profile and you can not give it a citation as a source, you should add the {{Unsourced}} template, which displays a box on the profile like this:-If later you find a source for your change and edit the profile to add a citation to it, you should remove the unsourced template. It is only used if a profile has no citations. It is not used on profiles with many facts, but where only some are sourced with citations.
The reason for this is two fold. Wikitree will display a panel on such a profile alerting anyone who sees it that it needs a citation or citations to prove the existence of the person. The other reason is that there are periodic challenges Source-a-Thons and a Profile Improvement Project. Having the template is a means for these profiles to be found. You never know, someone might find that elusive source for you.
If you are uncertain how to add a citation, add me to the trusted list I will do this for you. Ask me via my contact page with the Wikiid of the profile and I will send you a trusted list request which you can just click on to add me.
Empty Bios
There are some on Wikitree who prefer that anything in the data section at the top of a profile is not repeated in the biography. However although this is tolerated for modern profiles, the preferred style by Wikitree is for the biography to contain an explanation of the bare facts with source citations added so that provenance can be checked. This is particularly important for pre-1700 profiles where collaboration requires a consistent style.
It is allowed to put a source at the end of a profile, which could support the facts in that profile, but then it is uncertain which fact(s) the source is citing for, particularly when extra facts are added later. So the preferred method is inline citations within the biography. Again this is important for profiles prior to 1700. A fact without a citation is just an opinion. So facts in the data field should be repeated in the biography with full explanations and citations.
Once facts have been entered into the data fields at the top of a profile, a biography can easily be created from them using the Auto Bio feature of the Wikitree browser extension. The browser extension has one effect you have to get used to, it causes a refresh of the page just after loading (to add its controls). If you have a large page and you click something straight away, the page might jump as your finger hits the mouse button causing you to click in the wrong place. You soon get used to waiting for the refresh. The extension has so many useful time saving features that most people will accept this small delay.
To add a biography go into edit and after the page refreshes, the browser extension will have added a line of buttons under the Wikitree ones between the
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data section and the edit window. Click on the Biography one and then click on Auto from the drop down list. Follow the imbedded instructions, basically review what it has generated and, if OK, click on delete old bio. If you wish, I can do this for you if you add me temporarily to the trusted list for the profile. Contact me via the private message facility on my profile Weston-4750 with the profile id and I'll send a request that only requires you to click to set it up.
Pre-1700 Welcome
This is the message that is sent to anyone who self-certifies to work on Pre-1700 profiles. I would suggest, unless you are already an experienced Genelogist, that you do not self-certify if you have only just joined, but wait until you have gained some experience. Finding sources and citing them properly can be difficult, but it is much harder before central government records were kept. It is a requirement of Wikitree that all facts added to a pre-1700 profile should be supported by a reliable source citation. You can get help on which sources are reliable from the projects that cover your area of interest. If no suitable project can be found you can ask in G2G.
Congratulations on certifying to work on pre-1700 profiles!
It’s very important to read and understand the Help:Pre-1700 Profiles page. These profiles for deep ancestors are shared by many, and collaborating on them works best if we all follow the guidelines in the certification quiz when creating or editing profiles.
Primary sources should always be added to pre-1700 profiles at the time they are created or edited to explain the change and enable easy verification. If you don't have a source for a pre-1700 profile change, it is best to ask for help in the G2G forum before creating or editing the profile. Minor corrections, like fixing typos or formatting do not need further citations.
GEDCOM
Wikitree has a feature to upload a GEDCOM and then create profiles for the people contained in it. You may be tempted to upload your whole family tree by GEDCOM. From experience I recommend you do not do this in one go. I am not party to what the development team are working on, but my understanding is that the GEDCOMPARE code dates from the early days of Wikitree. The Style rules have developed and evolved since then and so the output of the program requires manual editing to tidy it up. Because the program is old and working, no one wants to go in and tinker with it, which might break it (old programming adage "if it's working, leave it alone"). Besides, the development team have other priorities, they are only volunteers giving up their spare time. There is a GEDCOM cleanup app that I haven't used myself but I hear good reports about it.
There is another problem. When a GEDCOM is uploaded, a check must be made to see if that person is already in the database to try and avoid creating duplicates. This is easy enough for one or two people but takes a long time for several hundred. No profiles can be created until every person in the GEDCOM has been checked. A gedcom with several hundred people could take many days for you to check through. For this reason I would recommend only uploading one person at a time until you are familiar with building profiles, then only load one family at a time, (parents and children).
Occupation stickers
You can usually brighten up a profile if it doesn't have any images with a sticker or two. Where born is an obvious one, but occupation (where known) is another. There is a page here of images that can be used which includes the required syntax that can be copied and pasted. There is a rule that no more than 5 stickers should be added to a profile unless it is your own, so don't go overboard.
Help with resources
Most projects can help you with which are the reliable sources relevant to that project. For example if you are working on English profiles then taking their Orphan Trail will teach you which sources to use and how to build a good profile using them. I took this and learnt a lot from it. I don't know about other projects but I suspect they provide similar support.
There is also the Profile Improvement Project, this does not have a time or location focus but seeks to improve all profiles on Wikitree. They have a resources page here.
- Login to edit this profile and add images.
- Private Messages: Send a private message to the Profile Manager. (Best when privacy is an issue.)
- Public Comments: Login to post. (Best for messages specifically directed to those editing this profile. Limit 20 per day.)