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Missing Links

Privacy Level: Public (Green)
Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: [unknown]
Profile manager: Jamie Nelson private message [send private message]
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Missing Links is an app designed to find people who are missing a relationship link to a parent, spouse, or child.

Contents

How to Use

  1. Go to the Missing Links app page.
  2. Fill out the form with a WikiTree ID and the number of steps you want the app to look through.
  3. Press the "Submit" button.
  4. Wait until the app processes information and a table of people appears.
  • If you want to see more people, press the "More" button and the program will go another step.
  • If you want to start at a new person, just replace the current information in the form and press "Submit".

FAQ

What is a step?

A step is the same as a degree in the connection finder. See Help: Connection Finder.

The starting person is step 0. Step 1 is all of step 0's parents, siblings, spouses, and children. Step 2 would be all of step 1's parents, siblings, spouses, and children (that have not been found in previous steps). And so on.

How can I access Missing Links?

There are two ways you can access the Missing Links app.

  1. Click here.
  2. Click "[missing links]" next to any unconnected person with more than 1 connection on the Special:Unconnected page. This will automatically fill in the WikiTree ID and will search 3 steps.

What do the colors mean?

If a cell is highlighted in red that means that the app is almost certain that a link is missing. Cells highlighted in yellow are less certain.

X has all of their children attached. Why do they still show in the list?

A person with children will still show as needing children until the "no more children" box is checked. If the person has zero children and the box is not checked, the column will be red. If the person has one or more children and the box is not checked, the column will be yellow.

X has all of their spouses attached. Why do they still show in the list?

A person with a spouse will still show as needing a spouse until the "no spouse/no more spouses" box is checked. If the person has zero spouses and the box is not checked, the column will be red. If the person has one or more spouses and the box is not checked, the column will be yellow.

Possible Enhancements

  • Filters for the table
    • birth year
    • privacy
    • red / yellow
    • show only people missing a father, mother, child, or spouse or some combination of those.
  • Better printing layout
  • Warn people if they aren't logged in and give them the option to sign in

Contact

If you have any questions, suggestions, or problems, send a message to Jamie.

Honorable Mentions

  • Amy Kelly for coming up with the "Missing Links" name.
  • Chris Whitten for WikiTree and updating the API to include the "no children" flag.
  • Everyone who gave feedback here.




Collaboration


Comments: 15

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The Anglo-Saxon community that lived in America before the arrival of Captain Newport could read a book and write.

However they kept no records as the English kept. This information is from the U.S. Archives

posted by [Living Warman]
Jamie,

Can you add a "Wide Table" option or button that will display the table where none of the lines wrap?

Tommy

posted by Tommy Buch
edited by Tommy Buch
Now that there is a prompt on a profile to add a spouse unless "no more spouses" is checked, could this be added as a new column and turn yellow if the "no more spouses" prompt isn't checked for a profile?
posted by Brianna Miller
I updated it so if they have a spouse and the box isn't checked, they show up as yellow. If they have 0 spouses and the box isn't checked, they show up as red.
posted by Jamie Nelson
Hello Jamie, thank you for replying so soon! When I use Missing Links, the additions you made to the app don't show up for me. Do I have to reload the site? How do I get the new features to show up for me?
posted by Brianna Miller
Usually a hard refresh of your browser will work -- I know on Chrome for Windows you can do that by pressing Ctrl + F5.
posted by Jamie Nelson
Thank you, that worked for me!
posted by Brianna Miller
Hi Jamie

The hide function seems to have issues with surnames with more than one word, such as van den Berg, van der Laan, van Emmerik. It never remembers that they've been hidden when I refresh. It also results in weird statements like "Displaying -5 people who are missing relationships." when I re-hide them.

Not a big issue, just thought I'd mention it.

Edit: The same thing happens with O'Brien

posted by Mark Dorney
edited by Mark Dorney
Thanks Mark, I don't think I tested with anyone with multi-word surnames, so I didn't know about this bug.
posted by Jamie Nelson
Hi do i have to wait until my ancestry dna results come back before i do this missing links?

Thanks in advance

posted by [Living Walker]
Hi Kayleigh,

Missing Links just looks at who is connected to your profile on WikiTree (and which of those people are probably missing relatives). It doesn't require a DNA test.

posted by Jamie Nelson
I have a bunch of people with the first and last name column red, why is that?
posted by Drew Arnold
Red means that the person is very likely missing one or more relationships. People not highlighted in red as less certain.
posted by Jamie Nelson
I just realized that I didn't correctly comprehend your meaning of "unconnected". I finally looked into it and found that 100+ of my contributed profiles didn't have your [[ ]] format in the bios- even though they were added as siblings, children or parents of someone - and that they are therefor considered "unconnected". After only getting about 40 completed in 3 hours, I realized that if I add [[ ]] around each name in a bio as I am writing it, the preview will show them in red where they are easily found and handled as a new profile is added. Just saw that there may be an easier way to handle this job. (Thanks Jamie) Hope "Missing Links" is the answer. A little practice and things should be OK. ...Learning something every day is still a good thing.
posted by Karen Wendell