My WikiTree Project

I mentioned my WikiTree project in my last post. Today I'm going to share some details of the project and how I participate. It's early on, and I'm starting slowly, so my workflow may change, but this is how I am building the tree.

I start by adding a basic profile for a person. WikiTree requires at least one source before a profile can be created, so initially I add only birth and death dates and places, and the marriage if details are known. I then add a source or two, but these are not necessarily well-crafted sources at this point. They may be as simple as "Death Certificate found at FamilySearch.org". I create similar basic profiles for the spouse and parents of the person.

I then go back to my database and verify all the sources I have for information on the person, verifying where I found the source, and cleaning up the citations to a more 'standard' format—though they are NOT up to E.E. standards!

Once I've cleaned up my sources, I return to WikiTree and add a detailed biography to the profile. This may include occupations, residences, children, or other information I know about the person. I make sure I have a source for each piece of information I include in the biography, with the exception of the names of the children. (I work on those as I add profiles for each child.) If there is a conflict in my information (e.g., various places of birth), I include a section at the bottom of the biography explaining where I got the information and why I've accepted one piece of information as the more likely correct bit of information. If I have relevant photos, I also add those to the profile. Some contributors add photos of documents (e.g., death certificates, obituaries, etc.), but so far I have not, because I don't want to violate any copyright or user agreement.

At this point I double check the privacy settings, of which there are many choices. Obviously living people, if added, are completely private and  in most cases, unlisted.I try to keep parents of living people private also, so that only names and dates are listed, and cannot be edited by just any user. I do this so that information on living children cannot be exposed to public view. For most people without living children, I go case by case, but use a more open setting. A completely open profile that can be edited by anyone who has signed the Honor Code is the only option for profiles of people born over 150 years ago, which seems very fair.

I've done a few profiles now. My plan is to start sharing them here. I will update the profiles on WikiTree as I learn new information. I may not be as consistent in updating the profile here, so as I publish a profile here I will include a link to the WikiTree profile that will always contain the lasted information. This is a slow process, but so far it has been working for me. I feel that not only am I contributing to the WikiTree, and the genealogical community in general, but I am also taking time to get buy own research organized. I'll bee sharing my first profile here very soon!