WikiTree

There is always something new to discover in Genealogy, and today I stumbled across WikiTree, a site I have somehow managed to never encounter before but one which definitely seems worth further investigation.

 
So what is WikiTree?  According to the website, Wikitree is a community.  

"Our mission is to grow an accurate single family tree that connects us all and is freely accessible to us all, forever.

WikiTree balances privacy and collaboration so that living people can connect on one world tree to common ancestors.

We privately collaborate with our close family members on modern family history. As we go back in time, the privacy controls open up. Collaboration on deep ancestors is between distant cousins who are serious about genealogical research, careful about sources, and willing to see their research validated or invalidated with DNA.

Because all the profiles are connected on the same system our collaboration is creating a single family tree that is connecting us all, preserving our history, and making our shared genealogy available for the world to access, for free, forever."

The WikiTree tree includes 32,059,521 profiles (10,525,200 with DNA test connections) edited by 944,653 members from around the world.

On the 4th - 5th November, the site will celebrate WikiTree Day with a number of speakers.  The site is currently open for registration and have more information about the day available, along with a list of speakers and their topics.

So take a look at WikiTree and see if it is for you.

Trees that go Out on a Limb

Over my years as a Family History researcher, I have been constantly amazed by some of the errors and misinformation I've found in online family trees.  So many people make assumptions, ignore the basics of biology and put their (clearly incorrect) family trees online for others to copy - and the copiers accept their incorrect data without questioning errors which should be clear at a glance.

So without mentioning names or pointing fingers, here are some of the more eye-popping errors I have come across that really should leap out at researchers.

• Children cannot be born before their parents.
• Children also cannot be born to a mother who is 8 years old.  Or 94 years old. 
• Children are highly unlikely to be born to a father who is 89 years old (while this MAY be biologically possible, it is unlikely and deserves a bit of fact checking).
• A child cannot be christened 7 months before they are born.
• Full siblings cannot be born 4 months apart.  While medical technology may be making this possible today, it really wasn't possible in the 1840s.
• A woman cannot marry 3 years after she has died.
• A man cannot enlist in the army 5 years after he has died.
• No one can die in the decade before they are born.
• A man cannot be buried 17 days before he dies.
• In 1883 a child could not be born in England and christened in Australia 5 days later. 
• Yes, people do move around.  But they will not usually have three children born on three different continents in the space of three years.

I can hear people out there laughing out there at some of these errors, but remember I've seen each of them included in someone's online family tree.  And believe me, getting these errors corrected can be next to impossible.

So the next time you are looking at an online tree that intersects with your family, remember to treat it with a degree of caution.  Not everyone is a meticulous researcher, and sometimes a simple typing error will lead to confusion.  Treat online family trees as hints at best, and always look for corroborating evidence, the sources a person has cited, anything to confirm names, dates, places and details.  Don't follow others out onto a shaky limb.

The Basics of Fact Checking

I am constantly amazed by some of the errors and misinformation I find in online trees.  So many people make assumptions, ignore the basics of biology and put their (clearly incorrect) family trees online for others to copy - and the copiers accept their incorrect data without questioning errors which should be clear.

So without mentioning names or pointing fingers, here are some of the more eye-popping errors I have come across that really should leap out at researchers.

• Children cannot be born before their parents.  Really.  It just isn't possible.
• Children also cannot be born to a mother who is 6 years old.  Or 94 years old.  Again, just not possible.
• Children are highly unlikely to be born to a father who is 89 years old.  While this MAY be biologically possible, it is unlikely and deserves a bit of fact checking.
• A child cannot be christened 4 months before they are born.
• A woman cannot marry 3 years after she has died.
• A man cannot enlist in the army 5 years after he has died.
• No one can die in the decade before they are born.
• Full siblings cannot be born 4 months apart.  While medical technology may be making this possible today, it really wasn't possible in the 1840s.
• Travel takes time, especially before the age of the airplane.  In 1883 a child could not be born in England and christened in Australia 5 days later.  Something in this timeline is wrong.
• Yes, people do move around.  But they will not usually have three children born on three different continents in three years.

I can hear people laughing out there at some of these errors, but I've seen each of them included in online trees.  And believe me, getting these errors corrected can be next to impossible.

So the next time you are looking at an online tree that intersects with your family, remember to treat it with a degree of skepticism.  Always be aware of the limitations of basic chronology and biology.  Families, for the most part, follow common sense arcs and exceptions are not that common.  Look for corroborating evidence - and this does not mean another online tree that has probably copied the same errors.