WikiTree Review

WikiTree review

I have recently wandered into and became a member of the WikiTree website. This particular wiki is supposed to become a vast connected family tree that anyone can use and enjoy. This website is free and fast, two very uncommon traits in genealogy on the web.

There are privacy features built in to protect living and the immediate ancestors of living people. This is a definite +. When you start your contribution to the tree you become the manager of the people who are your direct ancestors, you can then chose to give trusted access to the individuals who you would like to help you fill in information or add to the tree.

When you look at the profile of a person you will see a green lock or a yellow unlocked lock in the upper right corner. If the lock is green it indicates the person is living or has a living child, spouse, sibling, or parent. It is a protected profile, only the bare bones is available for viewing on this page.

If the lock is yellow that indicates that it is a public profile and you can see all the information included by the people on the trusted list of that person. This information may include a biography or outside links to websites dealing with that person.

The interface is pretty simple and mostly intuitive, there are a few little quirks that need to be ironed out but on the whole I like it.

I haven’t been able to experiment with merging with a stranger’s tree yet, I have only found one family that matches any that I have researched and am still waiting for the approval or rejection of my request to become a trusted member of that person.

The handling of a woman’s maiden name is a bit strange, she is generally known by her married name, which is opposite of how I tend to think of female’s in genealogy. Which leads into a strange little bug (at least I think of it as a bug) if you make Jane Smith and add a husband to her, John Doe, he becomes John Smith instead of keeping his original name intact. You just need to either put his name in both the name at birth box and the name after married box and he can retain his macho image by not taking the wife’s last name.

Each person page has a little comments section so as people surf the tree they can leave notes about a person that the original creator may not have known.

The number of active users is small yet, under 7,500 the last time I checked, but hopefully it will grow. We just need to throw a little fertilizer on that WikiTree.

The managers of the site seem to be available and open to suggestions and comments.

One thing that might end up being a stumbling block to the site is the lack of a “source” feature, most people I have dealt with in researching my own extended family asks what your source was, or where did you find this information. You can add links into an individual persons profile but adding the same links to everyone could get annoying after awhile. I have not been putting sources on my information, I figure I’ll go back if a source feature is added and put them in.

My experiences with the site have been positive, I have enjoyed putting people into the tree, although I’ve gotta admit I prefer adding people to adding dates. I’m working on that though.

I have only been a user of the WikiTree for about a week, as I use the site and gain more experience with it I will update this little WikiTree Review.