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'''WikiTree''' is a [[List of genealogy databases|genealogy website]] that allows users to research and to contribute to their own [[family tree]]s while building and collaborating on a singular worldwide family tree within the same system.<ref name=Jacobs>{{cite book |author1=[[A. J. Jacobs|Jacobs, A. J.]] |title=It's all relative : adventures up and down the world's family tree |date=2017 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York |pages=6, 132, 157 |isbn=978-1-4767-3449-1 |access-date=11 August 2023 |url=https://archive.org/details/itsallrelativead0000jaco/}}</ref><ref name=Paton>{{cite book |last1=Paton |first1=Chris |title=Sharing Your Family History Online: A Guide for Family Historians |date=2021 |publisher=Pen and Sword Family History |isbn=9781526780300}}</ref><ref name="Fire">{{cite arXiv|last1= Fire |first1= Michael |last2=Chesney |first2=Thomas |author-link2=Thomas Chesney |last3=Elovici |first3=Yuval |author-link3=Yuval Elovici |title= Quantitative Analysis of Genealogy Using Digitised Family Trees|date= 2014-09-02|class= cs.SI |eprint= 1408.5571|display-authors= etal}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last= Rifkin |first= Jesse | title= Massive Genealogy Project Shows We Are Family—Literally |work= [[The Daily Beast]] |url= http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/06/07/massive-genealogy-project-shows-we-are-family-literally.html |date= 2015-06-07}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author1=Woods, Dan |author2=Thoeny, Peter |title=Wikis For Dummies |date=2007 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1118050668 |page=300 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5VXgXlU7g-YC&pg=PA300 |access-date=4 August 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Engler |first1=Sarah |title=Finding your roots |url=https://www.cnn.com/2013/09/10/living/real-simple-finding-your-roots/index.html |access-date=4 August 2023 |work=Real Simple |agency=CNN |date=10 Sep 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=OKC-area events, news: Christmas in the Park; Broadway comes to OKC and more |url=https://www.oklahoman.com/story/lifestyle/2022/11/16/oklahoma-city-metro-area-happenings-news-and-events/69622284007/ |access-date=4 August 2023 |agency=The Oklahoman |date=4 Aug 2022 |location=Oklahoma City, Oklahoma}}</ref> WikiTree is free for the user and financed via advertisements displayed to unregistered users.<ref name="FTMPodcast2023">{{cite web |author1=Cooke, Lisa |title=101 Best Websites: WikiTree.com |url=https://familytreemagazine.com/podcasts/episode56/ |website=FamilyTree Magazine |access-date=4 August 2023 |format=Podcast |date=January 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Cooke |first1=Lisa |title=What is WikiTree with Founder Chris Whitten |url=https://lisalouisecooke.com/2023/03/22/what-is-wikitree/ |website=Genealogy Gems |access-date=4 August 2023 |format=Blog |date=22 Mar 2023}}</ref><ref name=Kennett>{{cite book |author1=Kennett, Debbie |author2=Pomery, Chris |title="DNA and Social Networking: A Guide to Genealogy in the Twenty-First Century" |date=2011 |publisher=The History Press |location=Cheltenham, United Kingdom |page=189 |isbn=9780752472706 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6xITDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT189 |access-date=4 August 2023}}</ref> WikiTree is owned and hosted by founder's company Interesting.com, Inc.<ref name="valenzuela">{{cite web|last= Valenzuela|first= Robyn|title= WikiTree App Review|publisher= AppAppeal|date= 2012-07-12|url= http://wikitree.appappeal.com/|access-date= 2014-08-15|archive-date= 2014-09-23|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140923024330/http://wikitree.appappeal.com/|url-status= dead}}</ref>
'''WikiTree''' is a [[List of genealogy databases|genealogy website]] that allows users to research and to contribute to their own [[family tree]]s while building and collaborating on a singular worldwide family tree within the same system.<ref name=Jacobs>{{cite book |author1=[[A. J. Jacobs|Jacobs, A. J.]] |title=It's all relative : adventures up and down the world's family tree |date=2017 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York |pages=6, 132, 157 |isbn=978-1-4767-3449-1 |access-date=11 August 2023 |url=https://archive.org/details/itsallrelativead0000jaco/}}</ref><ref name=Paton>{{cite book |last1=Paton |first1=Chris |title=Sharing Your Family History Online: A Guide for Family Historians |date=2021 |publisher=Pen and Sword Family History |isbn=9781526780300}}</ref><ref name="Fire">{{cite arXiv|last1= Fire |first1= Michael |last2=Chesney |first2=Thomas |author-link2=Thomas Chesney |last3=Elovici |first3=Yuval |author-link3=Yuval Elovici |title= Quantitative Analysis of Genealogy Using Digitised Family Trees|date= 2014-09-02|class= cs.SI |eprint= 1408.5571|display-authors= etal}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last= Rifkin |first= Jesse | title= Massive Genealogy Project Shows We Are Family—Literally |work= [[The Daily Beast]] |url= http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/06/07/massive-genealogy-project-shows-we-are-family-literally.html |date= 2015-06-07}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author1=Woods, Dan |author2=Thoeny, Peter |title=Wikis For Dummies |date=2007 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1118050668 |page=300 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5VXgXlU7g-YC&pg=PA300 |access-date=4 August 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Engler |first1=Sarah |title=Finding your roots |url=https://www.cnn.com/2013/09/10/living/real-simple-finding-your-roots/index.html |access-date=4 August 2023 |work=Real Simple |agency=CNN |date=10 Sep 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=OKC-area events, news: Christmas in the Park; Broadway comes to OKC and more |url=https://www.oklahoman.com/story/lifestyle/2022/11/16/oklahoma-city-metro-area-happenings-news-and-events/69622284007/ |access-date=4 August 2023 |agency=The Oklahoman |date=4 Aug 2022 |location=Oklahoma City, Oklahoma}}</ref> WikiTree is free for the user and financed via advertisements displayed to unregistered users.<ref name="FTMPodcast2023">{{cite web |author1=Cooke, Lisa |title=101 Best Websites: WikiTree.com |url=https://familytreemagazine.com/podcasts/episode56/ |website=FamilyTree Magazine |access-date=4 August 2023 |format=Podcast |date=January 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Cooke |first1=Lisa |title=What is WikiTree with Founder Chris Whitten |url=https://lisalouisecooke.com/2023/03/22/what-is-wikitree/ |website=Genealogy Gems |access-date=4 August 2023 |format=Blog |date=22 Mar 2023}}</ref><ref name=Kennett>{{cite book |author1=Kennett, Debbie |author2=Pomery, Chris |title="DNA and Social Networking: A Guide to Genealogy in the Twenty-First Century" |date=2011 |publisher=The History Press |location=Cheltenham, United Kingdom |page=189 |isbn=9780752472706 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6xITDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT189 |access-date=4 August 2023}}</ref> WikiTree is owned and hosted by founder's company Interesting.com, Inc.<ref name="valenzuela">{{cite web|last= Valenzuela|first= Robyn|title= WikiTree App Review|publisher= AppAppeal|date= 2012-07-12|url= http://wikitree.appappeal.com/|access-date= 2014-08-15|archive-date= 2014-09-23|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140923024330/http://wikitree.appappeal.com/|url-status= dead}}</ref>


{{As of|2023|07}}, the WikiTree website claimed to have more than 1 million registered members including more than 35 million profiles of people, with nearly 12 million profiles of people who should share a detectable amount of DNA with tested site members, their deceased relatives, or those whose remains have been tested posthumously.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1608820/ |title=WikiTree surpasses 35 million profiles! |last=Buch |first=Tommy |website=WikiTree |access-date=4 Aug 2023 |date=July 15, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1577271/ |title=1,000,000 members passed at 8:57 a.m. Eastern US! |last=Sheppard |first=Pip |website=WikiTree |access-date=4 Aug 2023 |date=May 5, 2023}}</ref> ''GenealogyInTime Magazine'' listed WikiTree as the 15th most popular [[genealogy]] site (out of 100) {{as of | 2016 | January | alt = in January 2016}} (the most recent time the magazine produced such a list).<ref>
{{As of|2023|07}}, the WikiTree website claimed that the site had more than 1 million registered members and contained more than 35 million profiles of people, with nearly 12 million profiles of people who should share a detectable amount of DNA with tested site members, their deceased relatives, or those whose remains have been tested posthumously.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1608820/ |title=WikiTree surpasses 35 million profiles! |last=Buch |first=Tommy |website=WikiTree |access-date=4 Aug 2023 |date=July 15, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1577271/ |title=1,000,000 members passed at 8:57 a.m. Eastern US! |last=Sheppard |first=Pip |website=WikiTree |access-date=4 Aug 2023 |date=May 5, 2023}}</ref> ''GenealogyInTime Magazine'' listed WikiTree as the 15th most popular [[genealogy]] site (out of 100) {{as of | 2016 | January | alt = in January 2016}} (the most recent time the magazine produced such a list).<ref>
{{cite web
{{cite web
|title= Top 100 Genealogy Websites for 2016
|title= Top 100 Genealogy Websites for 2016

Revision as of 17:42, 16 August 2023

WikiTree
Type of businessPrivately-held company
Founded2008
HeadquartersNew York, New York, U.S.
Founder(s)Chris Whitten
PresidentChris Whitten
IndustryGenealogy, social media
URLwikitree.com

WikiTree is a genealogy website that allows users to research and to contribute to their own family trees while building and collaborating on a singular worldwide family tree within the same system.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] WikiTree is free for the user and financed via advertisements displayed to unregistered users.[8][9][10] WikiTree is owned and hosted by founder's company Interesting.com, Inc.[11]

As of July 2023, the WikiTree website claimed that the site had more than 1 million registered members and contained more than 35 million profiles of people, with nearly 12 million profiles of people who should share a detectable amount of DNA with tested site members, their deceased relatives, or those whose remains have been tested posthumously.[12][13] GenealogyInTime Magazine listed WikiTree as the 15th most popular genealogy site (out of 100) in January 2016 (the most recent time the magazine produced such a list).[14] As of July 2023, SimilarWeb ranked WikiTree as eighth in total worldwide web traffic among "Ancestry and Genealogy" websites, with visitor statistics including an average visit duration of more than 10 minutes and an average of 10.5 page views per visit.[15]

The site uses a wiki markup language (powered by a fork of the MediaWiki software) that offers users the ability to create and edit personal profiles, categories and "free space" pages to document family history. The concept of a shared family tree can also be found at My Heritage's geni.com, FamilySearch's FamilyTree, and WeRelate, a shared tree supported by Indiana's Allen County Public Library which is also based on MediaWiki.

History

Chris Whitten, the founder of WikiAnswers (originally FAQFarm), developed WikiTree in 2005,[16][8] inviting users personally to the site, starting in early 2008.[8]

WikiTree.com officially opened to the public in November 2008.[2] Users needed to be added to "Trusted Lists" (introduced in 2009) for ancestor profiles in order to make any edits.[10] All people born over 200 years ago were to be set to "Open".[8]

Upload of GEDCOM files were accepted to the website starting in 2010.[10] In 2012, the upload of GEDCOM files was halted due to issues with users not collaborating on shared ancestors but instead uploading their own duplicates. The formation of projects, and the technology, policies, and style rules around merging duplicate profiles were introduced to handle this issue.[8] GEDCOM downloads were enabled in 2013.[17]

The suggestion for an "honor code" was from member and professional genealogist, Pat Richley-Erickson, and was introduced in 2011.[18] The nine points of the honor code cover; collaboration, accuracy, privacy, copyrights, credit, citing sources, shared mission of "keep information as free and open as possible", "assume that mistakes are unintentional", and "being courteous to everyone".[19][20]

In 2015, the Global Family Reunion Project was established, a tie-in to a worldwide family genealogy event that was hosted by author A.J. Jacobs.[21] The Global Family Reunion took place at the New York Hall of Science, located in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Queens, on June 6, 2015. WikiTree "relationship finder" tools were available to members to calculate their genealogical connections to Jacobs.[22]

In March 2017, a new rule about automatically opening all profiles of people born 150+ or died 100+ years ago was discussed and put in place in April 2017.[23][24]

Features

The site's goal is to have one profile for every person, whether living or dead. Duplicate profiles are supposed to be merged and the information is consolidated, connecting different family branches in the process.[25]

WikiTree's privacy controls allow users to protect their personal information, and that of their more recent ancestors and descendants, while providing the ability to publicly share and collaborate on historical data related to their more distant forebears.[1][26][27]

DNA testing and confirmation

Registered users can provide information about their autosomal DNA tests and to link their WikiTree profile pages to autosomal DNA data packages they have uploaded at the GEDmatch website. GEDmatch publishes links to the WikiTree family trees of individuals who use this feature.[28] Tools on the WikiTree website automatically display persons who took autosomal DNA tests and are within 3rd cousins of each other, allowing the display of several generations of ancestors and descendants who could have contributed to or inherited portions of a person's X chromosome(s), and allow Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA test results to be associated with the position of each father and mother in a person's family tree.[29]

Reception

Researchers in the fields of social and genealogical sciences have made use of WikiTree's data repository. Dr. Michael Fire, Faculty of the Department of Software and Information Systems Engineering at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, utilized the genealogical data available on WikiTree to analyze historical lifespan patterns. Among other results, it was discovered that the average lifespan of females born in the United States and living beyond the age of ten increased significantly from 62.66 years in 1850 to 72.5 years in 1900.[30]

Further research by Dr. Fire, in a joint project with Thomas Chesney, the Nottingham University Business School, and Yuval Elovici ventured into the realm of computational genealogy. Capitalizing on WikiTree's family tree data for quantitative analysis, this study aimed to develop and scrutinize hypotheses related to various aspects of human ancestry. The research delved into a wide range of quantitative analyses, encompassing population sex ratios, marriage trends, fertility rates, lifespan patterns, the occurrence of twins and triplets, migration trends, demographic changes over time, and the intricate connections between historical events and familial relationships.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b Jacobs, A. J. (2017). It's all relative : adventures up and down the world's family tree. New York: Simon & Schuster. pp. 6, 132, 157. ISBN 978-1-4767-3449-1. Retrieved August 11, 2023.
  2. ^ a b Paton, Chris (2021). Sharing Your Family History Online: A Guide for Family Historians. Pen and Sword Family History. ISBN 9781526780300.
  3. ^ a b Fire, Michael; Chesney, Thomas; Elovici, Yuval; et al. (September 2, 2014). "Quantitative Analysis of Genealogy Using Digitised Family Trees". arXiv:1408.5571 [cs.SI].
  4. ^ Rifkin, Jesse (June 7, 2015). "Massive Genealogy Project Shows We Are Family—Literally". The Daily Beast.
  5. ^ Woods, Dan; Thoeny, Peter (2007). Wikis For Dummies. John Wiley & Sons. p. 300. ISBN 978-1118050668. Retrieved August 4, 2023.
  6. ^ Engler, Sarah (September 10, 2013). "Finding your roots". Real Simple. CNN. Retrieved August 4, 2023.
  7. ^ "OKC-area events, news: Christmas in the Park; Broadway comes to OKC and more". Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The Oklahoman. August 4, 2022. Retrieved August 4, 2023.
  8. ^ a b c d e Cooke, Lisa (January 2013). "101 Best Websites: WikiTree.com" (Podcast). FamilyTree Magazine. Retrieved August 4, 2023.
  9. ^ Cooke, Lisa (March 22, 2023). "What is WikiTree with Founder Chris Whitten" (Blog). Genealogy Gems. Retrieved August 4, 2023.
  10. ^ a b c Kennett, Debbie; Pomery, Chris (2011). "DNA and Social Networking: A Guide to Genealogy in the Twenty-First Century". Cheltenham, United Kingdom: The History Press. p. 189. ISBN 9780752472706. Retrieved August 4, 2023.
  11. ^ Valenzuela, Robyn (July 12, 2012). "WikiTree App Review". AppAppeal. Archived from the original on September 23, 2014. Retrieved August 15, 2014.
  12. ^ Buch, Tommy (July 15, 2023). "WikiTree surpasses 35 million profiles!". WikiTree. Retrieved August 4, 2023.
  13. ^ Sheppard, Pip (May 5, 2023). "1,000,000 members passed at 8:57 a.m. Eastern US!". WikiTree. Retrieved August 4, 2023.
  14. ^ "Top 100 Genealogy Websites for 2016". GenealogyInTime.com. Retrieved February 1, 2017.
  15. ^ "Top Websites Ranking - Most Visited Ancestry and Genealogy Websites". Similarweb.com. Retrieved August 4, 2023.
  16. ^ Finkelstein, Seth (February 11, 2009). "What's in a name? Everything, when you're talking wiki value". Kings Place, London. The Guardian.
  17. ^ Whitten, Chris. "Did you see that you can now export a GEDCOM for an individual tree?", database (https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/ : accessed 4 Aug 2023) Posted Friday, June 7, 2013
  18. ^ Whitten, Chris. "Have you signed the Honor Code?", database (https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/ : accessed 4 Aug 2023) Posted Wednesday, May 2, 2012
  19. ^ WikiTree Contributors. "Wiki Genealogist Honor Code", database (https://www.wikitree.com/ : accessed 4 Aug 2023)
  20. ^ Meece, Mickey (May 18, 2011). "Finding Family History Online". New York Times. Retrieved July 24, 2015.
  21. ^ "Global Family Reunion". Out:think Group. Archived from the original on August 22, 2016.
  22. ^ Lambert, David Allen (June 5, 2015). "Twenty-four degrees of separation". Vita Brevis (blog). New England Historic Genealogical Society. Retrieved August 4, 2023.
  23. ^ Whitten, Chris. "Should all profiles of people born 150+ or died 100+ years ago be Open?", database (https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/ : accessed 4 Aug 2023) Posted Tuesday, March 21, 2017
  24. ^ Whitten, Chris. "Did you see that all profiles of people who were born 150 years ago or who died 100 years ago must now be Open?", database (https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/ : accessed 4 Aug 2023) Posted Friday, April 14, 2017
  25. ^ "Duplicates". WikiTree. Retrieved March 31, 2015.
  26. ^ Komando, Kim (June 3, 2011). "New Ways to Complete Your Family Tree". USA Today. Retrieved July 24, 2015.
  27. ^ Beidler, James M. (June 24, 2012). "Roots and Branches: New genealogical mantra - 'Collaboration'". Lebanon Daily News. Lebanon, Pennsylvania.
  28. ^ "Help:GEDMatch". WikiTree. Retrieved August 17, 2019.
  29. ^ "WikiTree". International Society of Genetic Genealogy Wiki. International Society of Genetic Genealogy. September 5, 2019. Retrieved August 4, 2023.
  30. ^ Fire, Michael; Elovici, Yuval (March 2015). "Data Mining of Online Genealogy Datasets for Revealing Lifespan Patterns in Human Population". ACM Transactions on Intelligent Systems and Technology. 6 (2). Association for Computing Machinery: 1–22. arXiv:1311.4276. doi:10.1145/2700464. S2CID 2742636. Retrieved August 4, 2023.

External links

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