WikiTree - family tree

[*kazumi*]

Does anybody here know anything about the WikiTree site.  i have done my tree on Ancestory and My Heritage, but they all keep sending huge bills if you want to be able to access your tree.  Then I found WikiTree, which is free, but I am having problems working with it.  Just wondering if anybody uses it, and if they find it good or not.

[flashie*]

I have never used Wikitree.

I am presuming you can upload your tree to it.

You should still be able to access your tree on Ancestry even without being a paid member.

You jsut wont be able to see the attached records or make changes.

[flashie*]

Tribal pages is free too.

https://www.tribalpages.com/

[*kazumi*]

I started with Ancestry, and when I did not pay, I was not able to do anything much, so that is useless.  Then I went to My Heritage and that was great  for connecting with other trees from Europe; I found living relatives (3rd - 5th cousins) I had no idea existed, and was able to acquire from them photos/portraits, and info about our ancestors.  But the cost is going up and up every year, and once I stop paying my access will be limited to few hundred entries.  I have there few thousands. 
There is a way to move the info in bulk, but to do that they want m install something on my computer, and I am not sure I should (it's only $10) but I just do not have a good feeling about it.  That is why I am asking if anybody uses this site. 

I meanwhile I transferred manually my 4 generations simple tree, just straight parents, grandparents etc., no siblings, cousins, aunts, and it is so difficult, once you make a simple mistake, changing it takes ages and half the time it then defaults to the mistake. 

[flashie*]

This site if fantastic.

It is also free.............but you will have to join.

They are volunteers who give great advice...........and can help you with moving your tree.

They also can help with any brickwalls you have.

https://www.familytreeforum.com/forum.php

[springyzone]

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@*kazumi* wrote:

Does anybody here know anything about the WikiTree site.  i have done my tree on Ancestory and My Heritage, but they all keep sending huge bills if you want to be able to access your tree.  Then I found WikiTree, which is free, but I am having problems working with it.  Just wondering if anybody uses it, and if they find it good or not.

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I had not heard of it but must have a look.

I'm on ancestry and here's a hint if you ever do want to rejoin.

If you go for a more expensive plan at any stage, don't renew it. Downgrade before if becomes due, tick for a cheaper plan.

I've found that they offer you the dearer option at half price either soon afterwards or the next year.

It annoys me to tell the truth because I would like to see things work the other way-that their steady customers could eg pre pay for 2 or 3 years at half price. It just grates on me that newbies get the specials.

But anyway, whatever site you join, get your DNA done. I had mine done with ancestry and it is marvellous, gives you contacts, confirms links etc, especially if you link it to a tree. I don't think you have to continue to be a member proper to access the DNA section.

[*kazumi*]

Thanks for the tips.  I had the DNA done through  My Heritage, and they also keep sending me names of supposedly related people, but as 90% of them are in Israel (and they do not respond to my emails), i am not so sure about the veracity of that test - I cannot see anybody Jewish in all the generations that I personally researched through digitized birth/marriage/death records.  Unless that just shows that many of the people living in Israel are not really much Jewish at all.  Also I am being told that I have distant cousins in Russia, but those who replied to my emails could not find any family connections either.  I am thinking about getting another company do my DNA again. 

[*kazumi*]

Thanks, I might try that

[springyzone]

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@*kazumi* wrote:

Thanks for the tips.  I had the DNA done through  My Heritage, and they also keep sending me names of supposedly related people, but as 90% of them are in Israel (and they do not respond to my emails), i am not so sure about the veracity of that test - I cannot see anybody Jewish in all the generations that I personally researched through digitized birth/marriage/death records.  Unless that just shows that many of the people living in Israel are not really much Jewish at all.  Also I am being told that I have distant cousins in Russia, but those who replied to my emails could not find any family connections either.  I am thinking about getting another company do my DNA again. 

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About 60% of the people on my ancestry DNA matches are not attached to any family tree.

Occasionally I get a message that will say-how am I related to you, it is showing we are 4th cousins 

My answer is always polite but basically it comes down to-How on earth would I know? Tell me some family surnames, here are some of mine, anything ring a bell?

But on the other hand, many people do have a tree and if there is a matching person on the tree, ancestry shows it.

So in that way, I have been able to verify some family tree connections going way back plus meet some new distant cousins.

The most useful tab though is one I didn't really understand the value of for ages. It is one called 'shared connections'.

It sometimes works briliantly on people who have no family tree.

For example, say I find a distant cousin who has an ancestor or ancestors in common on their family tree.

I can then click on 'shared matches' and it will show who else we both have DNA in common with. Even if the shared matches don't have any family tree connected with their name.

But what it does is you can see at a glance where they must be connected eg your mother's or father's line and which branch.

The reason I quite like ancestry is because it is popular & a lot of people are on it.

It has been brilliant for me because some of the people I have connected to have done extra research for me. One found the family tree for one of my grandfathers. It was one of the most exciting moments, hard to describe, as we had been looking for decades, felt like hitting a brick wall, then suddenly there was an answer. I was just disappointed my mother wasn't alive to share it with.

[*kazumi*]

people

I did not see any tab for "connections" in the My heritage DNA results.  When contacting people, I always said something like, I was sent your name and contact because according to our DNA we are 4th cousins, I would like to see how we are connected, my ancestors come from XYZ  do you have any ancestors from there ................etc.

Only one man from Russia replied and he said he has his tree done back to middle ages and all the people are from Russia as far as he can see.  Of-course, one of his ancestor's siblings could have moved west to Europe.

I started with Ancestry but as my ancestors are all from Europe I could not find anything on there.  As soon as I joined My Heritage I found relatives.  Even now, I pay the highest subscription and that makes it possible to access some info from other sites.  What come from Ancestry is all about  with similar names living in America.  The only thing relevant I found is for my cousin, who is American, and I was able to find shipping details of her parents traveling across to America, with her older sister and 56 suitcases  (!!!), and their American address.  Interesting how much can simple entry in travelling document tell about people.