One Tree
One World
By Kitty Cooper, blogger
Why use a
tree with only one copy of each individual?
COLLABORATION
Help Solving Mysteries
Your cousins may have uploaded photos and documents that you have never seen before.
You no longer have to copy from other trees - there is only one tree
Many of your ancestors may already be in the tree
Do you want your research to be lost forever?
My cousin's wife shredded all his papers after he was gone ...
The best way to share your research with your descendants is to publish it.
Consider your objectives in doing genealogy.
Make a book and/or even better - add your data to one of the one world trees
But I spent lots of money getting those records and doing that research!
But what if people change details I know are right?
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You can freeze profiles on WikiTree
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A curator can make a "master profile" on GENI.
The 3 collaborative trees I use and recommend are FamilySearch, GENI, and Wikitree
GENI tree pedigree view
The tree view with boxes includes a print option. Click the pedigree icon to go to that view
Click a blue circle to see what information is available over on MyHeritage
Click on any person box once for a side panel summary, twice goes to their profile page
The GENI tree has a page of statistics which can be found on the family menu
To get a fan chart from GENI requires a third party app called HistoryLink
FamilySearch has a dynamic tree for the pedigree view, use the arrows to go up and down the tree
The blue icons in the boxes are record matches, the red exclamation icon means something needs fixing
All the trees have fan charts, FamilySearch can color it by country among many other options
the WikiTree family tree
is a basic pedigree view
Click on "Genealogy Research" to see many other options
Clicking on Research gives you many other options for looking at your tree, some with DNA!
The compact tree at WikiTree is great for sharing with relatives and possible relatives since there is no login needed and it is indeed quite compact
If you enter your GEDmatch id at WikiTree then your DNA matches can click straight to that compact tree from the one to many page
The DNA family tree displays at WikiTree can show which descendants or ancestors can have a person's X or Y or mtDNA
WikiTree fan chart colored by country
Tree Displays Summary:
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Only WikiTree has DNA tree display options and connects to GEDmatch
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GENI has the most statistics and a very modern look
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FamilySearch has the easiest tree interface to records and fan chart
What about the profile pages?
Relationship Finders?
Only WikiTree will find multiple relationships
Revision history?
Can you upload a GEDCOM?
Yes but ... best to do small family groups
Each tree has its own way to try and prevent duplicates
FamilySearch has hidden this well ...
At the very bottom of the genealogies page is a submit button
Click it to get to the page where you can upload and view previously uploaded GEDCOMs
On the Upload page you can upload a new tree or copy people from a tree that is "Ready"
Individuals have to be added one by one.
In many cases they will already be in the tree. Those can be updated
Note that you cannot add living people via GEDCOM
WikiTree also will try to match to people already in the tree and will let you add one by one
GENI will let you import a whole branch via GEDCOM if there are no duplicates on that branch
Can you download a GEDCOM?
Yes on GENI but only from profiles you manage, on WikiTree only the trusted list
For FamilySearch, the RootsMagic desktop program can connect your trees
Both WikiTree and GENI have chrome add on tools to copy data for an individual from another site: WikiTree X and SmartCopy
Which Tree Should You Use?
- If DNA and GEDmatch are important to your research then you need to be on WikiTree
- If you have Norwegian or Jewish ancestry then GENI may already have most of your ancestors. If you have many Europeans, it connects to MyHeritage records
- FamilySearch belongs to the LDS church so is the safest bet for preserving your research
I keep a chart of the differences in these trees on my blog