Everyone in our DNA studies must have a free wikitree account and add your line being studied so we can connect your family to the large collaborative family tree we are building on wikitree and so we can add significant DNA-verifications to your profile. There are NO costs associated with wikitree. The process can look overwhelming but it is simple when taken step by step.

To set up your wikitree profile, go to Wikitree and click on "Get Started" toward the bottom.

Fill in just your first and last name, a password and an email address. Save your password because you will use your email and password to log in to wikitree. At some point the system will likely ask if you are one of the people already on wikitree with the same or a similar name (someone may have already set up an account for you).

After you create your profile, wikitree will send you an automated message titled Wikitree Email Address Confirmation which includes a link for you to confirm your email address. Click on that confirmation link. You are now a Guest member. To become a full member, click on the upgrade button on the top right to sign the Honor Code. Because you are participating in our DNA study(s), will be interacting with many new cousins and discovering new lines, we suggest you make the following choices:

  1. Communication: select interested in communicating with anyone.
  2. Family Tree: select wikitree because at a minimum you will add your studied line on wikitree.
  3. Testing: select every company and type of testing you have taken. The specific data will be added later.
  4. Tags:add the surnames being studied with us, including variant spellings as separate tags, to get daily info on new ancestors added, cousins joining, data changed for your line. Enter "DNA" as a tag to learn more about that topic. Add any other surnames or topics in which you are interested.

 

The next step is to add your DNA testing types and GEDMATCH NUMBER:
--On your profile page on the upper right move your mouse over the "surname-xxxx" button and select "DNA" from the drop-down list. At the top of the next page click on the "DNA Tests" button and enter each company/type of test you have taken. (You do NOT load DNA results on wikitree.) Then click on "Edit Or Enter More Details" button and on the next page enter your alpha-numeric Gedmatch ID and click on the "Save Details" button.

 

The next step is PRIVACY. At the top of your wikitree profile page you will see a tab called Privacy. Click on the Privacy tab and set your privacy level to Public Biography and Tree so everyone can see your first and last name, birth decade, biography and tree. What the public will see will be your name, the decade in which you were born, and your lineage. If you do not set this Public Biography and Tree privacy level no one can see your profile; it will just say Living (Surname). Use the same setting for any living relative who is full member on the same line on which our study focuses; no data shows for guest members.

 

Adding Your Lineage for the Study:

On your main wikitree profile page, click on Edit. This edit page is where you can change any information anyone already put in about you or your family members or add new data. Notice that under your info boxes are choices to make each of these items (name, dates, locations, etc) either Certain, Estimated. For data for which you have a record source for you or your ancestors you can mark the item as certain.

On your edit page, on the top right click on either Add Father or Add Mother (which ever is on the line studied) and you will be on a page just like the one you filled out for you. Either add your parent's profile number (example: my profile number is Winslett-23) in your parent's info box or if your parent is not already on wikitree, using the same process as you did on your page, create your parent's profile.When you complete your parent's profile, go to their edit page and add their parent who is on the line for the DNA Study. This is the last time you can use the phrase that you "knew this person" for their source IF you were alive when they were alive. 

Add your ancestors for the specific family line, stopping to connect where you find someone has already added your ancestor to avoid creating a duplicate. When you find someone has already put in your next generation ancestor, use the same Add Father / Add Mother button but only type in the profile number of the person, such as Winslett-23, and then save that data.  If you accidentally create a duplicate, you cannot delete the profile and will need to merge it with the previous profile. We can help you.

If you decide to upload a gedcom to wikitree consider any large trees a portion at a time. The functionality to move trees from familysearch.org to wikitree appears to upload cleanly and hopefully other gedcom sources will soon follow suit.

 

Sources are Records:

A key difference between wikitree and other genealogy websites is that a RECORD is required to be added as a source for the person. For each ancestor you add include a specific RECORD as a source such as a census, birth, marriage, death or probate record. For example: Year: 1860; Census Place: Western Division, Tallapoosa, Alabama; Roll: M653_25; Page: 284; Family History Library Film: 803025.

The quick and easy way to find records is scroll to the bottom of the profile and use RootsSearch.

You cannot list a tree or ancestry.com or familysearch.org a source because those are not records. You cannot say you have first hand knowledge about people who died before you were born. Using tombstones and find-a-grave reports should only be used as a next to last resort. Stating your source is an unsourced tree handed down to you is the same as saying the profile is unsourced. An example of a well-sourced profile is Stephen Weathers, although one marriage certificate or census will work. If you are sourcing yourself or your parents you can state the source is your personal knowledge using this format, substituting your profile number and name for mine: Personal knowledge of [[Winslett-23|Virginia Winslett]]

As you have time add other lines to wikitree so you can collaborate with other researchers and discover other lines where you match within our DNA studies and lines totally new to you.

 

Short Cuts. Over time, check out all the items under the top right dropdown menus on your profile. Want to know how we are related: Relationships.  Want to add a record source to someone: RootsSearch.  Want to know your X chromosome inheritance lineage: check under DNA testing.  Want to know how you are doing: Look at Suggestions and you will see questions about the work you have done or about your ancestors.

 

DNA Painter:

It's a great idea to track your matches in a free DNAPainter.com account.  To link your DNAPainter account to your wikitree profile, go to your DNA Painter settings and turn the share option on; change the DNA Painter ID 5e62f1db80b31200 to your public DNA Painter ID in the following code; add the code to your wikitree profile page (used with permission of Peter Roberts)

{{Image|file=DNA_Portal_for_Peter_Roberts-7085-1.jpg|size=500|label=DNA Painter 10/10/2017|link=https://dnapainter.com/profile/view/5e62f1db80b31200}}

 

Newsletter:

If you missed setting up your news feed Tags, you can do it now. On the top left of your profile, click on Following, add the Surnames you are researching and a couple of words as to why in the NEXT box. Save. Then add the tag DNA and a couple of words why. Save. Results appear immediately. You will get a daily report if there has been any action involving your topics or you can set this to another frequency in settings. Caution: if you let this daily or weekly report go into junk mail and your email service provider tells wikitree, your wikitree account will be closed because wikitree must cooperate with service providers.

 

Ask us or one of your wikitree greeters posting on the bottom of your profile for help as soon as you get stuck. Wikitree also provides a new member tutorial https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Category:New_Member_How-To

Because some of our studies have been underway for years, we have experienced deaths among the participants and their families. In the case of a family member's death, before you add a death date to the profile, send an email to info@wikitree.com to let them know a family member died and another family member on wikitree or one of the study leaders will be responsible for the deceased person's profile and any profiles they managed. If no manager is appointed for their private profiles, the profiles will be deleted when wiktree closes the account. Wikitree also recommends adding an Advance Directive to profiles of living members so wikitree management will know what you would have wanted done with your research. This is particularly pertinent for members who manage hundreds of profiles. Advance Directive examples are on wikitree.