Why is connecting the Global Family important?

Question

Hey WikiTreers :)

I'm giving a presentation at the Global Family Reunion in a couple weeks that covers essentially how/why we set out to connect the Global Family.

And then I got curious....

I know why I think it's important but I thought I'd open it up to you guys.  

Why do you think it's important to connect the Global Family? What are the benefits? What's the downside? Why do we do it?

Share what you think and there's a good chance I'll include it!

Answer 1

Aloha!  I am connecting to the Global Family because it is interesting to do the research, to find relatives I never knew and  make contacts around the world and so many other things.

But I think the most important reason is to help everyone in the world understand that we are all one large family.  I see it as a step toward understanding and toward ridding the world of prejudice and fear of others.

 

Answer 2

Yes, what Kristina said, but a couple more reasons for me as well:

As much as I love doing the research to track down new connections, I also love the idea that people in the future won't have to track this all down. As we get information entered and straightened out, it will all stay organized and connected. Future generations won't have to start from scratch sorting through all the individual records, and can browse them in our nifty hyperlinked world instead.

I also feel a connection not only to other people but also to the flow of history. When I see the people in my tree who sailed on the Mayflower, and others who came to the US in the 1880's fleeing pogroms in Europe, it really makes me think about what that upheaval must have been like on a more human level than when I read about those time periods in the abstract. And the more people are connected to the tree, the more opportunities there are to see how all these little bits of history fit together.

Comments

I'll play devil advocate here and comment on this "I also love the idea that people in the future won't have to track this all down." this is the exact reason why there are so many incorrect data being propagated in family trees, people taking information as is without questioning it, and this should be no different with wikitree, the advantage of wikitree though is if we enforce the source rule and if the sources are still available in the future it should be easier for the future generation.

Answer 3

Eowyn,

Perhaps the view of non-genealogists is something you want to address - heaven knows, there is no shortage of them in the world!  Until very recently, I was one, so how they think of a family tree is pretty fresh in my mind and also probably pretty representative.

It never occurred to me that there is such a thing anywhere as "my tree" or "your tree".  I always assumed that the way the world is, is simply one big completely connected tree ... it's just that we don't know what all the connections are.

Bottom line is that having one tree is no more than acknowledgement of reality and is, therefore, an accurate model for how the world really is.

As a postscript, I might add that, having seen the "my tree - your tree" proliferation of replication of the same or divergent data for the same people, plus having seen several G2G posts from newbies who are posessive of "their" family, that only serves to underscore the rightness of the WikiTree way to me.  I had a hard time understanding what all the emphasis on the "one tree" business was all about - it seems like a "given" ... that's about the only thing I was completely comfortable with from the start!!!

Answer 4

The GFR is a great vehicle to make the world a smaller place & to create awareness that we all have common ancestors.