ADDING TO OTHER PEOPLES MANAGED PROFILES

Question

Hello I have been working on the ROBERTS/MURRAY Tree for over five years and decided to get it into Wikitree.   The problem is I have lots of people that fall into other peoples management and it means sending out loads of requests to add.  Is it ok if you have details that are validated to update without contacting the managers of those people?  Thank you

Comments

Short answer - Yes.

For Open profiles, you don't need permission from a fellow WikiTreer to edit the profiles, with possible exceptions for project-managed profiles. And you don't need to be on the Trusted List to edit Open profiles.

For Privacy-locked profiles, you will need to request access to them. If the managers haven't actively contributed to WikiTree for several months/years, you may need to submit an Unresponsive Profile Managers form to gain access to the profiles.

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If you are adding information or changing information on existing profiles for dates of birth, death, marriage, places of birth, marriage, death, etc. contact the profile manager and state your proposed changes with list of document sources you have that prove the change you wish to make.  If the profile manager is not active only make changes if you have primary or good secondary sources for the information you are adding or changing, and add the sources to the profile so the documents, etc. can be located and viewed by others.  Do not make changes based on information from other sources that are not documented such as family trees, unsourced published family or local histories, etc.

Answer 1

Hi Yvette,

Here's my take on this. If you are adding info with sources or making minor changes, I say, go ahead. If you are making major changes, then contact the profile manager. These would be things like disconnecting parents, changing birth or death details.

Also, you may find there's one or two managers for a whole branch you are working on. If that's the case, just contact them and let them know you are working on the profiles and ask them to contact you, if they have any concerns. You don't need to ask them about each profile or each change.

Other members may be more cautious about this. But so far, I've found this approach works

More info in the help pages:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Profile_Manager#Do_you_have_to_communicate_with_the_manager_before_editing_a_profile.3F

Answer 2

In my opinion the point is to be collaborative with each other. If it looks like the profile is being very actively managed I might contact the profile manager, depending on whether it was a simple addition to the biography supported by a source, or if more major I’d message them first.

However there are lots of profiles that haven’t been changed in 5+ years so in those cases I will just go ahead without asking or discussing. I do usually peek to see when the last time their profile manager did any contributions on WT.

Answer 3

If by 'adding' you mean you have worked back to John Smith son of James Smith and Lucy Brown, and find that James Smith already has a profile, as do his parents and siblings and wife (John's mother) then you just add the existing James and his wife as the father and mother of your John.  If you have more persons to add to this line back that are not yet there (for example you know the wife's mother, and she's not in the tree yet, go ahead and add her).

Answer 4

Personally, I am happy when someone cares enough about one of my managed profiles to contribute any new research information and sources. I know I have a number of Roberts profiles and even a Murray or two that I manage.