I can correct serious errors for John Silas Allen

Question

This is site extremely cumbersome and NOT user-friendly.

The corrected linage for John Silas Allen is as follows:

Archibald Allen Sr., Archibald Allen Jr., John Peter Allen, Micajah Allen, John Silas Allen, David Robuck Allen, James Henry Allen, Walter L. Allen Sr., Walter L. Allen Jr., John H. Allen (me).  Also you have John Silas Allen buried in the wrong cemetery.  He is in Salem Baptist Church Cemetery, Fairview Community, Itawamba County, Miss.  I cannot find how to send this information.  The pink box below is a total mystery to me.

Comments

Remember that you should be ready to post the sources for the changes that you think should be made.

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Is that profile on Wikitree yet?  I don't find one that matches the dates on the Find a Grave page of 1816 - 1888

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/75842502/john-silas-allen

Answer 1

John, welcome to WikiTree.  I see that you are a guest member.  You should receive a message from one of our greeters very soon with information about how to get started using WikiTree.

You will have to upgrade your membership, first to family member and then, when you sign our Honor Code, you will be a full-fledged member and able to edit all profiles with "open" privacy (all membership here is totally free).  That will be explained by messages from a greeter every step of the way.

You don't "send" information here - you edit a profile to enter it and I'm sorry, but I have no idea what pink box you mentioned.

Just hang in there - greeters are very fast to welcome new members - it should only be a matter of minutes before you hear from one.  We're glad to have you with us!

Comments

This is the most complicated site I've ever seen.  PLEASE do a usability test with 20 or so innocent non-users.  When they encounter problems (as they all will), make a note to fix the difficulty.  I expect there will be many.

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I'm the wrong one to ask for this.  I am an ordinary member, just like you, except that I've been using WikiTree for several years, so I'm pretty good at knowing how to do a lot of stuff here.  If you want to get in touch with the people who run the site, you can either send email to info @ wikitree.com (without the spaces) or on the menu at top right of every WikiTree page, under Help, choose WikiTree team to see who they are and contact a specific one of them.

WikiTree is huge, with many thousands of members all over the world, so it is quite active 24 hours per day.  There is a very small group of people who administer the site, so they cannot possibly handle all the questions that come up.  It is all the members, who help each other, on a purely volunteer basis.

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Thanks, Gaile Connolly.

Answer 2

Welcome aboard, John!

Wikitree can be daunting at first but take things one step at a time and you will be up to speed very soon.

You are most welcome to correct any mistakes on profiles once you have upgraded and understand the Wikitree system (with sources, of course). Don't worry, we were all beginners once and I am sure you can learn the ropes, too.

Come back here to the forum if you have any questions along the way. You will find the Wikitree community friendly and helpful.

Comments

Y'all need a tutorial to teach people how to negotiate this extremely complicated site.  Also, I can never get used to receiving "no-reply" emails from organizations, who apparently don't want to be communicated with.

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John, I think the "no-reply" emails you're talking about are the notices you get every time someone answers or comments on a question that you are participating in.  These are automatically generated and no action is necessary on your part, although you might want to click the link in the email to see the question in case you want to add another comment or answer.  If you don't want to get them, you can adjust your settings for what types of mail you want to receive from WikiTree (or none, if that's your preference).

There are several tutorials and videos especially to introduce new members to using the site.  If they haven't already done so, the greeters will be sending you links to these and they are also available to help you every step of the way.  In addition, you already found G2G where literally thousands of members all over the world participate and share their knowledge from their many different areas of expertise.  I'm sure if you have a little patience, everything here will start feeling very natural to you very soon.

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Hi, John --

You can learn more about the site and find a tutorial by going to Help > Intro to WikiTree

There's a video linked there that explains how WikiTree works, and the last section on that page contains a link to a tutorial.

Normally, members get this information once they decide to sign the Honor Code which allows them to participate in all activities on WikiTree (https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Membership).

WikiTree is different than most other genealogy sites in a number of ways. The most important ways are that it's a single family tree with just one profile for each person, and it's also free and run by volunteers with a very small support staff.

You can learn a lot from the other WikiTreers here in G2G. Just take your time and ask lots of questions. :-)

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Thank you, Peggy.  I don't think I have the time to invest in learning this very complicated site.

Answer 3

Welcome, Jon

Don’t give up. I needed a simple way to start as I knew nothing about genealogy trees and sites at the beginning.  (That may have been a blessing as I had no expectation of how it might work.) Sounds like you have a lot of experience, so forgive me if I’m “dumbing it down” too much (but that’s the way I had to start.)

Check out this link:  https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Category:New_Member_How-To

Also, I have great luck going to google and typing WikiTree followed by my question. That usually gets me to the correct “Help” page.

Feel free to be daring. Click in the “pink” box, you’ll probably get a hint as to what it’s for. (I’m not sure where you are seeing it – but you really can’t break anything!)

Looks like you haven’t added any family. Click the edit tab next to your name tab (it’s green on my screen).  Then under edit family, there is “add father,” etc.

I’ve learned WikiTree is different, but in a great way! People are friendly and eager to help. Mistakes are easily fixed and forgiven. There are so many things you can do on WikiTree depending on what you want. There are groups and projects for different interests, places, events, common ancestors, etc. If that's your thing. The best thing is the “One Tree” concept. Once you’ve worked up to connecting to an existing profile for an ancestor, you’ll probably find a lot of information is waiting for you. Your question popped to the top for me because I’ve have a tag for the name “Allen.” Sounds like you’ve done a lot of work. Hope you'll hang around; I'm looking forward to what you can contribute!

Comments

John, Can you edit your questions or add a response with a link to the profile you are referring?  That might help us help you.

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Pamela, you are very kind to offer your help.  Thanks so much.  I am the Allen family genealogist--for years.  I saw some glaring errors someone posted on my lineage and tried to fix it.  That's all.  I am a historian and speaker, so don't have time to invest in trying to learn this cumbersome site.