Preview of a new Tree App: One Name Trees

Question

I've been working on a new Tree App for one name studies.  Of course, you don't need a one name study to use it--you just need a surname. Here's my test page: https://apps.wikitree.com/apps/beacall6/tree_apps/#name=Ostermann-1&view=oneNameTrees .  There is lots of information if you click the '?' button.  My favourite thing is if you click the Statistics button and then click the "Most Common Birth Places" button, there's an interesting visualisation of the birth places in each 50-year period.  (I'm not sure how useful it is, but it's kind of fun.)

Please play around with this and let me know if you see any problems or have any suggestions for improvement.

Thanks.

Comments

I'm not seeing a problem...

I hope I was clear that I meant the "Refresh" button in the app and not just your browser's refresh button.

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The weird skipped individual is now sorted after full close and restart of Chrome.  And yes, I did hit the refresh button in the app (and also Chrome and also did a crtrl-F5).  Must have been some form of cache?

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I've been pleased with the One Name Tree application during the week I've been using it. However, I've noticed several inconsistencies that I haven't seen reflected in Comments.

1. The progress bar doesn't always move forward uniformly while the tree is loading. Sometimes it jumps forward and backward multiple times until the tree has loaded. Whether the progress bar advances normally or in forward and backward jumps doesn't appear to affect the result.

2. Occasionally, when clicking on the Statistics button, the statistics open for only a fraction of a second and then close again. Multiple attempts return the same result.

3. There is also an occasional inconsistency in the functioning of the Table button. I've experienced three possible outcomes: 1) there is no indication that anything is happening and the table doesn't open, 2) the moving tree icon appears for a while, but then it disappears and the table doesn´t open, 3) the button works correctly and the table opens normally.

4. Several times, after the list of profiles opens, the Total People number has been incorrect. This morning, for example, the Barnum one name tree opened showing a total of 5138 people, which I know is too low. After closing the program and performing a new search, the total number of people shown was 9685, which is correct.

I realize that this unusual behavior might be related to server overload, and I've always been able to overcome it by restarting the application. I mention it just in case one or more of these items might require programming changes.

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Patrick: Thanks for your comments. I haven't come across issues 2, 3, or 4.  I'll keep my eye open and try to fix them if they come up.  If you can actually reproduce any of them and give me steps to see them, I'll try to fix them.  Thanks.

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I have experienced something similar to what Patrick describes.

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Hilary. If you can actually reproduce any of these problems and give me steps to see them, I'll try to fix them. Thanks.

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Ian, It appears that problems 2, 3, and 4 are related to server overload, as I had suspected. I've applied a bit of patience, waiting longer for all the files to load even after the animated tree icon closes and the list of profile names appears. Since then, those three problems have not been repeated. Thanks for your concern.

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Did the link move ? I get today a blank screen when opening above link ?

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Alexandra:  Sorry.  It should be OK now.

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I am impressed with this thus far but have not used it much yet. I do plan on going through this in more detail. I hope it inspires some discussion and maybe merging of some individuals to make the tree cleaner.

Thanks for your work!

Answer 1

Could an icon be added to show which profiles have DNA data attached?

Also, when I choose to include a location, such as "England", it seems to not return all results I expect to see.  For example, myself "Mark Oliver Tiffany" in a list for "Tiffany" and "England", but I am in the list with no location specified.  If I use the table view, I can see my birth location includes "England"...are you using some other field for this?

Answer 2

Hello Ian,

This looks very good, is it possible to superimpose the resulting profiles on a map.

I always find i can appreciate the significance better if i see a map,

with less than 800 'Entwistle' profiles on WikiTree - they should all fit on one map.

Something like the 'Ancestor Explorer' app by Chase Ashley.

Answer 3

I think the app is working (by default) backwards.

Currently, it is giving me LNAB (last name at birth), CLN (current last name), OLN (other last name(s)) and VARIANTS.

But, I think the default should be LNAB only, with options in settings to give me CLN, OLN(s) and VARIANTS.

Comments

Thank you for your input.

Answer 4

Sorting by location is not clear. mainly because of UK and United Kingdom. If you try to sort by a place, as in Tenterden, then it separates UK and United Kingdom.

Not easy with a string as a field.

Comments

This is why consistency in the database is SO IMPORTANT!

Currently, WikiTree violates database consistency.

Also, we have members on WikiTree who don't care or encourages it. Even more, it's bad genealogy for members to wake up one day and enter locations one way, and then wake up another day and enter locations a different way.

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It's open to the sorting software to fix this. Not hard if you make a lookup table mapping the alternatives to the preferred form.

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The proper fix is to promote and do good genealogy, not writing software to handle bad genealogy.

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Software is meant to serve people, not the other way around. People have different preferences for how they write locations, with their own differing but good reasons for their choices. They shouldn't be forced into uniformity for the sake of software; instead the software should be adapted for their needs.

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Returning to the topic of this answer, what is the member's good reason for saving a profile with UK in the Birth field and United Kingdom in the Death field?

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Being human?  UK is obviously the same as United Kingdom. 

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"UK" aside, an example which sorting software would definitely do well to handle by equating alternatives comes from the England Project location guidelines, which allow people to exercise their preference in choosing either (say)

London, England

or

London, England, United Kingdom

for location fields.

Answer 5

I just gave it a try and like it very much. Thank you for the app

Answer 6

Ian when I go to WikiTree apps and click on surname generators I get an error message. It is not generating for me.

Comments

All WikiTree apps are broken at the moment because of a certificate error. See

https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1723692/anyone-else-getting-error-message-access-research-profile

Answer 7

Hi, Ian, several times I have used Statistics to find bad name locations.  There is one called Bas, which is a typo.  There are 5 of them in the Bourque ONS.  When I click on that, it lists ALL 4,000+ entries regardless of what's in the location.  How is that happening?  This has happened with a few other location names.

Comments

Hi Cindy. There was a bug that was doing that.  I've fixed it now.  But the 5 in 'Bas' are actually my mistake.  It's 5 people with 'Bas Canada' as their country.  My code has read it as a mistake, thinking it should be "Bas, Canada".  My fault.  I'll fix that.  Having said that, it seems that it should be 'Bas-Canada' rather than 'Bas Canada'.  Filter the table with 'Bas Canada' now and you should find them.

Oh... You might want to know that the thing that triggered the bug was the birth place of this person: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Bourque-1367 .

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Thank you for fixing the bug.  Also for letting me know about that profile.  I fixed the location so it shouldn't trigger anything now.  How do you deal with so much detail??  I really appreciate the time you invest.

Answer 8

I think, it is a usefull tool.

But it should be made better, to get the list with similars added, e.g;  Ruoff + Ruff + Ruof

to avoid a to long list, limit the search than by local region and time range.

Comments

The three things you mention are all in the app.  You can do something like "Ruoff, Ruff, Ruof" for the name, and then "Düsseldorf" for a region and "18,19" (for example) for the centuries.  

Answer 9

I have tried out this app and used it to locate candidates for the Chadwick One Name Study that I lead. It works beautifully. My only quibble is that when I look for people with the LNAB of Chadwick (and check the "Only Last Name at Birth" option) it also lists spouses whose married name is Chadwick, but not their LNAB. They are listed as a subheading to the actual LNAB person. I realize that this may be useful for some purposes so I suggest that it be added as an option that can be turned off.

Answer 10

I love the sticker icons next to the profiles. They motivates me to add more stickers. When you get to the modern era at the bottom of the list it would be interesting to see the privacy icon, when the profile is not Open. The value would be to prioritize what I am trying to connect. Kind of in the minor, nice to have area.

Update: And whether they are a guest - though I don't think we have a guest icon.

Comments

The privacy icons are in the table if that's good enough.

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Have not use table view much. Does table have the ability to filter the top level profiles of each segment like like the default list view. Otherwise, there are lots of profiles to wander through.

Location checks are nice amd useful. I will probably not start removing "County" from the County name for profiles I do not manage, though, but that is another discussion about the FamilySearch plugin. USA to United States I probably do. And I did find some locations that need some basic cleanup.

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Take a look.  Just click the 'Table' button.  You can click the table button again to return to the trees.  In the table, you can filter the results on any column.  The table doesn't sort them by ancestor/descendant lines, but you can see all the people easily.

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OK. Thanks. I see the filter fields at the bottom now.

Answer 11

Wow, this is a great new app.  I can see significant uses for it in future. I particularly like the Table view.  Two comments:

# Why is the ID at the top fixed as Ostermann-1?

# I agree that "Name" would better be "Surname" or even WikiTree's confabulation "LNAB".

Well done.  Thanks.

Comments

This is a development page. When it gets added to the Tree Apps, it won't be stuck on one initial ID.

Answer 12

Part 1- I have an odd one. I have not been using the app for a few days. I had been spending time  attached branches to the main tree and made progress I could not have made without this app. I noticed many more profiles were popping up on my tree view today that should not be there as they are children of Porterfields. They were not there a few days ago.

One example: 

- Asahel Walter Porterfield (1896 - 1981), - https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Porterfield-542

Many seem to track back to a problem with John Porterfield (1763–1846)  that married Margaret Clark (it is the only Clark so you can just search for Clark). When you click + next to John (that has 24 - which is too low I believe) Porterfield descendants. He is missing a child John Porterfield, that is clearly a child when you look in normal WT pages:

Comments

Part 2 -

It gets odder. That John appears in the tree as a spouse of his wife Mary Ann Faucett Porterfield (abt.1805–), but without all the descendants.  

These are not new relationships. The Porterfields have been worked on by myself and a couple others in the last month, so the number of Porterfields has crept up, but not in any great percentages. 

Did I hit a load limit on my side? Is there something I am missing on the tree. 

I have done multiple loads, refreshes in the app and I rebooted the PC multiple times. I believe refresh is working as the count on main trunk went from 1124 to 1122 after two merges on the main trunk today. 

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 I noticed many more profiles were popping up on my tree view today that should not be there as they are children of Porterfields.

I don't really understand this.  Why should children of Porterfields not be there?  Are we still talking about putting Porterfield in the name box and hitting 'Go'?

 They were not there a few days ago.

I've made one change in the last few days and that's to get your watchlist and look for any people there with the target surname who are not already on the list due the results from WT+ only giving open profiles.

He is missing a child John Porterfield...

Yes. I see.  I'll try to find out why.

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Did I hit a load limit on my side? Is there something I am missing on the tree. 

No, I guess it's a problem in the code that I need to sort out.  Give me a little time.

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To clarify the comment that they should not be there, I meant to say that they should not be their own trees or at the root or the first level. They should appear when you expand the branch they should have been.

Answer 13

Love the concept.  It certainly has great potential.  Thank you for developing this.  I am sure we can all support you as you debug and perfect your creation.

Thank you so very much for this effort.

Laurie Angel (family surname originally Angle then Engel before that)

Answer 14

I suggest it would be very helpful to list locations for each individual along with the birth and death dates.

Laurie Angel

Comments

The Table view has full birth and death dates and locations.

Also, you can sort the columns and filter the columns for specific data.

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Also, in the standard trees view that you see, you can see the locations for an individual by clicking on their dates.  You can see the locations for everyone by clicking on the + button in the Trees section of buttons and things at the top.

Answer 15

Also, I believe this app will significantly aid in efforts to add family members and connect them to the main WT tree.  The app provides exceptional visibility and members of family units.

Laurie