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

Fellows,

Using Microsoft Windows Edge Version 122.0.2365.80 (Official build) (64-bit), and all I get is a blank page.

Any suggestions? Seems that for this to be useful, one should not have to use a browser, other that the one that is part of Windows operating system.

Comments

Yes. Sorry. There may be too much demand or something right now. It's not just this app, but the apps server in general that's not working well.

Answer 2

Love the app. I found one instance where a child was listed out of birth order. Not a huge problem if it's a one-off, but might be annoying if widespread. "Byers" one name tree, Samuel (b.1719, m.Jane (White) Byers), first-listed child (Samuel, Jr, b. abt.1753) listed before William (b.1751.) Low priority issue.

Comments

Thanks. I'll look into that.

Answer 3

Hello I can't get it to work on Firefox for my one name study but the sample one shows a list of projects. Mostly I just have the tree rocking about!

Comments

Right now, the app (and many people trying it out) is overloading the server. Try again another time.

Answer 4

Thanks for all the work, Ian!

I tried it based on myself (Kinney-1938) and didn't see me or my ancestors in it. My earliest ancestors of my paternal line spelled the name "Kinne" Joseph, born in 1780 (kinne-389) added the "y" at the end. I didn't see him in the list. His son Mason (Kinney-1999) isn't there either. Nor is Erastus (Kinney-2000), Will Carleton Sr. (Kinney-2001), and Will Carleton Jr. (Kinney-2003).

Comments

I'll try to look into this. The app has one or two issues to be ironed out.

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Paul.  I found you and your ancestors in the results.  You were not visible as you're in Joseph Kinney's tree.  To see yourself you can select yourself in the Person box at the top.  Or you can go to Joseph and expand his children and their children, etc.  Maybe I've fixed the problem since you wrote here...

About the name variants... If you want to include 'Kinne' in the results, it's easy to do, you can click the button to go to the Google Sheet and add the name variant there, or you can simply put "Kinney, Kinne" in the Name box.

I hope that helps.

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Confirming I found Joseph Kinney in the results. Thanks.

Answer 5

Responded to an email prompt from Wikitree to try the 'One Name Trees' subsite link for our surname (Orme), but nothing comes up after entry, or is otherwise visible...

Comments

Right now, the app (and many people trying it out) is overloading the server. Try again another time.

Answer 6

An interesting concept. A graphical representation would be nice, though, something like a spider web diagram.

Comments

A graphical representation of what exactly?

Answer 7

Ian the app still is not working for me.

Comments

Right now, the app (and many people trying it out) is overloading the server. Try again another time.

Answer 8

I love it.  Still need to do some more exploring.  The birth place line is cool.  I love spreadsheets to work with.  Thanks for your hard work.

Answer 9

Very cool App. Thank You!! I like the table view and ability to sort by columns according to what you are interested in looking at.

Answer 10

I started to use this on my phone and it wanted access to various aspects of the phone, like photos and media. I don't see how that would be necessary, so I stopped right there. Also, I am not a Drummond by bloodline since my grandfather took his stepfather's name, and the name I should be is the most common name in Germany, so I'm not going to risk my phone's security.

Comments

I have no idea why it would ask for access to things either. I don't recommend using this on a phone anyway.

Answer 11

Ian this is very cool! I just poked around briefly but other commenters have a lot of great ideas. Does it populate automatically when new people are added to Wikitree? Or do we have to add them? What about people who are already in WT but not showing up here?

And for other McRaes out there - has anyone thought of trying to document and add as many people as possible to WT from the big McRae book? Most of the people after 1800 should be able to be found.

Comments

It's a good idea to save the data for faster loading next time.  If new people are added to the database, you'll need to refresh the data.  

If people with the surname are on WikiTree but not showing there, it's either an issue I need to fix or a privacy thing.

Answer 12

Ian,

I am not a fan as of yet. Could we perhaps speak via email or a zoom call?

Comments

Feel free to send me an email.

Answer 13

Checked for Howell and Torpey ancestors, found my grandfather.  To me it has a lot of promise

Answer 14

This has come at just the right time for me as I have several hundred one name profiles to add and this will help me seek out any connections with others of the same birth name especially those in another part of the world. Not had time to take in every option of your very promising app yet.

You example table just happens to be for my birth name and doesn't include the Shakespear(e)s without the 'e' so I have just one subject query - name variants - how do the name variants get into your table and what is the table used for? It looks as if I can add them to the Variants spreadsheet myself - is this correct? My birth name isn't in the variants table at the moment, and the variants are important so the ability to add would be useful. Variations may also be an issue as they can go from one to another in a generation, and then back again.

Comments

Yes. Feel free to add name variants to the list. If it's not actually a WT One Name study, please put an 'X' in the Notes column. Another way is to put a comma-separated list of name variants in the Name box.

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Thanks for replying. I have just added a few variants to the table. What outcome should this produce, if any? An ancestor of mine is the Thomas George Shakespeare in your example table. His father was a Shakespear, no 'e', as were several generations before. They still appear in separate tables under their name variants. I am not sure what the purpose of the variant table is - is it just a set of notes to assist in choosing a variant to look up? I suppose I was looking for more, wanting to see continuity in spite of name variations, but I recognise that might be a tall order.

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I'm guessing those people without the 'e' have the name with the 'e' as an Other Last Name? If that's the case, you'll see no difference.

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The generation preceding [[Shakespeare-501|Thomas George Shakespeare (abt.1811-1870)]] was [[Shakespear-153|Charles Shakespear (1759-1830)]] who didn't have a name in the Other Last Name field. His line starts with [[Shakespear-154|Thomas Shakespear (abt.1717-abt.1790)]] who is in your Shakespear one name table. I have tried with and without the Other Last Name field completed and nothing seems to be different. There doesn't seem to be a way to get the desired result of continuity other than to put the most recent/common interpretation of the name in the Last Name at Birth field and any variant/original in the Other Last Name field. I am fairly new to Wikitree, but I think changing the Last Name at Birth to get round this problem would not be thought acceptable.

Thanks again for replying. It is an interesting problem and maybe what I would like to be able to see could be logged as something that could be developed further down the line if it isn't possible now. I will still find the app very useful, thanks.

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As far as I can see right now, the Shakespear names are included because you've added the name variants to the Google Sheet.  I'm not sure what the problem is now.  What is the problem right now, exactly?

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I have just been trying out a few ideas and what I was looking for is now there. I took out the spaces on the comma separated variant list, which is probably desirable anyway, and then did a refresh in case the table had stored locally and the table was retrieving from local storage rather than from scratch on the server. There is now continuity of generations regardless of a variant name change.

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Great.  You can read how the data is gathered and stored in the Help/About text (click '?'). Only the results of the initial call to WT+ for the IDs is stored locally.  After that, a ton of data comes from the WT apps server. To save that to load again much faster next time, hit the Save button to download a data file.  Load that file later with the Load button.

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Read the Help now, that answers a lot of queries and the variant issue is fixed. There is one glitch I saw yesterday but thought I would leave to see if it fixed itself. I hasn't - so [[Shakespear-159|Thomas Shakespear (abt.1555-abt.1610)]] who is just about at the top of the table (Shakespear without the 'e') is shown as having two descendants, and so far I have added five, three over the last few days. I can't figure out why only two are given in the table. Any ideas?

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As the Help says, the initial call gets IDs from WikiTree+, which is updated once a week.

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Apologies Ian, and thanks for your patience. I missed the significance of the + on my first read. I think as I see more and more how useful this is going to be I am impatient to see things working if I change something. I get it now.

The 'Help' is great, but my old brain has trouble taking things in from smallish boxes on screen - is there any chance of a printable help when it is a fully fledged Tree App one day, rather than a pop-up?

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I'll see what I can do. 

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I've added a small button in the Help popup ('?') to print out the Help text.

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Brilliant, and I have printed it thanks. Now using the app to find out why I appear to have so many USA and New Zealand DNA "cousins", and which branch they are from. Looks very promising.

Answer 15

on first look I like it. it allows a quick scan down the tree of your choice, ignoring unknown people or "dead lines"

Will go over it some more in the coming days

Thanks

Answer 16

It's working for me now, so it really must be heavy user demand.  Users might note - you can download a copy (Save) and access it again without hitting the server by (Load).  Then it will give you a list of files on the desktop where it saved and you pick the ONT file.

BUT if I look at something in the statistics and want to go back, it starts me all over at log in and then tries to reload Ostermann again immediately.  I can interrupt that do use Load for my file again, but it seems a waste of server resources to repeatedly start with Osterman each time I have to start over.  Could a Back button within the app help?  Also could it not default to Ostermann but the name I last used or no name at all?  I feel like I keep hitting the database needlessly.

Question, when I want to look at statistics for those with certain location names, where there is only 1, when I click on that, no profiles show.  Sometimes a name with only 1 might be an error that I want to fix, but I can't see the profile to fix it. (There are 3 of these in Brunswick)

Thanks for the great idea for this app!  It's given me new impetus to work on the ONS for Bourque.

Comments

When/If this makes it to the Tree Apps page, the trouble you're seeing with Ostermann will be gone.  

Please give me more details about the location problem so that I can look into it.

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Thanks for fixing the location problem.  And so fast!  You are  swamped with requests, I can tell, but you handle them so fast.  Really appreciate everything you put into this.

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To skip loading the Osterman tree info, I copied/pasted the link to my one name study page changing the Osterman reference to my own ID.  Alternatively could be done on my/your Navigation Home Page.

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Thank you.  I did that too.  Then I could bookmark it with the correct name.

Answer 17

Thanks for the addition of some Wilderman names I had never seen before!

Answer 18

Ian, thanks for the input, have not had time to go through it all, but a lot more information, thanks for what you have done, Bill Allan

Answer 19

Hi Ian

Saw the email about the One Name tree of Moore. I have searched for Moore, Tenterfield.

My father Ronald and his brother Douglas come up twice.

Why would that be?

Comments

I don't know, but I'll try to find out.  Thanks for letting me know.

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I think I've fixed this.

Answer 20

Impressive, trying to figure it out, don't understand how it works yet, and a lot of the buttons apparently don't work for me. Was able to save the .json file to my computer.

A major problem: The statistics roll down very fast and then gone in a flash. Can't read, let alone select any possible sub menu. Using Firefox 123.0.1 (64-bit) on Win 10 (Updated to current).

Comments

Thanks, Robert. I'll look into that soon. I don't usually use Firefox so... I'll check it out.

To understand it, please click the '?' button (if that works for you).

(I'd try a hard browser refresh first.)

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Noticed the 'Sheet' and 'Save' buttons are each popping redundant selection windows instead of just 1 also.

I'll look at the '?' for help - some days just not enough coffee!

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I've looked at Firefox and seen no problems, so I'm not sure what to say...