My new priority is to add birth dates to all profiles on my Watchlist. What's yours?

Question

I always have trouble setting priorities, but I have one now! Since the new profiles require a dob or dod, I am going to go back and clean up my watchlist. How about you?

Comments

Sheila, this is a wonderful idea.

I recently did this in my offline genealogy program.

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Jillaine,

I guess if we are behind we should set a goal for the week to clean up X number of profiles or add something missing to X-number of profiles!

Eventually they will be all caught up.

I am trying to improve my sources.

Thanks

Taylor

Answer 1

I'm doing the BMD's in the Bio with Sources. Slow going finding where I originally found that date/place. Also, I NEVER use another tree (either on Ancestry or another site) as a source. FamilySearch is now coming into its own for some of these sources. And I don't use the family trees there but only the Collections.

Comments

Totally agree that another tree should not be used as source material. So many trees out there that just copy the same errors from tree to tree.

Personally I use other people's trees as a starting point, but no more than that. Unfortunately with the Gedcom upload, other's trees are cited as sources in my non-cleaned up bios. Maybe that will be my next priority! :)

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Not all online trees are created equal.

Check to see if they've cited their source for the information provided. Where possible, then check THAT source. (I can't tell you how many times I've found errors in cited sources...)

Answer 2

My priority is to arbor the ancestors and descendants (for 3 or 4 generations) of the Magna Carta surety barons.  (Magna Carta 800th Anniversary next year = upcoming interest in these families!)  But I keep getting distracted by interesting problem profiles elsewhere...

Comments

I know what you mean! I have so much trouble staying focused on any goal because there are always so many interesting family lines to work on! :)

Answer 3

My priority is to work my way through the GEDCOM tree I initially imported, clean up the entries I haven't already, and add or link by hand the siblings and cousins and other collateral lines that weren't in that initial import.

In the process, I'm running across various people of the same names with minimal data; where I can find good data, I'm adding information and sources to those records so they don't show up as potential matches when they're 150 years off or born on a different continent.

(And when I get bored and want to do something completely different, I sort the surname UNKNOWN by date, scroll through to the 1800s, and look on Family Search to see if I can find marriage records and supporting data to put family names on them.)

Comments

Great idea, Sheila ! My very first gedcom to Wikitree, embarrassingly, has many females with no maiden names so I have been working hard at changing the UNKNOWN LNABS in my own family's watchlist.

Answer 4

I have two handwritten family trees that were passed on to me, both of which are remarkably accurate (other than a few spelling differences, I haven't found any mistakes in either of them, and they both go back to the early 1600's).   My #1 priority is to sure that my personal WikiTree matches the handwritten ones, while keeping my pledge regarding sourcing any profile I work on.

To go with the theme, I have made it a priority to look out for duplicate profiles and request merges wherever I find them, and to clean up the resulting profiles in my own OCD way once they're completed.

Comments

Proposed merge and pending merge lists down to zero. Location standardization and merged biography (performed by others) cleanups. Finding and adopting all new direct ancestors and their siblings.