“Connected” to the Big Tree?

Question

I have trouble sorting some things out in WikiTree.  Do you prefer Big Tree, One Big Tree, Global Family Tree, One World Tree, or something else?

Is someone connected to that tree if they only have a relative who is married to someone in the “Global Family Tree”.  How do you best describe the connection when someone is a direct descendant of an ancestor in the “Global Family Tree”?

Comments

I call it Yggdrasil.

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Nice!

Answer 1

I've been thinking of our tree as One Tree.

When being lax, I've been thinking someone is connected to the One Tree if they don't show up as "unconnected" per the utility on the Find menu. In my heart though, I'm afraid I see more profiles as technically unconnected than that search does. For instance, for me, though I know the names for a few generations back of my direct paternal line, that line dead ends until I have some major genealogical breakthroughs. So, all those Franz Keils do not show as unconnected per WT's utility, but as far as I'm currently concerned, they are as I don't know of any of their siblings, etc. and don't know anyone living today to whom I'm related through them as a common ancestor.

Regarding question 3, how to describe the connection when someone is a direct descendant of someone in the One Tree ... I'm not sure I understand what you may be getting at ... Like, why would I describe the person's connection to One Tree any different than I would in any other context?

Answer 2

It doesn’t matter what you call the tree. A profile can be connected to the main stem of the tree either through its direct ancestors or going sideways through a marital relationship or a collateral line.

Answer 3

I always call it our Global Tree.

Being connected to it is shown at the foot of the profile where it says that this person is xx degrees from Victoria Of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. You can be connected through your sister in law or way back in the generations by a distant cousin. The fact that you ARE connected is what counts :)

When you connect an unconnected profile to one that has that link, it can take 24 hours to show as connected, so don't worry if you have done that and it is not showing right away :)

Comments

I call it the Global Tree as well.

Answer 4

Peter, at the bottom of your profile, it says that you are 22 degrees from Elinor Glyn, 23 degrees from Frances Wedman, and 16 degrees from Queen Victoria. (That's as I'm writing this. The numbers will probably go down over time as more profiles are added to WikiTree and more direct connections are mapped out.)

If somebody's profile has that box, then they're connected to the main tree on WikiTree. If it doesn't, then they're not connected yet. (Or at least, they weren't connected the last time the connection script ran. I think it runs at midnight GMT, but I could well be wrong there.)

Answer 5

The term "One World Tree" was actually a feature of Ancestry's.  It has now been rename FamilyTrees.  Better to call ours something other than an old Ancestry database, surely.

Answer 6

My connection to the global tree is definitely sideways - no direct link via bloodlines. It is through the first wife of the husband of my father's sister. Maybe not it's own branch but just shows though the interconnectivity between us all :)

And Herbert - love Yggdrasil! !! Fortunately pronunciation is a non-issue with G2G.

Answer 7

I generally think of it as "The Wikitree" with "the main tree" being the biggest connected piece.  I rarely actually need a proper term, in practice.  The Help page uses the terms "collaborative family tree" and "single family tree" both of which seem useful.

As far as connectivity - anyone connected in any way; descendant, ancestor, spouse - should be considered connected.  I don't think it's useful to make distinctions.  For example, if someone is only "closely connected" if they have an ancestor in the tree, then every brick wall ancestor is NOT "closely connected", they're just as far back as we know.

Answer 8

I like” Shared Tree.” This less so for all the connectivity we strive for, but also because we all share responsibility for the health of the Tree, whether it is sources or proper connections, etc.

Even the unconnected are a part of the Tree, even if we, for the moment, don’t know how.