Help:Genealogist Section
Categories: WikiTree Help | Profile Editing Help
Member profiles can include a section at the top to invite communication and collaboration between cousins and others who share the same genealogical interests. Click here to add or edit it.
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What is the Genealogist Section?
A Genealogist Section optionally appears at the top of Family Member and Wiki Genealogist member profiles. It invites communication and highlights the member's genealogical interests and activities.
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After this section, member profiles look essentially like all other person profiles on our single family tree.
The section can be edited or removed at any time.
Contents of the Section
Communication preferences
Your genealogy communication preferences, if any, are displayed at the top of the section. These say:
- who you want to communicate with, and
- whether or where others can see your family tree.
Adding these communication preferences is how a Guest upgrades to the Family Member level.
You can expand on or replace the basic text using question #5. This enables you to fully customize what cousins and other genealogists see at the top of your profile.
Genealogical interests and activities
The section also includes:
- DNA tests you have taken, if any. (Question #3 or Special:DNATests.)
- Tags you are following, if any. (Question #4 or Special:Following.)
- Surnames in which you have been most active this year.
- Badges for WikiTree activities, achievements, projects, etc.
Examples
Usage by active WikiTreers
Here are some members who are active in our community and use their communication preferences to invite collaboration.
- Greg Clarke, an apps developer.
- Azure Robinson, a very active volunteer who highlights the cemeteries, one name studies, and other projects that currently hold her interest.
- The extraordinary Debi (McGee) Hoag, who invites others on a profile improvement voyage.
- Ellen Smith, a leader among those with early American ancestors.
- Dutch Joop van Belzen, whose section is bilingual.
- "Genemonkey" Veronica Williams who promotes her project work and her blog.
Usage by genealogists not active on WikiTree
Wherever you do genealogy — on our single family tree or elsewhere — WikiTree helps you communicate and collaborate with cousins.
WikiTree is known among genealogists as one of the best "cousin bait" tools anywhere. Sooner or later, your cousins will find profiles of your ancestors here, whether they were created by you or one of your cousins. If WikiTree's profiles of your ancestors are incomplete or inaccurate because you don't actively contribute to them, use the Genealogist Section to tell your cousins where to find your research.
Here are examples of genealogists who use their profiles as cousin bait.
- Paula Carter, who uses RootsMagic.
- French genealogy leader Isabelle Rassinot who is active on WikiTree but manages a larger personal tree on Geneanet.
- Virginia Winslett who promotes her own Winslett.org website and non-WikiTree DNA studies.
Customization and Removal
Hiding it on a profile you are viewing
You can temporarily hide the section on a profile you are viewing by clicking the "[hide section]" link that appears in the upper-right corner.
This makes a member's profile appear essentially like any other profile on our tree.
Hiding or customizing it on your profile
Options on your settings page allow you to customize the section or remove it so that you and others do not see it on your profile.
You can choose to:
- Display the full section. This is the default.
- Hide your communication preferences. This removes your answers to questions #1 and #2. You can replace it with a custom message by answering #5. (Note that you must answer #1 and #2 to submit the form, but your answers will be hidden.)
- DNA tests and followed tags, if any, will still appear. You can remove these on Special:DNATests and Special:Following.
- Top surnames will still appear. These cannot be customized.
- Badges will still appear. You can hide and rearrange them individually.
- Hide everything except custom text, if any. This will only display anything you enter in question #5.
The third option allows for full customization by creatively using #5 (see the advanced customization section below) or for full removal by deleting anything you have entered for #5. However, full removal is not generally recommended. If you are suspending your participation you can use #5 to say that you are not currently available or interested in communicating. If you never want to communicate with others through WikiTree, close your account.
Advanced customization
Question #5 enables you to fully customize what cousins and other genealogists see at the top of your profile.
You can add formatting with simple wiki mark-up tags. You can do almost anything you can do in the biography/text section of a profile, including adding links, bulleted or numbered lists, and even images. However, please note that the community may develop style rules in the future, or we may need to add technical limitations.
Tips:
- See Help:Links to External Sites and Services for how to link to a family tree on Ancestry.com or FamilySearch.
- If you customize by only displaying your answer to #5, the words "Communication Preferences" will not appear. If you want them to appear, simply include this before your answer: '''Communication Preferences''':
- To link to the comments section on your profile, use something like this: post a [[#comments|public comment]]
This page was last modified 13:41, 30 March 2022. This page has been accessed 23,961 times.