Dr Gates and WikiTree Challenge made us closer to each other

Question

In the framework of the 100 Circles research we have looked at how the activity during the WikiTree challenge have changed the population of Dr Henry Louis Gates circles.

The comparison of figures before and after the challenge is impressive. The mean distance to Dr Gates has been reduced by two degrees, from 29 to 27 (rounded values). Two degrees might not seem impressive, but it's indeed huge when multiplied by 21 million of connected profiles!

Not only it made just about everyone of us closer to him (or the other way round), but it has certainly brought many of us closer to each other through new connections.

Below images show the growth of circles 1 to 10, and 15 to 50, respectively, between Feb 05 and Feb 11. Click to open the full-size images.

Comments and questions welcome!

Comments

Thanks for analyzing and sharing this, Bernard. This is great!

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I love it Bernard - thanks!!

Answer 1

Outstanding! Not only does it show that these WikiTree Challenges are great for the immediate families but for the wiki as a whole!

Comments

Exactly!

Answer 2

This is amazing, thank you for the statistic! And because of the work we did on his tree that will continue now that's he's connected to more families, his distance will continue to decrease.

Comments

Indeed, Emma. What was achieved during the challenge appears to me as a speeding up of the generally slow tectonics of the circles.

It can give me hope for my own "focus profile" Jean-Joseph, for whom months of patient work has allowed the mean distance to get down from 33.1 to 33.0 (no big deal, but going in the right direction).

I can only dream of a day where an impressive task force would gather to pull him towards the center with a similar efficiency .

Answer 3

Thanks for showing us this!

I followed another one of your interesting posts about the fartherest out profiles.

Can you tell me where we can see more of those ?

Or how to calculate which profiles need to be brought closer to the centre through more connections?

Thanks

Comments

You can have a look at the various links at https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:100_Circles#See_also

In particular this one https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:The_outer_rim_of_the_global_tree

is giving the status of the current furthest profiles and "long branches" needing reconnection, e.g., Joseph Aberle

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As for the way to fetch such far-flung branches, we rely on the so-called "magic query" provided by Aleš, of which URI we do not want to post publicly because it's a bit resource consuming, and has to be used with moderation. But if you want to be involved in this work, please contact me by PM to get the keys.

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Thanks for your replies. I will start with the links you provided and see if I can get any where with those. If so, I will contact you by PM about further work.

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Thanks, et bon courage !

Answer 4

Seeing how people had added to Dr, Gates' ancestry here, & what it meant for his connections, I thought of how I could add to some people in my tree. I worked on the family of an uncle of mine (husband of one of my half-aunts). After furthering his lines back, I noticed that suddenly many of my connections to people in the tree went through my uncle's lines.

Comments

Same with me. When I first started here, I first connected myself to Martin Luther as that was the easiest to do for me. But when I extended my own ancestry upwards and then downwards with cousins, I found connection to a cousin that emigrated to Texas. She was married twice and through her husbands nearly all of my shortest connections run. I have three other connections to the Tree, one in Pennsylvania, one in Ohio and one in Upstate New York/Canada/Great Britain, but they are rather rarely used.

Answer 5

Why were circles 11 to 14 skipped in the charts?

Comments

Good question!

I wanted to make two snapshots of the distribution, one focusing on the first circles, one on the peak of the distribution. Circles 11 to 14 are large enough to flatten the first circles, and too small to show in the other graph. That's why :-)