Help:Volunteers Needed

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If you have signed the Honor Code here are things you can do right now to help grow our free collaborative tree and improve its accuracy.

If you have questions about anything, ask. Most of the items below have links to active conversations in our friendly G2G (genealogist-to-genealogist) community forum. We work together here. Introduce yourself and let us know what you're working on.

Thank you in advance. The genealogical generosity and community spirit of members like you is what makes WikiTree special.

Contents

Heal as a Data Doctor

The Data Doctors Project is one of the hottest WikiTree projects right now. Team Member Aleš Trtnik is doing big data analysis and creating programs to help WikiTreers find likely errors. His work is creating lots of opportunities for anyone to help clean things up.

You could start at the "Suggestions" link on the pull-down menu that starts with your WikiTree ID at the top of this page. If your family lines are deep you'll quickly get into profiles that are widely shared where your improvements will help many other members.

View or follow G2G discussions tagged data_doctors. You'll find the latest posts on specific errors such as missing Sex at Birth, unlikely birth dates, and various typos.

Adopt an Orphan

Our amazingly generous Wiki Genealogists requested this feature: Special:Adoptions. It enables you to browse "orphaned" profiles that other members created and then abandoned. Sometimes it's because the member passed away or other life situations required more of their time.

Maybe you'd be willing to take responsibility for some profiles with your surname? Adopt some orphans today and review their profiles. You're sure to find little ways they can be improved right away.

When you adopt orphans you earn our "Big Heart" badge.

Prune like an Arborist

Duplicate profiles for the same person work against our mission to create a single family tree. Despite our best intentions, duplicates do get created.

Merging duplicates is a big part of what active WikiTreers do. There is even a special project, the Arborists, devoted to helping to find and merge duplicates.

You don't have to join the Arborists Project to help prune our tree, though. Anyone can help with this right now. Simply click to Special:BrowseMatches and examine the pending merges. If you identify clear duplicates, merge them and clean-up the resulting merged profile. You'll be doing our community a great service.

View or follow G2G discussions tagged arborists.

Check the Calendar

Check the calendar to see what's happening today. There might be a special challenge to join.

Practice Sourcery

If you're a wizard with genealogy sources — or even just a willing apprentice — join the monthly Sourcerer's Challenge. This is our way of having fun with a seriously important subject.

(You can always find the most recent month's challenge by going to the sourcerers tag in G2G.)

You don't need to formally join the challenge. Get started immediately by browsing Category:Unsourced Profiles for profiles that need your help.

Be an Adoption Angel

Helping an adoptee find their biological roots is one of the greatest gifts that a genealogist can give. Giving it to someone who was previously a stranger to you makes you a true angel. See Adoption Angels to be matched with someone who needs your help.

View or follow G2G discussions tagged adoption_angels.

Give a Compliment

One of the quickest, easiest ways you can help on WikiTree is to encourage others who are growing it. Everybody appreciates knowing that their contributions have been noticed.

This can be as simple as clicking a "thank-you" link next to a particularly valuable contribution on an Activity Feed, such as the recent changes on WikiTree feed.

If someone is really making special contributions award a badge such as the Community Star or a Generous Genealogist Badge.

Another thing you can do is to greet or thank today's volunteers. Say hello to someone, or thank them for offering their help to others.

You can even write up a Wonderful WikiTreer post to spotlight someone in our G2G forum.

If you enjoy welcoming new members, consider becoming a Greeter.

Offer to do Look-Ups in Your Local Area

Would you be willing to help someone with a look-up or errand in your neighborhood?

To offer, first add one or more regional research assistance categories to the biography section of your profile. Examples:

[[Category:Sweden Research Assistance]]
[[Category:Manitoba Research Assistance]]

Then, post in the G2G.

  • Title it something like Do you need research help in the New York City area?
  • Write a few quick sentences about the region-specific help you're willing to offer. This might include visits to local courthouses or archives, cemetery photography, look-ups in local histories ... anything that is specific to your area that you might be willing to do.
  • Enter your WikiTree ID in the field below the text so that your posting will be connected to your profile and tag your question with research_assistance and your region, e.g. british_columbia.

View or follow G2G discussions tagged research_assistance for examples.

Volunteer Your Translation Ability

Can you read any other languages? If so, put your translation abilities to good (and needed!) use.

You could:

  • Help improve our Language Glossaries of common genealogical terms. There are still many languages not represented here, and improvements can be made to existing glossaries.
  • Offer to help assist other WikiTreers facing language issues.
  • Assist in creating a portal for your language (For an example see the Dutch Portal).

See the Language Volunteers or contact Eowyn for more information.

View or follow G2G discussions tagged language for updates.

Make Notables Noteworthy

Our Notables Project focuses on identifying famous and historically-significant people who should have a profile, adding them to our tree and improving their profiles to meet our standards. Many people are already on WikiTree and simply need someone to write a biography or add sources.

View or follow G2G discussions tagged notables.

Break Down Someone's Brickwall

Thousands of genealogists help each other in G2G every month. We have a category for Requests for Genealogy Help. Take a look and maybe you'll be able to smash through someone's brickwall!

There's also the category Family Brick Walls where you can find specific families that need brickwall breakthroughs.

Connect the Unconnected

One of the primary goals of WikiTree is to have all profiles connected to each other through family relationships. Currently, we have about 80% of them connected within 100 degrees of separation!

Click to Special:Unconnected and jump in anywhere to help the other 20%.

View or follow G2G discussions tagged connectors.

Repair Broken Connections

In the past, we had problems with certain profiles created through GEDCOM imports becoming disconnected. Putting them back together, sourcing them, and connecting them to the main tree takes a lot of detective work, but if you're up to the challenge, click to The Lost and Found Project and start sleuthing!

View or follow G2G discussions tagged lost_and_found.

Create Needed Profiles

There is a special category of profiles with family members named in a source but the family members' profiles haven't been created yet. Pick any one of these and start building them out.

Join or Start a One Name Study for your Surname

There are now over 1,100 One Name Study projects on WikiTree. They provide you with a potentially valuable resource that will help you coordinate with other WikiTree members who are researching the same surname and provide a space for collaboration.

See if there is one for your most interesting family names here. If not, start one.

View or follow G2G discussions tagged one_name_studies.

Find a Project that Matches Your Special Interest

Join one of the many ongoing projects. Here's the full list.

Start a Project that Matches Your Special Interest

Are you interested in some particular genealogical topic, historical event, or time period, but no other WikiTreers seem to be working on it? Lead the way!

Starting a Project is easy. Use this form.

Mine Public Domain Images

Start with a multimedia resource like Mediawiki Commons or the Library of Congress and search for photos that could be added to improve WikiTree profiles.

There are treasures there. Many of them are of people whose profiles on WikiTree need images. Adding them on WikiTree makes them accessible to family members, future descendants, and historians in a way that dusty old databases cannot.

Our Notables Category would be a good place to look for profiles that need photos.

Be a Bio Builder

Many WikiTreers get caught up in finding sources or making connections for profiles, but then leave those profiles without much substance. They need a story. Our Biography Builders Challenge picks a theme each month and asks members to join by writing biographies, incorporating source data, and making the profiles look more complete.

Here's this month's challenge, focusing on profiles with names that start with J-for July.

View or follow G2G discussions tagged biobuilders.

Share the WikiTree Love

If you love WikiTree, share it! This is easy on social media.

Are you on Facebook?

For more ideas on how to share the love see the Ambassadors Project. View or follow G2G discussions tagged ambassadors and wikitree_love.


Thanks for all you do, volunteers! Thank you for helping to make genealogy accessible to everyone, for free, forever.



This page was last modified 23:51, 31 December 2023. This page has been accessed 89,910 times.