New member introducing myself

Question

Hi all, 

I am Steven from Australia. My father researched his side of the family in the 1980s and 1990s. I showed little interest at the time but last year I retired and now I am a keen student of the 100 page document he produced. I have been using MyHeritage for a few years and while I like some of the features: access to various databases and the DNA matching, it is far too easy to copy large sections of other trees into your own and end up with a gigantic, poorly-sourced mess. So I'm attracted to the WikiTree approach of a single, rigourously researched tree. Even if that means we don't really 'own' the profiles of our ancestors. I'm very comfortable with the wiki backend. I setup a workplace wiki in about 2005 and it was lot of fun.

This is the approach I have taken to starting in wikitree:

• I found one of my ancestors in the wikitree (my GG grandfather)
• I added profiles for the ancestors between him and me which included just a basic biography, citing 'Births, Deaths and Marriages' sources.
• I then added profiles for my other ancestors back to GG level with the same sort of basic bio + sources.
• I then realised I hadn't done the citations as footnotes (just bullet points at the botton) so I went through all the profiles and added <ref> tags.

As a guide to citation style I mostly followed the Australia, Sources and Citation Examples

I resisted the temptation to import a MyHeritage gedcom file. I wanted to figure out how to do it manually. I might try out a gedcom import with a discrete group, like children of a particular couple.

regards, Steven

Answer 1

Welcome aboard, Steven!

Sounds like a great approach! Seems like you have lots to add to our shared tree.

Looks like you have discovered the resources of the Australian project. Projects are a great way to learn more, discover new resources and collaborate with other members.

Come back here to the forum if you have any questions along the way.

Comments

Thanks Peggy, yes it was good to find some nice examples of the types of sources I was wanting to cite.

Answer 2

Welcome to WikiTree!

I think most of us are just a little bit jealous that you found your GG parent already here! Most of us have had to go back far more generations to get a "hit."

Comments

Thanks Lucy, I had no expectation of what I would find, maybe somewhere between none and too many. 1x GG grandfather worked out nicely

Answer 3

Welcome aboard, Steven. Thank you for making yourself known. G2G is a great forum, so, whenever you need some help or just want to chat, jump in like you have now.  If you haven't already, consider joining the Australia Project.  There are also several sub projects that need help.  I'm certainly willing and able to help if you need assistance with your military family members. Regards, Ken

Comments

Thanks Kenneth, I wasn't sure about joining projects - don't want to take on more than I can handle. I will eventually get to my military ancestors and will be keen to get some pointers

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Welcome from me also Steven, from us Aussies, enjoy.