Help:Family List
Categories: WikiTree Help | WikiTree Tools and Apps
The Family List app enables you to see more of a person's ancestors and descendants than anywhere else on WikiTree — up to 29 generations all on one page!
Contents |
Purpose
The Family List is one of the most flexible tools on WikiTree. It doesn't have one specific purpose.
Here are some ways it can be used:
- See how many ancestors you have at different generational levels. See the count at the top of the page.
- Share with your DNA Matches. See Sharing below.
- See who might be buried in the same cemetery. Sort by Death Location.
- See who lived during a certain time period or historical event. Sort by Birth Date.
- Spot where locations are missing, or where locations may need to be edited.
- Spot where Sex at Birth is missing. These will have green backgrounds.
If you use it in another way, share your idea here.
Options
You can view up to 15 generations of ancestors or descendants, or both, with or without siblings of ancestors. Select your choices near the top of the page and click "Go".
Limitations and alternatives
There is no option to include spouses that are not ancestors. If you want to see spouses, you might try a Descendant List.
There is no option to include cousins, i.e. children of siblings of ancestors, but you can see cousins by viewing the descendants of an ancestor on the ancestor's Family List.
There is no option to separate your maternal and paternal lines, but you can do this by viewing Family Lists for your mother and father separately.
Quick Links & Icons
You can jump to a Family List that starts with any listed person using the little icon next to their name that looks like an E. 
There are also icons for jumping to family trees 
, descendant charts 
, and DNA pages 
.
The icon that looks like two arrows pointed at each other 
is a link to the Relationship Finder. It will tell you the relationship between the listed person and the starting person.
The colored dot before a name is the person's Privacy Level. This can be useful for spotting living and modern family members.
-
= Unlisted
-
= Private
-
= Private with Public Biography
-
= Private with Public Bio and Tree
-
= Public
-
= Open
If you're the Profile Manager an "[M]" will appear at the end of the line. If there are multiple managers this may not appear.
There are direct "[adopt]" links if a profile doesn't have a manager. For a more direct way to locate orphans in your family, see Special:Adoptions.
The colored background on names indicates Sex at Birth. Blue for male, pink for female, green for unknown.
Sorting
You can resort the list by surname, date of birth, birth location, or death location.
The utility of sorting by location is limited. WikiTree doesn't generally have options for limiting searches or displays by location because they are just strings of text. Sorting by location is just alphabetical order based on the first characters in the field.
There is no option to sort by generation. You can see ancestors grouped by generation in the Ancestors List accessible from a person's Tree Apps page.
Viewing Family Lists for Other People
By default Special:FamilyList shows a list that starts with you.
You can access anyone else's Family List if you're on their Trusted List or they're Open.
To view a list that starts with someone other than yourself, look for the link in the pull-down menu that starts with their WikiTree ID on any of their pages.
Privacy
When viewing a list for anyone other than yourself, the names on the list are privacy-controlled.
Listed people who are Private with a Public Family Tree appear with birth/death decades instead of exact dates.
Private people without public trees are listed as "Private [Last Name at Birth]" or "Unlisted Person".
Sharing
Because of the privacy configuration mentioned above, a Family List can be shared with anyone, even people who aren't WikiTree members.
This can be especially handy for DNA matches. The chances of one of your matches spotting a name or location they recognize will be higher with this view than with any other shareable page on WikiTree.
When sharing, don't use the basic URL <https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Special:FamilyList>. That link only works for the logged-in member. Instead use the web address shown after the "share this" line that appears just under the "Your Family List" headline.
The sharing URL is a direct link that has all these options set to the list you're currently viewing:
- starting person
- number of generations
- ancestors, descendants, or both
- with or without siblings of ancestors
- sort order
Difference from Watchlist
Your Watchlist is a family list too. It shows the family members and other profiles for which you're on the Trusted List.
Your Watchlist may not include the profiles of distant ancestors if you didn't create them and you weren't added to the Trusted List, or if you removed yourself because you don't want to watch them.
On the other hand, your Watchlist may include cousins and spouses that don't appear on your Family List.
This page was last modified 23:08, 25 January 2023. This page has been accessed 74,933 times.