Help:Glossary

Categories: WikiTree Help | About WikiTree | Glossaries

Since WikiTree's community is unique, we've made up some of our own terminology. Here's a dictionary of terms and abbreviations.

If there is something else you would like defined please ask about it in G2G.

• Active WikiTreer: A user of this website. They are distinct from passive people whose information was entered entirely by others.

• Activity Feeds: A detailed list of changes.

• Advance Directive: A statement prepared by a member to provide for management of their profiles in the event they leave WikiTree or pass away.

• Biography: The free wiki space on a Person Profile.

• Categorization: A dynamic way to group profiles in order to organize your family history and connect with other genealogists whose family histories intersect with yours.

• Change Explanation: The field for summarizing an edit. It become part of the Activity Feed item.

• Contributions: Another term for the changes or edits that appear in Activity Feeds. Your contributions are counted and tracked.

• DWWA: One of the most important community rules: Don't WikiTree While Angry.

• Data Doctors Project: A Project intended to improve the WikiTree database.

• Suggestions (was Error Report): Report listing suggestions related to a member's Watchlist; report listing specific possible errors needing review.

• Free-Space Profile: Parallel to Person Profiles, but for places, events, and other things.

• G2G: The Genealogist-to-Genealogist question and answer forum. This is the center of our community.

• GEDCOM: Stands for GEnealogical Data COMmunication, a file format for transferring family tree information from one platform to another. For example, from genealogy software to WikiTree.

• GEDCOMpare: Enables guests and members to a search to see if their ancestors already exist on WikiTree using a GEDCOM. Wiki Genealogists can go on to create and improve profiles using data from their file.

• Help:GEDmatch - GEDmatch.com is an external website used to compare Raw DNA between different people. It is not owned nor managed by WikiTree.

• LNAB: Last Name at Birth field. It is significant for WikiTree IDs.

• Nuclear Family: Parents, siblings, spouses, and children.

• Orphaned Profiles: When a profile does not have a Profile Manager. They may need a person to take care of them.

• Passive Profile: A person profile that is managed by someone other than the person themselves. The opposite of an active profile. Most profiles on WikiTree are passive.

• Person Profile: The basic WikiTree page about a human being. It's the central location for information about the person.

• PM: Profile Manager or Private Message (depending on context).

• Profile: A page about a person, place or thing.

• Profile Manager: The person who has primary responsibility for taking care of a profile. It is usually the person who created the profile, or the person themselves if it is a profile of a living person.

• Projects: A project is a group of members organized around a topic or volunteer activity. Examples: Acadians, DNA, German Roots, Mayflower.

• RootsSearch: RootsSearch is an independent program developed by Justin York. It enables you to easily search over 20 genealogy websites with button clicks, without reentering names, dates, parents' names, etc., on each website. A link for this is found on every Passive Profile.

• Tags: A way for members to follow activity in the topics that interest them, and connect with other genealogists.

• Templates: Allows inclusion of content common to many pages on each page without copying it in full. Includes Project Boxes, Recognition Boxes, Category templates, etc.

• Tutorial: Guided Tour of WikiTree with helpful instructions for new members and old ones needing a review.

• Trusted List: WikiTree's unique system for protecting privacy and controlling permissions on individual profile pages.

• UPM: Unresponsive Profile Managers.

• Watchlist: The list of profiles you are watching through your Family Activity Feed. It's the list of profiles for which you are on the Trusted List.

• Wiki: The software run by WikiTree that enables users to easily create and update pages and track changes by others.

• Wiki Mark-Up: Sometimes called wiki codes, these are the tags that are used to format a profile.

• WikiTree ID: The unique identifier for WikiTree profiles, e.g. Franklin-1. Created from the profile's Last Name at Birth (LNAB) and the next number in order for that name.

See WikiTree Acronyms & Abbreviations for more terms that community members have collected.

This page was last modified 15:36, 20 January 2023. This page has been accessed 3,351 times.