Help:Orphaned Profiles
Categories: WikiTree Help | Profile Management Help
When a profile doesn't have a Profile Manager we call it an "orphan." It's a profile that needs someone to care for it.
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How Are Profiles Orphaned?
Some of these profiles were created by people who didn't know what they were getting into. In its early years, WikiTree did not have strict restrictions on GEDCOM imports and some people imported thousands of profiles.
Many of them, sadly, were created by members who passed away.
Many are created by generous genealogists who add basic information about a person when they find it, but have no particular connection to the family, surname, or location and hope that someone with more of a personal interest will adopt the profile.
How Do You Find and Adopt Orphans?
See Special:Adoptions to browse orphans in need of attention. Orphaned profiles also have a little "[adopt this profile]" link where the manager's name usually appears, once you've signed the Honor Code and made 100 edits.
Why Would You Want to Adopt Them? 
It takes a special kind of generosity to take responsibility for profiles outside your family tree. It's not for everyone.
WikiTreer Kitty Smith explains her motivation like this: "To me, an orphaned profile is the same as an unattended grave, because WikiTree is more to me than a database. I feel WikiTree profiles are memorials because each person, theoretically, has only one. That profile is a memorial to that person."
When you see a member with the "Big Heart" badge it means that they've adopted orphans.
After Adopting Orphans
Show them some love! You might:
- Review all of their biographies and sources.
- Check your Pending Merges to see if you have inherited any that need to be reviewed or completed.
- Click the "Unsourced Profiles" link on the Add pull-down menu. You may have inherited unsourced profiles that need your help with sources.
- Click the "Suggestions" link on the Profile pull-down menu. Review the suggestions for generations 0 and 1 to see if there are errors.
This page was last modified 10:51, 30 August 2022. This page has been accessed 81,646 times.