Thursday, November 6, 2014

WikiTree Makes Finding Relationships With DNA Matches Easier

I received the press release from WikiTree last night, and won't republish it here.  Read it at  http://www.wikitree.com/blog/press-release-wikitree-makes-finding-relationships-with-dna-matches-easier/

To demonstrate how to find relationships to DNA matches using WikiTree (which is a universal tree - one tree, not separate trees), the press release and blog post had an image attached featuring WikiTreer Tami Osmer Mize's relationship to Genea-Musings writer Randy Seaver:


This shows that Tami and I are 8th cousins once removed.  I didn't know that, but i'm not surprised.

How do you get to the Relationship Finder?  The easiest way is to use the URL  http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Special:Relationship.  But then you have to know the other person's ID number.

If you are in the WikiTree, you have a WikiTree ID number.  Mine is Seaver-15.  Tami's is Osmer-1.  In order to make this work, you have to know your potential cousin's ID number.

I have many more "relationships" with Tami, but all are more distant than 8th cousins once removed.  On the right on the screen above it says that we have 239 more ancestors in common, and I can see who they are by clicking on the dark green down arrow.  When I do that, the list appears in a dropdown box:


I can choose any person on that list and see the my own relationship trail and Tami's trail also:


So if you think that you are related to me, or to Tami, or to someone else in the WikiTree, then go to the Relationship Finder (http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Special:Relationship), which will have your WikiTree ID already in one of the boxes, and put mine (Seaver-15), or Tami's (Osmer-1) or someone else's ID number in, and check out the relationships.

It may be that you and I have to be on each other's Trusted List on WikiTree.  If that's the case, then the Relationship Finder won't produce results.  The Trusted List is discussed in  http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Trusted_List.  For the Profiles of all of the deceased persons for whom I am the Profile Manager, I have set their Profiles to "Public."

You can also see if you and your spouse, your parents, or grandparents, etc. are/were related to each other by finding their WikiTree IDs and entering them into the Relationship Finder.  My parents were 7th cousins.

A caveat:  The information in WikiTree is only as accurate as the information used to input the data for each person.  I have reservations about my ancestry past 12-13 generations back in Europe.

Another caveat:  This Relationship Finder uses only the genealogical information in the WikiTree.  It doesn't use autosomal DNA to detect a relationship.

If you do find a relationship with me, please let me know with a comment to this post.  Which Genea-Musings reader or geneablogger will be my closest cousin?  Right now it's Tami!

Thank you to Tami and WikiTree for showing us how this works.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2014/11/wikitree-makes-finding-relationships.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver


7 comments:

kinfolknews said...

Hi Randy,
I did the Relationship Finder and we are 18th cousins once removed. Of course, that falls way past the "12-13 generations back in Europe" caveat. In any case, we supposedly share Sir William FitzHugh [FitzHugh-319].
A shirttail cousin indeed.
:)
Regina

Jana Iverson Last said...

Hi Randy,

Looks like we're 11th cousins once removed according to Relationship Finder on WikiTree. Our common ancestor is William Eddye.

Reba Mc said...

Hi Randy,
I did the relationship check and found that we are 9th cousins, having direct decent from Stephen Wing. My ID is Logue-27.
Reba Logue McMillan

LarryD said...

Hi Randy,
We are 9th cousins once removed through Samuel Guile. My ID is Davies-1400.
Larry

Unknown said...

Hi Randy,

We are 9th cousins 1 removed on our Hazard line. We bot descend from Robert Hazard Hazard-31

My WikiTree Mills-2830.

Jana Iverson Last said...

Randy,

I want to let you know that your blog post is listed in today's Fab Finds post at http://janasgenealogyandfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/2014/11/follow-friday-fab-finds-for-november-7.html

Have a wonderful weekend!

Anonymous said...

WikiTree says you and I (Kraft-60) are 10th Cousins! It also says you and my wife (Banks-510) are 11th Cousins 1x removed!