Wednesday, August 17, 2011

WikiTree Traffic Jumps 30% - Why? What Will it mean?

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I received this press release this morning from Elyse Doerflinger of WikiTree:

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August 17, 2011: In the past week, traffic to WikiTree.com’s worldwide family tree has jumped by more than 30%. This translates into more than 2,000 additional visitors to our worldwide family tree every day.

More visitors means more ancestor matches. WikiTree user Jacky Gamble reported this new find: “I was so excited to get a message from a woman this morning …. I have had little luck researching this particular branch of my family tree, and she has been able to provide me with names, dates, locations and documents I have not been able to locate on my own.”

Tami Osmer Glatz, as WikiTree’s “Cousin Connector,” helps to facilitate these matches. She's constantly on the look-out for potential ancestor matches that users might not have found yet. It's up to the Profile Managers to decide whether and how the merge should be completed, but Tami is available to help provide guidance on good genealogical methods for resolving conflicting information.

With the new surge in traffic, Tami actually found a new cousin of her own. “I'm so excited! This weekend a new match appeared for one of my own very elusive ancestors, who had abandoned his family and disappeared in the mid 1800s. I've connected with one of his descendants through his next family, and she was as surprised to hear from me as I was to find her.”

About WikiTree: WikiTree's mission is to create a single worldwide family tree with which we can all freely connect our private family histories. We aim to strike the perfect balance between collaboration and privacy so that families can share personal information, photos, and memories, while at the same time growing a valuable genealogical resource with distant cousins and strangers. WikiTree is entirely free for everyone. There are no premium memberships. Privacy settings and access to profiles are managed by contributors. The service is supported by modest ads on public pages. Join our rapidly growing community at http://www.WikiTree.com/

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Some observers have theorized that this increase is because of the Geni.com restrictions on free accounts.  That may very well be. 

With the increase in traffic will come more GEDCOM uploads to the WikiTree database, which will mean more work for Tami Glatz, the Cousin Connector, and more matches with existing profiles on the WikiTree.

I like WikiTree because it is a true wiki, has customizable privacy controls, has an excellent graphics interface, offers some useful charts and widgets, and has excellent technical support.  And FREE.

2 comments:

Tamura Jones said...

FYI: More from Geni.com itself:

http://www.geni.com/blog/a-message-from-geni%E2%80%99s-ceo-369903.html

Dr. Bill (William L.) Smith said...

Add this to the ancestry.com announcement today that 1940 census access will be free to all and you have a pretty exciting week for the family history and genealogy community. So sad the geni.com had to decide to go in the opposite direction in the same time frame. Thanks for the update, Randy. ;-)