Why I Love WikiTree

Reason #1 - Wikitree is helping me grow my own family tree. Yes, Many places claim to do that. WikiTree is where I can put my confidence that the information is accurate. Why? Because they demand sourcing, and are busy to correct mistakes quickly.  I do not have to choose one person to trust for the information - each profile in WikiTree is 'owned' by the whole community. Instead of everyone duplicating the same work over and over, there is one work, which is contributed to and checked by many people with an interest in that branch. Makes sense to me!

Reason #2 - WikiTree has interest groups (Projects and Categories) which cover my special interests - Revolutionary War Patriots; Puritans of the Great Migration; Founders of Hartford, etc.

Reason #3 - Working for the improvement of a Project will earn a badge on my homepage (and yes, I was motivated by gold stars as a kid, too).  Here are my badges:

Pretty, yes? And they each mean a lot to me: they represent the research, the passion and work that I have invested in special projects in my family tree.  The 1776 is self-explanatory. The "pgm"? Puritan Great Migration - the settlement in the early 1600s of the towns of New England by Puritans. Would you be surprised to find out that a great many of those people lived into their 70's and even their 90's?

Reason #4 - see "Voting Member - profiles" badge.  I am a bit excited, as one of the profiles I wrote for a Puritan ancestor is being considered for Profile of the Week award.  Results will be announced tomorrow.  It was certainly part of my motivation as I wrote the profile, winnowed the sources, and wrestled the footnotes into place, to think that it could be nominated. Also, the profile was of a person who led a truly extraordinary life, and deserves to be recognized. The seventeen member committee reads all the nominated profiles, and each vote raises the profile in a Google search.

Reason #5 - coming soon, a 'Club 100' badge for October.  Any member of WikiTree who makes 100 or more contributions to the worldwide family tree project in a given month is eligible. There is also a Club 1,000 badge. 

Reason #6 - The people I have met at WikiTree are just simply the nicest in any genealogy group I have ever known. Really.  And that is probably the very best reason of all.