WikiTree Review by Robyn Topham,  Apr 23, 2013

I stumbled upon WikiTree while researching my Topham ancestors. To find that myself, my father and my grandfather listed. My mistake was in making my Ancestry Tree a Public listing. On WikiTree member advice I applied to the profile manager several times (via his WikiTree contact email and his Ancestry contact email). I was met with no response at all. WikiTree finally has responded after a third appeal with a “so sorry, so busy”. However then responded with a form to be filled in for removal of my deceased relatives and the statement “you were removed 28 Feb”. Well now I appear as Anonymous Anonymous under the same profile manager. So he still is in charge of Me? My deceased father and grandfather? Can nobody see the unfairness of this? The misinformation, distress that this ability to “steal” relatives just to boost their own what?
This profile manager also has my maternal grandmother and my great-grandfather under his “management”. My grandmother (who raised me) married the profile managers grt, grt, grt grt uncle. Hello! Please someone help me to regain my history and the history of my beloved relatives who raised. me.
WikiTree is not a creditable website if these issues are not dealt with in an honorable, decent and compassionate way and very very soon.

Biggest Pro: None for me but for good for honorable input.
Biggest Con: Despair for grieving relatives

WikiTree Review by Janet R. Murphy,  Mar 5, 2013

Definite mistakes can be found here. Little privacy for those who choose to remain anonymous!

Biggest Pro: Seriously??
Biggest Con: No way of removing data!

WikiTree Review by George H. Schauer,  Jan 23, 2013

Love the privacy and security measures incorporated in the program.

Biggest Pro: The many ways to manipuate one’s family tree.
Biggest Con: No cons

WikiTree Review by Kathleen Ball,  Dec 5, 2012

After I ran across a boatload of erroneous information regarding my family I tried to contact someone at WikiTree. With multiple sources at my disposal I offered to correct many blatant mistakes that are being circulated throughout this community. Awful that such an unrestrained and irresponsible spectacle is allowed with little or no accountability.

I strongly urge anyone who uses this site to scrutinize all information to do some independent archival research. It requires a good deal of painstaking effort, but you’ll yield accurate information.

Biggest Pro: Lots of surnames
Biggest Con: No substance whatsoever

WikiTree Review by Becky Syphers,  Nov 29, 2012

I spend a lot of time on WikiTree and really like it. I have met people who have common ancestors with me and we now can work together.

Biggest Pro: Collorative
Biggest Con: Person search is limited to 100 names.

WikiTree Review by Sandi Wiggins,  Nov 28, 2012

I signed up for WikiTree about a year and a half ago, and just became more active. I’ve done genealogy research for years and have experience with Family Tree Maker and Legacy and I am still using Ancestry.com.

I have been easing into WikiTree, and my experience has been positive. The community has been supportive and the two staff members I have communicated with directly have answered my questions. On WikiTree, everyone is working together to ultimately create one profile for each person. The interface and collaboration process takes some getting used to, but it’ is rewarding if you stick with it.

It’s not a microwave process; it’s more like a slow cooker. You know it takes longer, but it’s worth the wait!

Biggest Pro: Working with others who get genealogy and technology
Biggest Con: Learning curve does require patience

WikiTree Review by Super Annoyed,  Nov 19, 2012

This site appears to randomly add information about families whether correct or incorrect. Once someone (likely not a family member) has added your name (s),. it appears that there is no way of having your information removed. In this day of electronic information, it is extremely annoying to see that anyone can randomly add you and your family members to a website, with no accuracy regarding name spellings or relationships, and without a care about invading a family’s privacy. And when you try to have the information removed, you are promptly ignored!!! Shame on you! If my family wanted to be on here, we would have done so ourselves,. At least the information would have been accurate.

Biggest Pro: Gives nosey busy bodies something to do - invading peoples privacy!
Biggest Con: Information is mostly entered wrong, and cannot be removed!

WikiTree Review by Leslie Ann,  Oct 17, 2012

This format is not user friendly at all.

WikiTree Review by Heather MacKenzie,  Jun 3, 2012

I am looking to use wikitree as a research tool but do not know anyone that can invite me, I find it very frustrating as I can see there is information there regarding my family tree and I can not access it!!!!! I have no desire to change info on anyone tree but need further info for my own that I cannot access on various internet sites.

Biggest Pro: endless information

WikiTree Review by Larry Horst,  Feb 25, 2012

Do not trust this site, if you DO NOT USE OR SELDOM USE THIS HE WILL CANCEL YOU OUT AND TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR MATERIAL

Biggest Con: VERY UNTRUST WORTHY

WikiTree Review by Cheryl Oliver,  Feb 16, 2012

Anyone can enter information on this site, and it need not be accurate or factual. A distant cousins husband without any of our permission put my living family and our full names fully visible by not including birth dates and myself, my siblings my cousins and our children (a lot of whom are under 13) are all still fully Google searchable today and visible via the Wikitree site pages despite my many e-mails to Chris Whitten and messages on the Wikitree facebook page to get us removed.
We are not the only ones that this has happened to.
There is so much identity theft and fraud about, that there should be an advanced system in place, such as the one that Ancestry use, to make sure that living peoples details are not shown, as Ancestry explained to me that they themselves have to abide by the US Privacy 75 year law. This has caused our family immense grief and distress. I would personally use a far more professional website for my family tree, as anyone can add or alter information, it does not have to be correct, and I suspect that this website will be ideal for those who only wish to ‘collect relatives’ and are not concerned with the accuracy or ethics.

Biggest Pro: Ideal for those who wish instant quantity of relatives and are not concerned with accuracy.
Biggest Con: Privacy is easily bypassed and breached without recourse for correction and removal.

WikiTree Review by John Bewick,  Feb 6, 2012

Complex and unforgiving, but thorough and accurate.

Biggest Pro: ease of adding photos
Biggest Con: duplicates not replaced automatically or kicked back for an easy merge

WikiTree Review by Gabe,  Jan 2, 2012

A nice feature of collaborative family trees is that many pieces of the tree and of the story of the lives in the tree are already there for you. WikiTree shows you when your tree matches with someone else’s, and you can contact them to make a sort of merge. However, since it allows uploading of large gedcoms, many matches are wrong. If you have a match, merges require assent from the “owner” of a person to which you wish to merge. Thus you must accent to that owner’s privacy level for that profile. And I have found usually such a merge is impossible in any case, as many users aren’t active (which is normal). Thus there are an increasing number of duplicates. If you want a fun way to upload your family tree, WikiTree’s gedcom uploader is quite simple, if there color scheme is a bit garrish. If you want a true collaborative engine, WikiTree’s turn away from a wiki leaves them quite inferior.

Biggest Pro: gedcom upload, good marketing when geni jumped the shark
Biggest Con: poor merge system, poor match system, went big before its time

WikiTree Review by William Whitten Crosland,  Dec 3, 2011

I signed up for a WikiTree account just a few days ago, and I’ve been puttering about the site to see how it works. I should say that I’m about to reach my ninetieth birthday, so I’m not all that quick with these newfangled computer things, but I’m quite enjoying myself on the WikiTree website. The system is easy to learn and use, even for an all-thumbs codger such as myself. Most important, even after just a few days effort, I’ve been able to reconnect with a whole branch of my family that I’d lost contact with years and years ago. I’m sure that this reunion wouldn’t have come about without the WikiTree service, so to the people who manage this site, I say: Thanks kindly for making this service available free of charge. I couldn’t otherwise afford it. I’m certain that this website is bringing joy to people around the world.

Biggest Pro: Easy to learn and use, but still remarkably thorough at capturing geneaological information
Biggest Con: Too addictive; I should be pruning my hibiscus right now, but here I am on WikiTree

WikiTree Review by Mike Anderson,  Oct 6, 2011

Love the colaboration that this sote allows

Biggest Pro: easy to use/
Biggest Con: none really , just takes time to work it out & feel confident

WikiTree Review by Paula Hurwitz,  Sep 27, 2011

What a great site! My GEDCOM files were uploaded seamlessly and quickly. It took me a while to get used to WikiTree’s design, but — in a very short time, it became effortless. The help section is well organized and useful. For sticky problems, Chris Whitten is a gem. He replies quickly and explains things clearly. The privacy levels are very necessary and I like the idea that I can have the type of collaboration that I want for selected individuals. Potential merges are easy to find and the merge itself is easy to do. What is an extremely wonderful feature of WikiTree is that I can add unconnected family trees. Geni has yet to have that feature. With Geni, you need a different e-mail address for each unconnected tree, since the e-mail address is the username. Even though I’m a new Wiki-person, I’m a strong fan.

Biggest Pro: Adding multiple unconnected trees AND privacy.
Biggest Con: Nothing that I have discovered

WikiTree Review by rod watson,  Sep 22, 2011

I can see what Chris is doing with Wikitree and I applaud him for his attention to privacy , it does complicate things somewhat , slowing the posting of Gedcoms , if quick and dirty family records are your thing then this is not for you.
If total control over who sees what is your thing then you can’t go past WIKITREE .

Biggest Pro: Privacy plus
Biggest Con: You will probably have to recompile large Gedcoms

WikiTree Review by Jane Shipley,  Sep 21, 2011

I think this is a great idea, and thanks for the opportunity to provide feedback. I’m having trouble finding and fixing the privacy buttons. Likely just me in a hurry, but then I don’t have too much time to devote to this. Also, would like to put my grandfather’s children in order so that they appear chronologically on this page and don’t know how to do this. Also, when I make changes, I don’t always see them, even if I refresh the view.

Is there a feedback button that is up all of the time? I do a foreign language on Babbel and can easily send them suggestions for small improvements.

Biggest Pro: You being there.
Biggest Con: A bit of confusion.

WikiTree Review by Ray Therou,  Sep 21, 2011

I use Gramps Software and wikitree has been a very good complement to the organization and sharing of my information. Collaboration so far has been easy and safe to check and authorize. I had a bit of a learning curve on adding a gedcom file but the response and input was prompt and well done.

Biggest Pro: Its free and Cooperative.
Biggest Con: My own learning curve on anything newer than Pong.

WikiTree Review by Misty,  Sep 21, 2011

I’ve uploaded most of my tree. I’ve had several people that have asked to update my information. It’s great getting the new information.

Biggest Pro: Organization of seeing my tree, getting more useful information
Biggest Con: it’s free, there is no Con