TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

It's Too Soon To Jump On Wiki Bandwagon

ADVERTISEMENT

By SHARON TATE MOODY, Tribune correspondent

Published: October 28, 2007

I confess to diving gleefully into the computer age, embracing the Internet with zeal. 'Google' is one of my favorite words. But, as a genealogist, I'm not yet sold on 'wiki.'

A wiki, the Hawaiian word for 'quick,' is a medium that can be edited by anyone with access to it. One of the most widely recognized and used wikis is Wikipedia (wikipe dia.org), an open-content encyclopedia that reportedly offers more information than the Encyclopædia Britannica.

The wiki hasn't caught on as quickly in the genealogy world as it has in some venues. Perhaps other genealogists are as hesitant as I am to sacrifice research to the editing pens of family historians of unknown credentials and abilities.

The Web site with the most respectable credential is WeRelate, sponsored by the Foundation for On-Line Genealogy. Its credibility comes from its partnership with the Allen County Public Library in Indiana, the second largest genealogy library in the world after the LDS Library in Salt Lake City. Learn more at www.werelate.org/wiki.

Another genealogical wiki getting off the ground and still in beta testing is that of TreeX (treex.com).

Wikis may prove to be valuable to researchers who want to collaborate on a specific family history. Someone posts a family history or family story, and others who register with the site can go into the work and edit or make changes with which they disagree. WeRelate and TreeX allow you to determine who has access to your project, or you can post it for the world to edit.

When I first began my family research in the early 1970s, the only way to communicate with those willing to share information was by telephone or postal mail. Message boards and interest-group mailing lists have been a godsend for those of us who remember the weeks of waiting for the mail carrier to deliver that package from the distant cousin we had discovered.

We've seen how quickly inaccurate genealogies have spread like viruses through the Internet. Untrained family historians too readily embrace materials without proof or sources, add their own 'gossip' to them and send them into the world for absorption by other gullible, uneducated researchers.

After about a decade of proliferation of this poorly constructed genealogical research, many family lines are hopelessly tangled. This is what scares me about wikis. When the uneducated begin editing the work of others who innocently use a wiki to share with fellow researchers, what monster will result?

Even though the initial contributors can edit back to their original writings, it may not happen before erroneous materials have been copied into individual files around the world.

Not normally a naysayer about new uses of technology, my word is 'caution' on these wikis. Only time will tell if they prove to be valuable and widely used.

What's Being Published?

Those of us whose interest in genealogy dates back two decades or more can remember when there were few publications focused on the topic. None of the how-to books currently on our shelves had been written.

Today there are so many things being written and published in print and online that it's a challenge to keep up.

Checking Genealogy Librarian News (genlibrarian.blog spot.com) is one way to keep abreast of what's being published. View it periodically on your own, or sign up for free e-mail alerts.

Jewish Genealogical Society Meeting

George Morgan of Odessa will present a program on searching Ancestry.com to the Jewish Genealogical Society of Tampa Bay on Nov. 4. The society will meet at Gulf Coast Jewish Family Services, 14041 Icot Blvd., Clearwater. A social with refreshments and library access will begin at 1:30 p.m. with the program at 2.

Ancestry.com is an online family history site with more than 4 billion names in its research databases. Morgan will explore some of the more obscure but useful databases on the site.

Anyone interested in learning about Jewish genealogical research can attend the society's meetings. For information on the organization or directions to the meeting, call Sally Israel at (727) 343-1652.

Sharon Tate Moody is president of the Association of Professional Genealogists. Send your genealogy questions and event announcements to her in care of BayLife, The Tampa Tribune, 200 S. Parker St., Tampa FL 33606 or wmoody3@tampabay.rr.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT