We Relate Doesn’t Relate, So Get Wet!

WeRelate is hard to use and well…. pretty much useless.  They claim that it is a service that allows genealogists to make a website without HTML knowledge.  I know basic HTML knowledge and I’m completely lost.  In fact, it does not seem to work with basic HTML linking tags.  I uploaded a gedcom to their Family Tree Explorer.  When you upload a Gedcom to their Family Tree Explorer it says it may take up to an hour.  It took about five minutes.  The data transfer is a mess.  The interface is awful and non user friendly.  Although, it is the only wiki service that I have seen that allows the user to upload a gedcom file and display it across several wiki pages.  Maybe once they establish themselves and improve their interface, it will be worthwhile to use.  Until then, if you want to create a wiki for your family research I suggest using a non genealogy service such as Wetpaint or Wiki.com.  I personally use wetpaint for the Pytlewski Family History Wiki.  It has some adds, but for the most part its a very easy to use and simple wiki service.

Here’s one of WeRelate’s press releases describing the service or watch their video.

 The Genealogy Center at the Allen County Public Library (Fort Wayne, Indiana) and the Foundation for On-Line Genealogy, Inc., announce a partnership in operating WeRelate.org, a new social networking website for genealogy. WeRelate.org is totally FREE and makes it easy to upload family trees and images, find and connect with other family members, share research easily, and extend lines. WeRelate.org is now the largest English language genealogical wiki in the world. In the past few weeks, WeRelate.org has uploaded over 73,000 ancestor wiki pages. WeRelate.org also has more than 430,000 wiki pages for current and historical inhabited places, 115,000 given and surname wiki pages, and 1.3 million wiki source pages. Please watch our new video.

WeRelate.org offers:

• Family Tree Explorer. WeRelate.org recently released the online Family Tree Explorer, which makes creating and navigating family trees easier than ever before. The Family Tree Explorer displays pedigree, descendancy, or combined pedigree/descendancy views (showing as many generations as desired) on the left side of a split screen with detailed ancestor or family information on the right.

• GEDCOM upload. People can create pages for their ancestors one at a time or by uploading GEDCOM files. Nicely formatted life stories including biographies, annotated photos, scanned source documents, and 44 different life events can be created without the need to know HTML.

• Annotated images. Researchers can upload all their documentation and family photos, so they can completely document their work online. Annotations are notes attached to images. This allows researchers to label each person in a group photograph or point out information in a hard-to-read original document.

• Work on the same page. Since cousins all work on the same web page, they won’t need to endure merging their GEDCOMs or endless rounds of photocopying and mailing. Each participant can share research successes and dead ends, instantly and online. Research can be efficiently coordinated, planned, and organized.

• Pedigree maps. Automatically generated pedigree maps show where the people in a five-generation pedigree chart migrated across time and place.

• Automated collaboration. Email notifications are sent to interested persons whenever a fellow genealogist adds something new to a “watched” page. Messages can also be sent inside the system, so researchers can work together without exchanging email addresses or other personal information.

The Foundation for On-Line Genealogy, Inc. will continue developing the software and hosting the web site, and the Allen County Public Library will provide administrative and support services. WeRelate is a FREE public service supported by tax-deductible donations. The Genealogy Center at the Allen County Public Library houses over an acre of genealogy materials under one roof and is the second largest genealogy library in the world. The Foundation for On-Line Genealogy is a non-profit organization dedicated to making family history research easier, faster, and more rewarding.