Why WikiTree (And Why I Won't Shut Up About It)
People ask me, sometimes politely and sometimes not, why I do genealogy on a website where anybody can edit my work instead of building a private tree where nobody can touch it. Fair question. Here's the honest answer: I tried private trees first. They didn't work — not because the software was bad, but because the whole model is bad. You end up with cousins three states apart, each quietly convinced their tree is the correct one, neither of you finding out you disagree until a DNA match forces the conversation. WikiTree fixes that by refusing to let it happen in the first place. One profile per person. One Wilson Jones, not four private copies of him scattered across four accounts, four subscriptions, four logins that will all lapse eventually. If I add a source to my grandmother's profile, every single person researching her — and there are more of them than I used to think — sees it the moment I save. If I'm wrong about something, someone corrects me, on the spot, ...
