Source-a-Thon XI is almost here!

 Companion post to Episode 5 of A Country Girl Rambles, "Source-a-Thon XI Is Almost Here!" Everything you need to know to join in, and what's coming up right after.

October is Family History Month, and on WikiTree that means one thing: the Source-a-Thon is almost here! It's one of four annual marathons on WikiTree, and this year it runs 2–5 October, kicking off at 8am ET!


So, what is it? For the whole marathon, WikiTreers from all over the world work together to add sources to unsourced profiles. Sources are part of the WikiTree Honor Code, but not every profile starts out with one. Sometimes a profile was added from family memory, or by someone who was just getting started. That doesn't mean the information isn't worth keeping! It just means it's waiting for someone to confirm it, and that's where we come in.

How to join in

You do need to register ahead of time to officially take part. Registration is free, like everything on WikiTree, and you'll get a Source-a-Thon badge for your profile. You can register here, but don't wait: registration closes tonight at midnight!

Everyone who participates is also part of a team. Teams are just groups of WikiTreers working together and cheering each other on during the marathon, and a lot of them stick together long after it's over! Some teams focus on a particular location or surname, so if you have a favorite, look for a team that matches. If you've taken part in a previous Source-a-Thon or Connect-a-Thon, mention your team when you register.

If you missed it, Eowyn and I did a livecast on Saturday about how to register and participate in the Source-a-Thon. It's a great place to start if you've never done one before, or if you'd like a refresher.

Finding unsourced profiles

The Unsourced Profiles category is the obvious place to start, but it isn't the only one! There are quite a few profiles out there that don't have a source and were never marked with the category, and they count too. There are lots of ways to find them, but one of my favorites is WikiTree+. Just search using the magic word biocheckunsourced, and add a surname or location to narrow it down to the profiles you'd most like to work on.

What counts as a source?

Valid sources are records like censuses, birth, marriage, and death records, military documents, land records, and wills. Another family tree, like an Ancestry Member Tree or the FamilySearch Family Tree, doesn't count as a source, and neither do memorial sites like FindAGrave and BillionGraves. Also, profiles created during the weekend are not eligible for the marathon. In other words, you can't create an unsourced profile and then source it!

When you find a source, add it to the profile, remove the Unsourced template or category if there is one, and save. If you search and can't find anything, add a Research Notes section saying where you looked. That way, the next person knows where to start!

And while you're on a profile, why not give it a little extra love? Whole-profile editing means looking at the entire profile, not just the one fact you came to source. Is the biography readable? Are the dates and places formatted correctly? Are the family members attached? Once you've got the record in front of you, it doesn't take much more to leave the whole profile better than you found it.

A few tools make this so much easier. WikiTree Sourcer will build a citation for you straight from the record you're looking at, and the WikiTree Browser Extension adds a lot of helpful features to your editing screen.

For the full rules, see the Source-a-Thon help page.

Livecasts and hangouts

You won't be sourcing alone! Throughout the weekend, there are marathon livecasts on YouTube and hangouts on Zoom, where you can pop in, ask questions, and cheer each other on. Check the Challenge Hangouts page for the schedule.

And come join me for the kick-off livecast on YouTube on Friday at 8am ET!

Ten years of sourcing

The very first Source-a-Thon was back in 2016, and the community has been chipping away at unsourced profiles every year since. Here's how many profiles were sourced in each of the last ten years, from the Prior Source-a-Thons table:

  • 2016: 22,604
  • 2017: 53,245
  • 2018: 72,713
  • 2019: 59,703
  • 2020: 57,577
  • 2021: 56,972
  • 2022: 63,445
  • 2023: 77,292
  • 2024: 54,527
  • 2025: 55,409

That's 573,487 profiles in ten years! The record so far is 2023, with 77,292. What do you think, can we top it this year?

Prizes!

The genealogy community has been so generous this year, and there are some really great door prizes, drawn at random throughout the marathon. Here are just a few:

And that's not even all of them! You can see the full list on the help page.

Right after the marathon: Blaine Bettinger!

Once the Source-a-Thon wraps up, the October WikiTree Challenge begins, and our guest this month is Blaine Bettinger! If you're into DNA at all, you probably already know his name. For the WikiTree Challenge, the community spends the month researching our guest's family tree, breaking down brick walls, and adding sources and connections, and then we reveal everything we found at the end. I'm so excited for this one, and I hope you'll come help!

In case you missed it

It's been a busy week around WikiTree! The recordings from these are now up on our YouTube channel:

Coming up

Tonight: Source-a-Thon registration closes at midnight. Sign up if you haven't yet!

Tomorrow: The Germany Project is hosting a Zoom presentation, Researching Early 20th-Century Immigrant Ancestors from Germany to the United States.

Friday: The Source-a-Thon kicks off at 8am ET, and runs through 5 October!

For everything else coming up on WikiTree, check out Help:Calendar.

Will I see you at the Source-a-Thon? Let me know which team you're on!

Hope to see you around the branches!

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