Help:Integrating your research

Integrating your research

To meet its goal of a unified family tree with a single page for each person, WeRelate relies on its contributors to integrate their research with the genealogy already documented at WeRelate. WeRelate has no concept of individual ownership or management of Person or Family pages. Thus, every contributor is responsible for integration and is expected to do so with respect and integrity.

Integration is required when:

• You are doing manual data entry and find that a page already exists for the person or family you intended to add. You incorporate the existing page into your tree and have the opportunity to update it.
• You are reviewing potential matches during a GEDCOM review and are given the option to add your GEDCOM information to what already exists.
• You are merging duplicate pages and are required to select which information to retain from each page.

Getting it right

The first step of integration is to make sure that it is appropriate - that is:

• If you found a page to add to your tree, make sure it is for the person or family you think it is for.
• If the system found a potential match during a GEDCOM upload, make sure it is actually a match.
• Before doing a merge, make sure the pages are for the same person/family.

Keep in mind that it is better to have 2 pages for the same person than 1 page that represents 2 different people, which can be difficult to untangle in the future.

Updating an existing page

The second step of integration is to determine whether you can improve the existing page. If your data isn't more accurate or comprehensive and your sources aren't better than what is already on the page, there is no need to update the page. This is a good time to refresh your familiarity with WeRelate conventions, in particular, the conventions for events and facts, source citations, and narratives.

If you encounter conflicting information (e.g., different birth years), attempt to resolve the issue if you can (one source might be significantly more reliable than another). Don't automatically assume that your own data is better, even if you consider yourself to be a careful and thorough researcher and documenter, since everyone makes mistakes from time to time. If you can't resolve the issue, decide whether it is worth adding alternate information to the existing page. For example:

• It is reasonable to add an alternate birth date of "12 Sep 1836" when the existing birth date is "12 Sep 1835" and the sources supporting each are comparably reliable.
• Adding an alternate birth date of "abt 1836" when the existing birth date is "abt 1835" doesn't improve the page and makes it less readable.

If you are updating a page during GEDCOM review or merging pages, you might need to add an entire note or narrative to get one part that is not already on the existing page. After you do so, be sure to edit the page and remove redundancy between what already existed and what you added. Consider the page's readability and either improve it or at least don't make it any worse than it was before.

You might also take this opportunity to improve the existing page in other ways, such as bringing it more in line with WeRelate conventions.

If you decide to update an existing page, remember to follow Wiki etiquette. You are not required to contact the creator of a page before updating it (although that would be courteous if they just added or edited the page, in case they had further changes pending). However, if you plan to replace or remove information, please provide an explanation (even a brief one), as doing so signals that you have treated the existing information with respect.