I know, at some point, I’ve probably upset people by asking questions about their family tree. I haven’t come back with a quick solution, I haven’t filled in an ancestor for them, I haven’t gotten them to Scotland while they’re stuck in Northern America, and the like.
I have said it before, but I will remind you again, I will help you do your genealogy, but I will not do it for you. My purpose is to connect Murrays, those with Murray name variations and allied families, and place others in their rightful place in history. Genealogy only has real value to you when you have put forth the effort to locate and chart your own ancestors.
As I talk with people at Celtic festivals and games and try to connect them to a clan, it never ceases to amaze me at how many clans have disappeared over time and, luckily, sometimes been absorbed into other clans, or how many clans have lost their chiefs (armigerous clans) and continue to shrink in size. The same goes for families, be they large or small. When your family line dies out, it’s GONE. Period.
If you’ve followed my contributions to the Aitionn for any length of time, you know I do a lot of work on an online site called Wikitree (www.wikitree.com). I encourage you to check it out and join. If you join and learn to use Wikitree, a lot of your research may have already been done for you by one of the one million+ genealogists on Wikitree. The same is true of other sites, but most of those that are really useful cost money, perhaps hundreds of dollars a year. Meanwhile, Wikitree is FREE!
Let me take a minute to introduce you to “Wiki” and explain what it is. By definition, a Wiki is an online database. But what differentiates it from other databases you may have encountered, a Wiki is a database to which anyone in the world can gain access. Once they are in it, they can add or delete information, re-arrange it, change its appearance, and much more. If you put “junk” in Wikitree, someone will eventually identify it as such and come back to question your input. You, of course, can do the same for others you find adding problematic information. This is the purpose of the Honor Code you pledge to adhere to when you join Wikitree. More about that in a second.
I have worked on Wikitree since 2013 and am approaching 27,500 contributions. I have added hundreds of Murrays to the site over the years, as well as others related to the Murrays, and my own non-Murray ancestors. Approximately 500 Wikitree members are working on Murray profiles.
Anyone can join Wikitree. By signing the Honor Code you’re basically saying you won’t add anything to the site without a source and a date. There are other conditions, but these are the primary ones.
Sadly, there are still thousands of profiles with neither a source nor a date. Probably holdovers from the early years after Wikitree was founded.
As I write this, there are 37 geographical projects and 23 themed projects that cover most of the globe and the various groups of people who have lived on it. There are also 27 functional projects designed to help Wikitree work correctly and efficiently. Any member of Wikitree can join almost any project and get even more in-depth research into projects of interest.
If you want to concentrate on just Murrays, here are a couple of things I think you should know:
Perform a search for the Murray surname. If you look closely, there are over 27,000 Murray profiles in the Wikitree database. There are also several variations and/or similarities in spelling in the upper right-hand corner. If you sort the page by date order you will see several ways the information can be sorted to make it more useful to you on the right side of the page.
The main advantage, as I see it, is that in Wikitree each one of these individuals has a Profile Manager (PM), a Wikitree member who “watches” over it. If you make a change to a profile after you join and begin working, the PM will be able to see what you did. In fact, there is a CHANGES link in each Profile that tells you about all the changes made since it was first created.
The only other thing I’ll say at this point is that most people are satisfied with being “Certified” to work on Profiles dated from 1700 to the present. There is a higher-level certification for those who want to work on profiles before 1500, but it takes extra time and effort to earn it. You can “wander” though the names and find out a lot about each person just by reading through their profiles. Some have a lot of information, some have nothing (like one old profile I’ve seen is based on the one date and one source rule). The goal is to get something down for each person you end up “adopting” as a PM.
The other way I’m working with Murrays on Wikitree is in a One-Name Study (ONS). I manage a page that lays out the criteria for identifying Murrays and then adding their names to the study. There are also several online links to other sites that give more information about surnames. There is a related, but separate, ONS for Mc/MacMurray. It’s time-consuming adding people to the study and I’m only adding my profiles and those without Managers, or Orphaned Profiles. I am currently up to about 1834, and as you might expect the list gets bigger each year.
A couple things before I wrap this up:
I could spend hours talking about how Wikitree works. What is better for you is to join and then explore the site or explore and then join. If you decide to join, please let me know.
You can use Wikitree for all your ancestors, not just your Murrays. Much of the information I’ve been telling you to collect on your relatives and fill out a family tree is already online at Wikitree.
If you find a profile you can add a lot of information to, do it. If you can only add a little, like a birth date or a location, do that as well. Every little bit helps.
If you find yourself on one of my profiles and find a problem, let me know. If you want to make it better, go for it. If you delete something, common courtesy is to tell the PM what you would like to do. The PM doesn’t “own” the site, but I know I take a lot of personal pride in what I’ve put online and would like to know that it’s correct.
Loading a tree to Wikitree is a long, involved process that requires a lot of cleanups, merging, back-and-forth chats with other PMs, and the like. Don’t use Wikitree as your research database. Use any other online site you like, including Ancesty.com, MyHeritage.com, FamilySearch.org, Geneanet.com, americanancestors.org, geni.com, or others that allow you to upload family trees.
Remember, too, that this article was originally aimed at Murrays. Everything I’ve written here will work for any family in Wikitree. Just do a search and find them. Good luck!
