Findmypast's Global Family Tree

[kiterunner]

Just seen this on FMP:

https://www.findmypast.co.uk/worldtree

They say this:

Millions of people around the world are collaborating to combine their family trees into one, single, global family tree.

Private Findmypast family trees are not included in our new global family tree searches

Our common goal: To spend less time searching for ancestors and more time discovering and connecting.

Surely the problem is going to be "garbage in, garbage out" as people will be adding poorly-researched trees which are wrong, just like with every other similar project which has been tried before.

[kiterunner]

Reading through the FAQ's etc, it is still in beta and you can't add your own tree to it yet.

For those wondering where the initial records have come from, there is this:

Findmypast has selected FamilySearch, curators of the largest shared tree in the world with 1.2 billion unique ancestor names, as the cornerstone of this initiative... Ancestry's OneWorldTree was largely a computer-generated tree, whereas Findmypast's new product is based on the FamilySearch family tree, which is curated by a vibrant community of users.

So, definitely full of rubbish! And as for the "unique ancestor names" and it being "one single tree", just searching for one particular ancestor who I know crops up in lots of trees with wrong information, I found five different versions of him on there.

[Mary from Italy]

What a ridiculous idea.

[ElizabethHerts]

Oh dear, what a mess this is going to be.


There will be a lot of misinformation, which will be indistinguishable from the proper information without considerable research.

[NickiP]

I wonder if they are simply linking to Familysearch's One Family Tree so that any entries are simply added to that.

[kiterunner]

It doesn't read like that, Nicki.

[HarrysMum]

Ooooh...off to see if I'm still related to Jesus....and every republican president of USA. :)

[NickiP]

It doesn't read like that, Nicki.

Haven't seen it, just a bit cynical.:D

Edit - just had a look at the FAQs and it does say Familysearch is the cornerstone of it so makes me wonder if they are making use of the Familysearch One Tree and it will get added but who knows I'm just very cynical.

[Lindsay]

The Independent had this story about an attempt by scientists to build one family tree using DNA and publicly available genealogy data:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/family-tree-13-million-people-migration-europe-north-america-scientists-creation-a8234911.html

Drawing conclusions about longevity genes from that sounds a bit dodgy to me, if the number of my ancestors who died of disease and accidents are typical.

[Kit]

I know this tree has many errors but could you imagine if it had been done properly, how useful it could be.

One can dream ...

[kiterunner]

I am actually finding this can be useful in seeing how some of my shared DNA matches are related to each other, although as already stated, it is not always going to be correct. It seems to be free to view even if you don't have an FMP sub.

[kiterunner]

It's unavailable now and there is a message:

Thank you for visiting our family tree [beta]
We’re busy building lots of exciting new features, which means you won’t be able to use the tree for a bit. But if you’ve already been working on one don’t worry - we’ll let you as soon it’s back.

I hope one of the exciting new features is that it can calculate how two people are related (if they are). Will have to wait and see.