WikiTree Search Hints, Suggestions, and Review

Disclosure: This website is free. It is supported by advertising and affiliate links which may provide commissions to us.

WikiTree has a good search capability with the exception of using birth and death locations. For example, U.S. state names need to be spelled out for birth and death locations. This means you need to search with "Maryland" and not the standard "MD" abbreviation. A search with "MD" may provide no results when searching instead with "Maryland" provides results. It is best to skip using birth and death locations when searching unless you are getting too many results. Some other websites are better at handling different names and abbreviations for birth and death locations.

Ways to Search the WikiTree Family Tree

  • The Best Way to Search the WikiTree Family Tree: Go to Your Active Family Tree Searches on this website for easier searching. At Your Active Family Tree Searches page, you need only to enter your ancestor data once to search all the websites. Your Active Family Tree Searches is a free service that creates the optimal searches for your ancestor data to help with researching your genealogy.
  • Manually search the WikiTree family tree yourself. This will open a new window so you can refer back to the search hints and suggestions above as well as the review below.

Review of the WikiTree Family Tree

Highlights: The mission of WikiTree is for genealogists to collaborate with each other in order to connect the human family on one tree that's free and accessible to everyone. (See my concern about such universal family trees.) Nevertheless, the people involved in maintaining WikiTree seem to be committed to high standards of quality and documentation. The website does not have original documents, but instead uses citations. Also, at the time this review was written, WikiTree is the only shared or universal tree that allows for attaching a person's DNA information.

For more features, see the table below.

See the definition of terms for any questions on the meaning of the entries in the table below.

Features of the WikiTree Family Tree
  Feature Comment
x free family tree searches  
  paid family tree searches  
x free viewing of pedigrees  
  paid viewing of pedigrees  
x free downloads of pedigrees  
  paid downloads of pedigrees  
x any supporting documentation shown with the family tree Only references are shown. They can be links to sources on other websites.
* free viewing of supporting documentation * This depends on if the sources referenced on other websites allow free viewing of documentation.
  paid viewing of supporting documentation  
x contact information for family tree submitter  
x ability to share editing of your family tree with others The nature of the WikiTree is a shared editing environment.
  ability to see all the trees or names submitted by a researcher  
  ability to restrict searches to updates since a specific time  
x searches with name of spouse  
x searches with names of parents  
  searches with names of children  
x searches by place of birth  
  searches by place of marriage  
x searches by place of death  
x searches by country  
x searches by state, province, or political subdivision  
x searches by date of birth  
  searches by date of marriage  
x searches by date of death  
x ability to specify date ranges for searching  
x searches by exact spelling of names  
x searches by similar sounding spellings of names  
x uploading of your family tree  
x interactive editing of the online version of your family tree  
  ability to delete the online version of your family tree  
  ability to keep your family tree private, should you prefer that  
  automatic suggestions for matches in other family trees or documents based on your family tree  
x Your DNA results can be attached to your family tree  

WikiTree Search Hints Context

Other Family Tree Search Hints, Suggestions, and Reviews