When I first wrote the info on this page, I offered a number of tips to consider when choosing a technical solution to track your family history. Then in 2025, I discovered WikiTree. It's a great solution that I highly recommend. So I figured I'd tell you about it here and explain the reasons why I like it and why I think you should use it.

It's web-based.

I love the fact that WikiTree works entirely via their web site. This means there is no software for you to install. If you get a new computer, no problem. Just login to WikiTree on your new computer and you're all set. You don't have to figure out how to transfer your data to the new computer. If you're at a friend's house or at the library, no problem. Just login to the website. It also doesn't matter if you use Windows or Mac or Linux, etc.

Mobile access.

WikiTree's web interface works great on your phone. So if you're at a family reunion or a Christmas party and the subject of family history comes up, just visit the website on your phone and you can show all of your info to your family. And if your aunt tells you about a new ancestor that you didn't know about, just add them, right then and there.

The same goes for when you're out and about doing research, perhaps at the library or a cemetery. Just visit the website on your phone and start updating.

Just one word of caution. I use my desktop computer at home for all of my data entry. I have not yet used WikiTree on my phone for data entry (I only use it to view my family tree). My neice told me that data entry is somewhat clunky on the phone. So, take that for what it's worth.

It's one family tree.

The overall concept of how WikiTree works is very different than that of most all other genealogy programs. Their intent is to maintain one worldwide family tree. So, each person that exists on the tree should have only one profile (no duplicates). This is possible since the tool is web-based (it's not thousands of genealogists maintaining their own data on their own computers).

Let me explain further by giving you a real example. When I created my account on WikiTree, the first thing I did was enter my name, birthdate, and birth location. Then I added my parent's info. Now I've got three people in my tree. Then I added my grandparents' info and my great grandparents. If you do the math, I've now entered 15 people, so that's the extend of my family tree. Then I started entering the info about my 2nd great grandparents and this is where the power of WikiTree kicked in for me.

When I got to Oliver Champeau, my 2nd great grandfather, I entered his name, his birthdate, and his death date. When I clicked 'save', WikiTree popped up a message saying that he's already on WikiTree and asked me if I wanted to connect to his existing profile. I clicked the provided link to view his full profile and to make sure he's the same guy as my 2nd great grandfather (birth/death dates, spouse name, etc). All the info matched up so I connected to him instead of entering the info myself. Boom! Not only was my little tree now connected to him, I'm also connected to all of his ancestors that other genealogists had already entered. And if you think of this a little further, the person who originally entered his name is now connected to me.

This same situation happened when I entered the name Angus McGillivray, another 2nd great grandfather. Boom, I'm now connected to hundreds of people of whom I knew nothing just a minute ago.

Now, it's important to note that I had the option of ignoring those suggestions and just entering my 2nd great grandfather's info myself. What this does though is create duplicate profiles, something that WikiTree tries to avoid. What would probably happen then is at some point, another user will notice this and initiate a merge of those two profiles. Merging them is a good thing as it allows all users to benefit from the knowledge and research of all other users. I just love this approach to genealogy research.

Another thing that can be hard to get used to is the fact that I've had 100% control over all of my data for over 25 years now. But on WikiTree, someone else can edit information about MY ancestors. But I consider this a good thing, especially if someone else has information that I don't have. And this works both ways; everyone else benefits from the information that I'm entering.

Share data with family.

It doesn't take long before you become know as the "family genealogist." That's a good thing. And in that role, you'll occasionally get a call from a cousin or a nephew who's doing their own research or working on a school project and they need info. When this happens, it's nice to be able to give them access to your data.

I'll explain how this works with a real example. When my neice, Michele, wanted to see my family tree, here's how I did it before I started using WikiTree. I exported all of my data to a GEDCOM file (which any good genealogy program can do) and sent that file to my neice. She then had to install an app on her phone, copy the GEDCOM file to her phone, and then import it. I also had to give her all of the photos that I have (hundreds). Overall this process works, but it takes a bit of effort.

But, think about it, my research continued. I added new people, new photos, etc. In order for her to see those changes, I needed to re-export my data and send her the new GEDCOM file (and any new images, etc). So now it's starting to get clunky.

After I discovered WikiTree, I told Michele to create her own account. Then, click on my mother's profile (I sent her the link). Then add her mom (my sister) as the daughter of my Mom. Then I told my neice to add her own name as her Mom's daughter. Done. At that point, Michele had only entered two people (herself and her Mom) and she's already connected to all of the people that I had entered. And, she's also connected to all of the ancestors of Oliver Champeau who I mentioned earlier. So she could now browse her family tree and see all of those ancestors and all she did was enter two people.

Now, what Michele does next is up to her. She can just stop there and not enter any more data, and she'll continue to benefit from the data that I enter. Or if she wants, she can start entering her Dad's data (which I don't have) and go from there. And, like me, she'll probaby start entering a name that's already on WikiTree and boom. You get the idea.

So, I hope you can see how powerful this can be. WikiTree is a collaborative effort by genealogists all over the world.

Specific features.

Search for a Person

WikiTree makes it easy to find someone using the Search for a Person option. Just enter their name along with their birth/death dates if you have them and search. They'll give you a list of people who match. You can then navigate to each profile to learn more about that person, view their tree, and perhaps figure out if they are your relation.

If you're brand new to WikiTree, this might be an interesting place to start. Search for one of your great grandparents or any of your ancestors. If you find one, realize that all you have to do is enter enough of your own data to connect to them, and then boom, you're whole family tree expands.

Relationship Finder

Using WikiTree's relationship finder, they'll tell me if and how I'm related to another profile. To do this, you just need to know the ID of the two people. For example, my ID is Crevier-573. Based on some info I read, I thought I might be related to Pope Leo XIV. So I searched WikiTree to see if someone had already entered his profile, and it was there; his ID is Prevost-1162. So I entered these two IDS and boom, WikiTree quickly told me that we are 9th cousins once removed.

Connections

In addition to the above-mentioned features, the My Connections option will list for you all of the people you're connected to. It even has an option called "Featured Connections" where it will tell you if you're related to key people, like the Pope.

When I die.

I know that's a strange heading for this section, but it is indeed something I think about. What happens to all of this work that I've created after I'm gone? With WikiTree, it's all still out there for someone else to maintain. They even offer some guidance for this situation with a possible Advance Directive which allows them to know my intentions about who should maintain my data when I'm gone.

If I only use an installed program, then someone will need to install that same program on their computer and then figure out how to get the data files from my computer to theirs. Or, if they have a different program already installed, they could export the data on my computer to a GEDCOM file and then get that file onto their computer. So, this method is definitely possible, but it's pretty clumsy.

Two important rules.

There are two rules (among others) that WikiTree follows that I really like.

1. Privacy: WikiTree respects the privacy of living people. In order to do that, they encourage against creating a profile for someone who is still living unless it's me or my immediate family. Suffice it to say that if you view the profile of a living person (like my profile), you will not see details. But you can still navigate from there by clicking on either of my parents or any other ancestor.
   
   
2. Sources: On WikiTree you must indicate the source of any information you add. Simply put, you have to indicate where you got the information. For example, when I uploaded my own photo, WikiTree asked me to enter the location where the photo was taken along with the date. When adding my grandparents, I simply entered "personal family knowledge" for the source. When entering someone born before 1700, the requirements are more strict. This information is very helpful down the line when resolving issues of conflicting data.

The cost.

WikiTree is free.

My solutions.

Since I started using WikiTree in 2025, I've been entering data there. But, I've been doing this for over 25 years, so I also have a number of other tools that I'm still using. It's not ideal to enter data in two places. But that's the situation I'm in. I really like WikiTree where I've created about 60 profiles of ancestors, but since I still have the other tools, I'll describe them here.

Windows 11 installed programs

• The Master Genealogist (TMG)
  I've been using TMG for many years now and I love it. It's a very advanced program and can be somewhat technical but it works great and it can track everything you'd ever want to track in your family history. Unfortunately the guy who created it ended its development and support in 2014. But TMG still works well and has a great user community (just no more updates). So I don't necessarily recommend for everyone, but it's my main genealogy program.
• GEDKeeper
  This is a simple, free program that allows you to browse the contents of a GEDCOM file. I use that if someone else (like my uncle) has data that I want, but I don't want to import it into my tree yet. I just want to browse through it and see what's there. Sometimes I'll view a person in GEDKeeper in one window while manually entering the data into TMG or WikiTree in another window.

Web-based solutions

• WikiTree.com
  For all the reasons I provided above, I absolutely love WikiTree. Since it doesn't cost anything, just do it and see what you think.
• Ancestry.com
  I have an account on Ancestry and it seems to work great, but it just got to be too expensive for me. So I downgraded to their limited free version. But, one great thing about Ancestry is that they occasionally email you with new data about your family. For example, you'll get an email saying that they found the military record of your grandfather. Or, as other people update their family trees, they'll email you to tell you that they found a new relative of yours. Genealogy research can be difficult and time-consuming, and it's nice to know that Ancestry is "working on" my family tree for me even when I'm sleeping.
• Newspapers.com
  This is a great resource. It's not free but it's worth it. Ancestry (above) also has an account level that includes a subscription to Newspapers.com. They have scanned versions of thousands of editions of thousands of newspapers. And the text search capabilities is phenominal. Even without an account, just go there and search for your grandfather's obituary. They'll show you just enough of a screenshot to get you interested; you'll probably want to sign up.
• Geni.com
  I only recently discovered Geni. So far I like it. It's also a paid service, but I have the free account which comes with very limited features.

Mobile solutions

All of my suggestions here are for Android phones because that's what I use.

• WikiTree.com
  Yeah, WikiTree is great.
• TurboScan
  This is a great program to scan photos and documents. If you're at the library doing research and you want to save a copy of a few pages, just scan each page with your phone. If you're at a relative's house and you want to save your own copy of a photo, just scan it with your phone. You can upload all of your scanned images to Google Drive, or you can even merge them into a PDF file first and then upload that.
• GedStar Pro
  I also love GedStar Pro. It has a companion app for Windows that reads my TMG data and creates a data file that I then sync over to my phone. Unfortunately, this is an app that is no longer developed (yeah, I know, I'm an old-timer and love these old apps), but it still works great. I really like the format of the family data on my phone. It displays photos and families very nicely and I love the relationship calculator.
• Family Gem
  This is a nice free app that simply displays the contents of a GEDCOM file. It's great if someone else wants to share their data with you and you just want to browse through it. Or you can also export your data to a GEDCOM file and someone else can use this app to view your family tree.
• GEDexplorer
  This is similar to Family Gem, it just displays your data a little differently.

My final recommendation.

I've suggested many solutions here, so where do you start? Just use WikiTree. Period. It's that simple. All of their features are geared toward how genealogy should be managed. It's a collaborative effort where all of us users agree to work together to maintain this data. We also agree to do our very best at quoting sources. And we agree to be civil with each other as we maintain data about our common ancestors.

As you get further into your genealogy research, maybe you'll find that you need more; at that point, come back here and see if I've offered advice for that situation.

A fun thing to note is that WikiTree made it easy for me to see how I'm related to Pope Leo XIV (9th cousin once removed) and Glenn Frey (8th cousin twice removed) and Matt LaBlanc (11th cousin) and Madonna (8th cousin twice removed). These are all blood relatives of mine. So, if you're related to me, perhaps you'll also see these connections once you've entered enough data. Here's my WikiTree profile:

WikiTree.com/wiki/Crevier-573

Good luck in your research. I hope you have as much fun and success as I've had.