3 ms·

The Wikipedia of genealogy: a family tree for the entire human race, which everyone can edit and add to.

Banzai10 17y ago
Not sure how to monetize this, but the idea seems very cool for me, it would be great to meet my whole family, and how do we get in Brazil :D
TrevorJ 17y ago
I really like that. There really isn't anything out there like this?
dstorrs 17y ago
Although I've often wished such a thing existed, you run into a significant set of problems with accuracy. For example, the Mormons are big on genealogy; many of them are extremely reliable sources, but many are not--e.g., their genealogy files contain "Noah" and similar figures. On the other hand, if the information is accurate, it raises major privacy concerns. Most reliable sources will not display the backgrounds of living people to the general public. If this were world-write, what's to stop someone from adding my grandparents, parents (thereby giving away my mother's maiden name), and myself without my knowledge? I might not want pieces of this information known--for example, if I were 1/8 $RACE and I lived in an area with a strong prejudice against $RACE, I would not want that fact known. I might not even be aware of this lineage myself--it could come as a real surprise, and possibly an unpleasant one.
- Jakob 17y ago
  Not to mention how unpleasant would be the fact that another man adds one as his son (and he's not lying).
- derefr 17y ago
  Using your mother's maiden name as a secret should have died out a long time ago. Public geneaology is an argument against it, not the other way 'round.
  - dstorrs 17y ago
    Unfortunately, some places still either require this information, or treat it as some sort of reasonable evidence for your identity. My solution is to give my provider's my mother's maiden name when required, but to deliberately misspell it. This solves the first problem but not the second.
Jakob 17y ago
Interesting read about this project from wired. [Human Family Tree: Shallow Roots] http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2006/07/71298?currentPage=all http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2006/07/71298?curren... First common ancestor 1000 A.D.!
mrshoe 17y ago
http://familysearch.org http://familysearch.org and in beta: http://new.familysearch.org http://new.familysearch.org http://pilot.familysearch.org http://pilot.familysearch.org
run4yourlives 17y ago
Now I can finally explain my superpowers to the world. :-)
quickpost 17y ago
http://www.geni.com/ http://www.geni.com/ is pretty close. Started by a former PayPal guy, I believe.
aw3c2 17y ago
While this surely would be very very interesting I am scared about privacy.

Not sure how to monetize this, but the idea seems very cool for me, it would be great to meet my whole family, and how do we get in Brazil :D

TrevorJ 17y ago

I really like that. There really isn't anything out there like this?

dstorrs 17y ago

Although I've often wished such a thing existed, you run into a significant set of problems with accuracy. For example, the Mormons are big on genealogy; many of them are extremely reliable sources, but many are not--e.g., their genealogy files contain "Noah" and similar figures. On the other hand, if the information is accurate, it raises major privacy concerns. Most reliable sources will not display the backgrounds of living people to the general public. If this were world-write, what's to stop someone from adding my grandparents, parents (thereby giving away my mother's maiden name), and myself without my knowledge? I might not want pieces of this information known--for example, if I were 1/8 $RACE and I lived in an area with a strong prejudice against $RACE, I would not want that fact known. I might not even be aware of this lineage myself--it could come as a real surprise, and possibly an unpleasant one.

Jakob 17y ago
Not to mention how unpleasant would be the fact that another man adds one as his son (and he's not lying).
derefr 17y ago
Using your mother's maiden name as a secret should have died out a long time ago. Public geneaology is an argument against it, not the other way 'round.
- dstorrs 17y ago
  Unfortunately, some places still either require this information, or treat it as some sort of reasonable evidence for your identity. My solution is to give my provider's my mother's maiden name when required, but to deliberately misspell it. This solves the first problem but not the second.

Jakob 17y ago

Interesting read about this project from wired. [Human Family Tree: Shallow Roots] http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2006/07/71298?currentPage=all http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2006/07/71298?curren... First common ancestor 1000 A.D.!

mrshoe 17y ago

http://familysearch.org http://familysearch.org and in beta: http://new.familysearch.org http://new.familysearch.org http://pilot.familysearch.org http://pilot.familysearch.org

run4yourlives 17y ago

Now I can finally explain my superpowers to the world. :-)

quickpost 17y ago

http://www.geni.com/ http://www.geni.com/ is pretty close. Started by a former PayPal guy, I believe.

aw3c2 17y ago

While this surely would be very very interesting I am scared about privacy.