A genealogy's administrators, relatives whose account is linked to it, and - where an administrator allows it - anyone who has entered its access code can add people and correct them, all from a person's page. Say where each fact comes from. Whether a change takes effect at once or waits for an administrator is up to the genealogy's own edit policy (step 7).
1Add a child
Open the father's (or mother's) page and, in the Children box, press + Add a child.
Give the Name and choose the Sex. A son's place among his brothers goes in Birth order (the eldest is 1); for a daughter, choose female and put her place among her sisters in Daughter order. Courtesy, art and honorary names are folded away: open Courtesy, art and honorary names to fill them in. There is no generation to fill in: the top of the form shows the parent's generation, and the new person is one below. Under Reason, say what it rests on - the family's own records, an elder's account. Then press Submit.
A daughter's children are added from her own page, and are recorded under their mother.
You can also add a child from the Lineage view: press the ▾ beside a name and choose + Add a child, give the name and sex in the box that opens, and press Submit. The box asks for no birth order and no reason, and the place can be left empty. If the change takes effect at once, the child appears under the parent straight away; if it waits for an administrator, the box says so.
2Add a spouse
Under Spouses on a person's page, type the name into the Spouse’s name box (for example 张氏), give a reason in the box beside it, and press + Add spouse. A man's spouse is recorded as his wife and a woman's as her husband, so a daughter's husband can be entered too.
3Propose a correction
If a name, a courtesy name, a generation, a birth order or a place is wrong, press Propose a correction at the foot of the person's page. Each line shows what is recorded now, with a box for the corrected value; change only what is wrong and leave the rest alone. Give a Reason and press Submit.
Wherever something has been corrected, the person's page keeps the earlier wording beside it: "the book prints …" for someone from the printed book, "first entered as …" for someone added on this site.
4The wrong father or mother
In the Propose a correction form, pick the right person under Father (or Mother, for a daughter's children) from the list of the generation above. Each name in the list says whose son or daughter they are; names repeat, so check before you choose. This form can change a father to someone else, but cannot take him away.
An administrator can also use the Correct father box in the Ancestry section of the person's page: choose Father or Mother under Set as, type a name, and press Set as father beside the right result. The note in the box says whether that takes effect at once or waits for an administrator's approval. If a father should not be there at all, give a reason in the same box and press Delete the father record; that counts as a removal, and follows the removals row of the edit policy.
5Adopted in, adopted out
When a son passed from one branch to another, set Adoption between branches in the Propose a correction form:
- adopted in: he came into this branch and is drawn under the father who took him in, so the Father above is his adoptive father. Below, you can add his birth father.
- adopted out: he was given to another branch, and this is his entry in the branch he was born into, so the Father above is his birth father. Below, you can add his adoptive father.
A genealogy often records an adoption on one side only; if the other father is not known, leave him out. Once it takes effect, his page reads, for example, "adopted in (birth father: …)", and he can be found from the other father's page as well.
6Write a biography
Press Write a biography on a person's page and write a few lines about them - their life, what they did, where they moved, their work - up to 256 characters of plain text. It is written today, not taken from the book, and is kept apart from the Biography in the book.
Tick Show this biography to readers and everyone who may see this person can read it; leave it unticked and only administrators and people who can edit will see it. Recent generations are never named to the public, so their biographies stay out of public view even when shown. To change a biography later, press Write a biography beneath it; to delete it, empty the box and submit.
7After you submit: live, or waiting
When you submit, the page says what happened - "Your change is live." or "Submitted — waiting for a genealogy administrator to review." That is set by the genealogy's administrators under Edit policy, and a new genealogy starts like this:
- an administrator's own additions and corrections take effect at once;
- everyone else's - relatives with a linked account, and relatives using the access code - wait in the review queue until an administrator approves them;
- every removal waits for review, an administrator's own included.
If you have an account, click your name at the top of the page to open My account: My edit history shows whether each change is pending, applied or rejected. How the policy is set is in the tutorial on running a genealogy.
Good to know
- Brothers and sisters in the wrong order: on the father's page, open Change the birth order under Children, use ↑ and ↓ to put them in the order they were born, and press Submit. Sons' birth orders and daughters' daughter orders are worked out from it.
- To delete a person, fill in Reason for deleting at the foot of their page and press Delete. Deleting needs an account - the access code can never delete anyone - and only an administrator can delete someone who has descendants.
- Relatives using the access code get one more box on each form, Your name (optional), so the administrator knows who sent the change. How the access code works is in The whole family helps.
- Every change that takes effect is kept in the genealogy's Change history, where an administrator can look it over and undo most of them.