WikiTree Hosts Second Annual Source-a-Thon
Genealogy community donates $4,600 in prizes
September 1, 2017: Today WikiTree is opening registration for the second annual “Source-a-Thon,” a three-day genealogical sourcing marathon. The event starts on the morning of September 30 and ends at midnight on Monday, October 2. It is timed to coincide with the start of Family History Month in October.
The Source-a-Thon highlights the importance of citing sources for good genealogy. Inexperienced genealogists don’t always record their sources, or their tree has been handed down to them. Second-hand family history deserves to be preserved and shared, but it needs to be verified. Currently, 220,000 person profiles on WikiTree’s 15-million person tree have been identified as needing independent verification.
In the Source-a-Thon, hundreds of genealogists will be working side-by-side — in teams such as the Kiwi Crew, Team Australia, GB Gen, and the Southern Sourcers — to add sources to as many profiles as po
ssible.
Of last year’s Source-a-Thon, high-scoring participant Charlotte Shockey wrote: “Despite little sleep in 72-hours I had a lot of fun working towards a common goal with my fellow WikiTreers in a competitive spirit! The cherries on top were the real sense of community with loads of laughs and friends that were made.”
To encourage participants, individuals and organizations from around the genealogy community are donating prizes to be awarded at random. Over $4,600 in prizes have been donated, including DNA tests and full memberships from MyHeritage and Ancestry, as well as valuable prizes from FindMyPast, Fold3, Newspapers.com, Legacy Family Tree, RootsTech, National Institute of Genealogical Studies and more. Prizes are still being added. If you would like to donate a prize, contact eowyn@wikitree.com.
To be eligible for the random prize drawings, participants must register in advance and get a “race number.” Registration is now open. See https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Source-a-Thon for further details.
WikiTree: The Free Family Tree has been growing since 2008. Community members privately collaborate with close family members on modern family history and publicly collaborate with other genealogists on deep ancestry. Since all the private and public profiles are connected on the same system this process is helping to grow a single, worldwide family tree that will eventually connect us all and thereby make it free and easy for anyone to discover their roots. See https://www.WikiTree.com.
