Familypedia
Encyclopedia
Familypedia is a free-to-use public wiki
on family history
and genealogy
. It is hosted by Wikia
, a wiki farm
. Familypedia is a collaborative effort by amateur genealogists and family historians, with over 30,000 unique people having their own pages among 100,000 articles (increasing at over 2,000 articles per month in some months of 2010), with over 114,000 other pages. It is the largest English-language semantic wiki
concentrating on genealogy but is not restricted to English.
Contributions are covered by the CC-BY-SA license. The software used includes Semantic MediaWiki
, which enables the connection of people to events and places, and to other people, as well as Semantic Forms, for ease of data entry.
requirements for the people listed, but it does have many prominent families (including the royals of France
, Germany
and the UK
) and people (such as the ancestry of every president of the United States
) as well as trivia facts (such as the relationship between Brooke Shields
and Charlemagne
). The family relationships are usually more detailed than on corresponding Wikipedia pages. The data input form asks every contributor of new articles to list sources.
described the site as a "brilliant idea", with the potential to become "enormously important" if it reached the critical mass required. In November 2010, popular genealogy blogger Dick Eastman gave Familypedia a largely favorable 17-paragraph review.
Wiki
A wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used collaboratively by multiple users. Examples include...
on family history
Family history
Family history is the systematic narrative and research of past events relating to a specific family, or specific families.- Introduction :...
and genealogy
Genealogy
Genealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members...
. It is hosted by Wikia
Wikia
Wikia is a free web hosting service for wikis . It is normally free of charge for readers and editors, deriving most of its income from advertising, and publishes all user-provided text under copyleft licenses. Wikia hosts several hundred thousand wikis using the open-source wiki software MediaWiki...
, a wiki farm
Wiki farm
A wiki hosting service or wiki farm is a server or an array of servers that offer users tools to simplify the creation and development of individual, independent wikis...
. Familypedia is a collaborative effort by amateur genealogists and family historians, with over 30,000 unique people having their own pages among 100,000 articles (increasing at over 2,000 articles per month in some months of 2010), with over 114,000 other pages. It is the largest English-language semantic wiki
Semantic Wiki
A semantic wiki is a wiki that has an underlying model of the knowledge described in its pages. Regular, or syntactic, wikis have structured text and untyped hyperlinks...
concentrating on genealogy but is not restricted to English.
Contributions are covered by the CC-BY-SA license. The software used includes Semantic MediaWiki
Semantic MediaWiki
Semantic MediaWiki is an extension to MediaWiki that allows for annotating semantic data within wiki pages, thus turning a wiki that incorporates the extension into a semantic wiki...
, which enables the connection of people to events and places, and to other people, as well as Semantic Forms, for ease of data entry.
Notability and sources
Familypedia does not have any notabilityNotability
Notability is the property of being worthy of notice, having fame, or being considered to be of a high degree of interest, significance, or distinction...
requirements for the people listed, but it does have many prominent families (including the royals of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
) and people (such as the ancestry of every president of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
) as well as trivia facts (such as the relationship between Brooke Shields
Brooke Shields
Brooke Christa Shields is an American actress and model. Some of her better-known movies include Pretty Baby and The Blue Lagoon, as well as TV shows such as Suddenly Susan, That '70s Show and Lipstick Jungle....
and Charlemagne
Charlemagne
Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800...
). The family relationships are usually more detailed than on corresponding Wikipedia pages. The data input form asks every contributor of new articles to list sources.
Reception
Ed West, writing in the British newspaper The TelegraphThe Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
described the site as a "brilliant idea", with the potential to become "enormously important" if it reached the critical mass required. In November 2010, popular genealogy blogger Dick Eastman gave Familypedia a largely favorable 17-paragraph review.
External links
- Familypedia
- Charlemagne's family tree on Familypedia