Each time you add an individual to your family tree, WeRelate presents you with a search form to see if that person already exists in the database. Here I’m doing a search for George Rauschenberg who married my Great Aunt Emma in Chattooga County, Georgia. After entering information about George into the search form, I’m presented with a list of possible matches (29,044 of them actually). As you see in the instructions, I can click the Add Page button if I don’t find my George Rauschenberg in the results or I can click the Select button next to his record if I do find him.

Surprise! George Rauschenberg (4) shows he was married to my Emma Barker. So, all I do is click Select to add the existing family record to my BarkerBlake tree. Now, to go check his page to see what other good tidbits I’ll find.

Although this is pretty sparse, there’s still some good info here. First, I see that there are two Rauschenberg histories – written in 1951 and 1961. It also looks like the 1880 census in Whitfield County might be worth a look. Best of all, I see that a WeRelate user named Meatman is watching this page. By looking at the page history I see that he uploaded this GEDCOM.

Next stop is a check of Meatman’s profile page.

Well, this is a bit disappointing. Oh, well, at least I can leave him a note. I click on Talk in the page menu to open the Talk page for his profile.

I leave a short note and include my “signature” which also links back to my profile page. This is easily done by typing two dashes and four squiggles (–~~~~).

If you do nothing else on WeRelate, upload your GEDCOM and update your profile page. Your Family Tree(s) are automatically added in the left column with links to the records. The profile page form includes a section for entering the surnames and locations for the families you are researching. Each entry you add on the profile form will generate a page for that topic, with you listed as someone watching each page.

You can add whatever personal information you want in the narrative section. Here I’ve used it to provide links to my blogs and other networking sites.

These surname research pages serve many potential uses – more on that in later lessons – but it sure won’t hurt to provide a bit more detail about your family on this page. It will help other researchers determine if your family is connected with theirs.

Anytime you find a page interesting, you can always choose to watch that page so that you’ll be notified when changes are made. It will let others know that you are interested in this person or topic and might generate a note from someone trying to make a research connection.

It doesn’t take much effort to set yourself up in WeRelate to make connections with others interested in the same people and places you are. As WeRelate continues to grow, so do your chances for finding a research cousin with more of your family history.