3 Concepts That Explain How OneGreatFamily Is Different From Other Genealogy Services

There are some key differences between OneGreatFamily and other genealogy services that you need to understand to take full advantage of what we have to offer. Though OneGreatFamily is not a new service, it is quite revolutionary to the genealogy community. We have come up with 3 main principles that explain what exactly makes us so unique and how our cutting-edge, yet simple, approach to genealogy can greatly help you in building your family tree.

Concept 1 - OneGreatFamily is a Single Family Tree
OneGreatFamily is a single, global family tree which everyone helps to build. It's not just a collection of individual trees that people work on alone. This means that when ANYONE works on OneGreatFamily, they are also working on your tree, and when you work on your tree, you are collaborating with others to explore their family trees.

As OneGreatFamily members add to the global family tree, the system searches to see if any of the names submitted could be your ancestors. Even if we find some of your ancestors today, we may find more in a week, a month, or a year. Just think; while you're concentrating on a maternal line, OneGreatFamily may identify a breakthrough on your paternal side! Your next step forward could come when you are sleeping, making dinner, or enjoying an evening out with friends, all thanks to the efforts of tens of thousands of OneGreatFamily members.

Concept 2 - OneGreatFamily Searches and Sifts For You
OneGreatFamily automatically does all the "search and sift" work for you. Let's face it, most traditional genealogy websites are based on "search and sift", where you initiate a search and then have to start sifting through the tens of thousands of matches you get back. Obviously, most of these possible matches will be wrong and a few may clearly be right. The rest have to be sorted and checked.

OneGreatFamily does all this tedious work for you. We compare all the people you enter against every person entered in the OneGreatFamily database. Then, we sift the results and alert you of possible matches. These are referred to as "Hints". Instead of endlessly sifting through obviously incorrect search results, OneGreatFamily focuses your attention and effort on likely matches.

Concept 3 - OneGreatFamily Handles Different Opinions
OneGreatFamily easily handles differences of opinion. Sometimes genealogists disagree. Perhaps there is documentation supporting multiple dates for the same event or even regarding parentage.

Because of its collaborative foundation, OneGreatFamily is built to handle these situations. These discrepancies are called "conflicts". OneGreatFamily will never force you to accept someone else's information, nor someone else to accept yours.

There are two primary types of conflicts: informational and relational. Informational conflicts occur when a fact is in dispute, perhaps a birth date or a marriage location. Relational conflicts occur when a family relationship is in question. In resolving both types of conflicts, you will be presented with your information and the conflicting information. You will then be given a choice to 1) accept the alternate information presented, 2) clear the conflict, which means you are satisfied with your information and no longer want to consider any alternative information, or 3) cancel for now, which will allow you to postpone making a choice until you can find more information.