homepage Why is this website private?

How do we manage our database?

This "Turkel Tribe" website ensures the safety of our "precious heritage" by preventing unauthorized edits or changes to the family information.

Which software do we use?

Since 2019, we have been using Rootsmagic™ offline software to manage our family trees. Only when necessary we "synchronize" proven data with collaborative genealogy sites.

Services used before 2019

From 2006-2019, we had used Family Tree Maker (2006-2014) in
collaboration with Ancestry®, but faced data loss and ineffective support (examples: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) after the product was sold out in 2016.

Between 2016 and 2019, we regularly reviewed collaborative family trees on FTJP, Geni, MyHeritage, and Ancestry:

  1. FTJP is the Family Tree of the Jewish People courtesy JewishGen - a non-profit organization founded in 1987. It provides amateur and professional genealogists with the tools to research their Jewish family history and heritage.
  2. Geni is a commercial collaborative genealogy founded in 2006, and owned by MyHeritage since November 2012.
  3. MyHeritage is a commertial online genealogy platform with web, mobile, and software products and services, introduced by an Israeli company in 2003. Users of the platform can obtain their family trees, upload and browse through photos, and search.
  4. Ancestry.com is the largest for-profit genealogy company in the world that operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy. acquired the company in a deal valued at $4.7 billion.

Issues:

Errors found in Geni's World Family Tree

We discovered that an excessive number of Turkel family trees with significant errors were published on public websites including Geni, Ancestry®, MyHeritage, and FamilySearch Family Tree.

Some of these errors can be attributed to our earlier versions (1997-2003), which were replicated by third parties. Those who replicated our work did not follow updates. We asked Geni's Curators to fix "Geni's World Family Tree". It didn't work out.

References to errors found in collaborative family trees

  • Geni.com - The World Family Tree (5/2021)Sephardic Genealogy
  • Geni Family Trees - Privacy and Baptism Concerns (10/2020)
  • Errors in Collaborative Family Trees Can Be Fixed!
    Tree Sweeper and the FamilySearch Family Tree (4/2020)
  • Is there a possibility that my family tree on Geni.com
    and all its data will be lost? (2020)
  • Should You Contribute to Geni.com? A Review (10/2019)
  • Should we fix errors on profiles on FamilySearch and Geni,
    or leave them in ruin? (2018)
  • Ancestry: Dealing With Errors in Online Family Trees (2017)
  • MyHeritage Issue: Syncing is possible only with FTB

    MyHeritage's support team allows syncing with online collections only by using their proprietary software, Family Tree Builder, which is insufficient for primary genealogy use. Since we chose Rootsmagic™, we do not upadate regularily MyHeritage.

    Ancestry Issue: lack of Jewish and Israeli collections

    Ancestry® and FamilySearch Family Tree (in contrary to MyHeritage®) enable data exchange with RootsMagic. However their data collections do not cover some Jewish and Israeli resources that we are looking for.

    Conclusion

    Public online websites aren't always helpful and considerate. Commercial sites may be sold out, change their policies. Free public websites are vulnarable to unexperienced users that can introduce errors in collaborative family trees. This site is kept private to prevent issues and protect our "precious heritage."


    Our Complementary websites:
    1. RootsMagic Online Turkel Tribe Tree up to date 2024

    2. Ancestry Online Turkel Tribe Tree up to date 2024

    3. MyHeritage Online Turkel Tribe Tree updated in a delay

    4. facebook "Turkel Tribe" group

    5. TribalPages 2004-2016

    6. The Turkel Cousins' Web Page 2008-2013 (archived)

    7. The "Turkel Tribe" Family Tree Maker 2000-2010 (archived)

    8. "Turkel Tribe" club on Yahoo Group 2002-2020 (closed)


    in memory of my father Israel Menachem Türkel
    © 1997-2024 'Türkel Tribe'

    Rootsmagic, Ancestry, MyHeritage, Geni, Find My Past, FamilySearch, JewishGen, JRI-Poland, Gesher Galicia, Beit Hatfutsot, Beit Hatfutsot, Billiongraves, Find a Grave, Ellis Island Search, Ancient Faces, Official USA, Find people