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Below are six lessons that teach nearly everything you need to know about using My Relate. You don't have to do all of the lessons in one sitting, but it's best to work through the lessons in order because some lessons build upon earlier ones.
- -You may want to open a new browser window or tab, allowing you to both complete and consult this tutorial at the same time. Alternatively, you could print this tutorial page for your convenience as you work through the lessons.
Lesson One: Create a profile
Objective: This lesson will teach you how to create a profile to tell people about yourself
- Click on the My Relate tab in upper left menu bar and select User Profile
- If you are not yet a member of WeRelate, You need to join WeRelate - It's free and takes about two minutes to join.
- If you are already a member, enter your username and password to sign in.
- If this is your personal machine, you may also want to click the Remember me on this machine checkbox so that you will be automatically signed in each time you use WeRelate on this machine.
- Enter your desired username, password, and email address into the designated fields. Your real name is optional.
- You need to enter an email address to edit pages. An email address enables others to contact you through WeRelate. You will receive email notifications when pages you are interested in have been changed by other users (see Lesson Three). Your email address remains private; it does not appear on WeRelate. WeRelate will not sell your email address to others (see our privacy policy).
- A confirmation email will be sent to your email address. You need to click on the link in the email to confirm your address.
- Click on the Return to My Relate link once you've joined.
- Click on Dashboard and go to the section Profile & Messages where you can create your profile.
- On the Profile Page, we're going to ignore the first set of edit boxes for now and start with the large edit box labeled Text
- The Edit Box has the edit bar
           above it
- You don't have to know HTML to create your Profile Page - just start typing.
- You can tell people a little about yourself: who you are, how long you have been doing family history, why you do it, what got you started - anything you want.
- Leave blank lines between paragraphs, rather than indenting them. (Tabs work differently on wiki pages.)
- When you're finished typing, click on the Show preview button at the bottom of the page (you may have to scroll down to see it). This shows you how your page will look to others. You can re-edit the page at this point in case you see something you wish to change.
- Once you're happy with your page, click on the Save page button at the bottom of the screen. That's it!
- You've now created your first page on WeRelate.
- If you want to learn about how to make your page more attractive by using headings, lists, bolded words, etc., you can read the Formatting Help page.
- Remember, you are the only user who can edit your homepage, so you don't have to worry about others changing your information.
- For more information about User Profiles see the User Profile Help page.
Lesson Two: Create a user page
Objective: This lesson will teach you how to create a User Page, so you can track the progress of your research and share it with others. A user page cannot be edited by others -- only you.
- Click on the My Relate menu in the upper left menu bar and select "Dashboard"
- If you're not already signed in to WeRelate, sign in now.
- The User Page section is located in the lower left corner of the Dashboard - Click "Add User Page"
- Enter the name of that family into the edit box labeled "Page title". For example, if I were researching the John and Mary Smith family, I would enter John and Mary Smith family into the edit box. This will allow you to create a user page about that family. You are the only person who can edit your user pages.
- You can also create user pages for individuals, for surnames you are researching, or anything else relevant to family history.
- Click the Add Page button to the right of the page title when you're done.
- This directs you to the edit page for that user page.
- Enter the relevant surname(s) into the Surnames field, one per line.
- Enter the relevant place(s) in the Places edit box, one per line. You can also enter a year range if you want. Doing this helps you and others see at a glance what surname and place this page is about.
- In the large edit box labeled Text, enter what you want to track about your research progress on this family:
- The sources you've checked
- What you found
- Ideas for further research
- To-do lists
- Requested assistance/information
- Entering this information helps you remember where you are in your research if you don't come back to this family for several months, helps you share your research with others, and also makes it possible for others researching the same family to find you (see lesson five).
- Click Show Preview to check your work and see what it will look like on the finished page
- Once you're happy with your page, click on the Save page button at the bottom of the screen.
- Remember, You are the only user who can edit your user pages, so you don't have to worry about others changing your information.
- You have now created your first User Page. Feel free to create as many as you need. The longer you are involved with WeRelate the more User Pages you will discover you need.
- For more information on User Pages
Lesson Three: Create a shared research page
Unlike user pages, anyone can edit a Shared Research Page. This makes it easy for you to collaborate with others doing research on the same lines.
Objective: This lesson will teach you how to create a Shared Research Page, in order to help you collaborate with others researching the same surname in the same place as you. You will also learn about watching pages to monitor them for changes.
- Click on the My Relate menu in the upper left menu bar and select "Dashboard"
- If you're not already signed in to WeRelate, sign in now.
- Click on View your profile, under the heading, Profile & Messages.
- On the Profile Page click Edit in the left sidebar
- Think of a family you're currently researching.
- Under the Surnames and/or places you are researching heading, click on "Add Surname and/or Place".
- In the fields that pop up, enter the surname of that family and the place where they lived.
- Limit the Place to a State, Province, or Country to begin with
- Your ancestors may have been related to other families having the same surname in their region, so set the place to the state, province, or country in which the family lived, not the town. For example, if I were researching the John and Mary Smith family living in Boston, Georgia, I would enter "Smith" and "Georgia" into the appropriate boxes.
- Make sure to use only one surname and place per page title and to type out the full place name, without abbreviation, so the page can be properly indexed into categories.
- If you use multiple names or abbreviate ("Smith in KY"), your page will not be automatically associated with other pages with information on that line in that place (e.g "Smith in Kentucky"). Following this standard will make it easier for you to connect and collaborate with other genealogists.
- If you wish to add another shared research page, just click the link again and an additional row of boxes will pop up.
- Click on Show Preview at the bottom of the page to check your work to see how it will look on the finished page
- Click on the Save page button at the bottom of the screen when you're done.
- Each shared research page should appear as a link on the left side of the page, under the Researching heading, with links to relevant surname and place categories beneath.
- If a shared research page has already been made for that surname and place, the link will be blue.
- A red link will appear if the page has not yet been created.
- Click on the shared research page link.
- Click on the Edit in the left sidebar.
- If someone else has already created this page, you will see their information already in the text of the page. In that case you will add your information to theirs in the steps below.
- The surname of the family should appear in the first edit box.
- Their state, province, or country should appear in the second edit box, along with any specified year range beneath.
- In the large edit box labeled Text, enter the county/district where the family lived on a line by itself, with two equals signs(==) before and after (e.g. ==Thomas County==). This creates a heading for the county/district.
- Under the line for the county/district, enter the name of the family you are researching, also on a line by itself, with three equals signs(===) before and after (e.g. ===John and Mary Smith family===). This creates a sub-heading for the family.
- Under the line for the family, add information you want to share about the family. For example, if I were researching John and Mary Smith who lived in Boston, Thomas County, Georgia, and I needed help finding birth information for Mary, I would enter:
- ==Thomas County==
- ===John and Mary Smith family===
- John was born in 1858 in London, England. '''Help!''' I'm looking for birth information for Mary; can anyone help?
- Note: putting Help! between three apostrophes (''') makes it bold when the page is displayed (in show preview or after the page is saved), which makes your question stand out more.
- Before saving the page, make sure that the Watch this page checkbox at the bottom of the screen is checked (you may have to scroll down to see it). This adds the page to your Watchlist, allowing you to be notified whenever someone adds to, deletes, or changes information on the page.
- If changes have been made to pages you have marked to "watch", a message will appear on your My Relate Dashboard screen telling you so. Click on the link it offers you to see a list of changes on your watchlist.
- You are also notified by e-mail when pages you are watching are changed.
- Click on Show Preview at the bottom of the screen to see how you work will look on the finished page.
- Once you're happy with your page, click on the Save page button at the bottom of the screen.
- See Also: Shared Research Pages Help
Lesson Four: Add a research tip for a surname
Objective: In this lesson you will learn how to edit a surname page to add a research tip and a link to your shared research page.
- Click on the My Relate tab in the blue bar at the top of the page
- If you're not already signed in to WeRelate, sign in now.
- Click on View your profile under the Profile & Messages heading.
- Click on the Shared Research Page that you created in lesson three
- Click on the surname link under "Surnames"
- On the Surname page, click on the Edit link at the top of the page.
- You should see two edit boxes: "Related names" and "Text". The Related names box contains a list of the names that are used when the Related names option is selected in searches (see [[help:Search Tutorial|). You can ignore related names for now.
- In the Text edit box, enter any information you'd like to share about the surname: its history, its meaning, or perhaps a family legend.
- Now, create a link in the Text edit box to the shared research page you created in lesson three by typing the title of the shared research page inside double brackets ([[ ]]). It's helpful if this link is preceded by a "Shared research pages" heading. For example, if I had created a shared research page for Smith in Georgia, I would type
- ==Shared research pages==
- [[Smith in Georgia]]
- Finally, remove the {{name-stub}} text from the Text edit box. This will signify that someone has edited the page.
- Before saving the page, make sure that the Watch this page checkbox at the bottom of the screen is checked (you may have to scroll down to see it).
- Click on the Show Preview button at the bottom of the page to see what your finished page will look like
- Once you're happy with your page, click on the Save page button at the bottom of the screen.
Lesson Five: Collaborate with others
Objective: This lesson will teach you how to leave messages for other users.
- Most collaboration on WeRelate is done on Person and Family Pages.
- When someone edits a page, including information or questions, other users can respond by editing the same page and including their replies.
- Another useful way to connect and collaborate with other WeRelate users is by leaving messages on User talk pages.
- A User talk page is a talk page that is tied to a WeRelate user's Profile, acting as a sort of personal message board. In this lesson, you will learn how to leave a message on one of these pages.
- First, you need to navigate to the profile of the person for whom you will leave a message. Click on the My Relate button in the blue bar at the top of the screen.
- In the "Namepace" field, select "User". This restricts your search to user profile pages.
- In the Title: field, enter the user name of the person for whom you will leave a message. If you do not know another WeRelate user, enter my user id: Kgale. Click "Go".
- On the search results page, find the profile of the person for whom you searched, and click on the link to access the page.
- See Searching for Profiles for more help
- From the user's profile page, click on the Talk link at the top of the screen, then click on the Add topic link.
- You can also click Leave a message for [user name here] at the top of the user's profile page. This skips the step of opening the user's talk page.
- Add a topic and a then a message in the text box. If you leave the comment on my page, type "test message" as the topic, unless you would like me to respond.
- At the end of your comment, type two dashes and four tildes (--~~~~) to add your signature.
- If you do not want to type out the signature code, just click on the signature button in the formatting toolbar above the text box.
- If you are leaving a real message, make sure to select the Watch this page box at the bottom of the page. The other user will probably respond to your message on that same talk page, in order to keep the entire discussion thread on one page. If you "watch" the page, you will be notified when she/he has replied.
- Click on the Show preview button at the bottom of the page to see what your finished page will look like
- Click on the Save page button when you're done.
- In many cases, you will want to leave a message for someone who has edited a page that you are watching. If they signed their name to the edit, you can access their profile by simply clicking on the blue user name link. A signature appears like this:
- --Kgale 11:56, 3 August 2007 (MDT)
- When someone leaves a message for you, a notice will be posted on your My Relate page.
- It will give you a link to follow to see the new message(s).
- You can check your messages by clicking on the My Relate tab in the blue bar at the top of the screen and then on the Profiles & Messages box and click "Read Messages".
Lesson Six: Customizing your preferences
Objective: This lesson will teach you how to change your preferences, in order to personalize your WeRelate experience. The lesson actually consists of mini-lessons, each of which explains one of the many uses of the Preferences page
Edit your Preferences
- Click on the My Relate tab in the blue bar at the top of the screen.
- In the box Profiles & Messages, Click "Edit preferences"
- From here, you can edit your preferences in any way you choose
User profile
- The Preferences page will open with User Profile at the top. Enter the information into the spaces provided
- Your "Real Name" is optional
Change password
- In the field marked Old password', enter your current password. This makes sure that only you are allowed to change your password
- In the New password: field, enter the new, desired password.
- In the "Retype new password" field, type the same password exactly as you did in the step above. This makes sure that you did not mistype and that you can remember the password you have selected
Email Options
- Read through the options and select the ones that you wish to apply to your account
Before leaving the Preferences Page
- Click on the Save button at the bottom of the page to save your settings
Where do I go from here?
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