Earlier this month I wrote about the upcoming closure of Genlias, and its replacement WieWasWie.nl. I received several questions, and a few reactions expressing concern. I will try to answer your concerns and questions in this article. If you have questions that are not answered please leave a comment or send me an email.
Question: Will WieWasWie be available in English?
This was by far the most common concern: WieWasWie is currently not available in English. Unfortunately I can't answer this question yet: I could not find anything in their FAQ, on their site, or on their blog. I sent an email to the WieWasWie team and will let you know their answer as soon as I have it.
Question: Where can I find the Genlias records that are not in WieWasWie yet?
WieWasWie aims to have those records available by November. Genlias is available until 1 January.
Question: In Genlias you can search for two persons. Will WieWasWie have this option?
Yes. They are currently testing this option. It should be available by November.
Question: How do I...
A few people asked how to do certain things on WieWasWie. I'll get back to that in a later article.
Question: What is the difference between free, basic and premium subscriptions?
I understand from recent communications that this is still subject to change. According to earlier announcements:
- Everyone can search the collections.
- You need (at least) a free registration to store simple searches, to create favorites, and to create family trees.
- You need (at least) a basic registration to store complex searches, and to view and download scans of the civil registers, population registers and church books.
- You need a premium subscription to view and download scans of other registers (e.g. notarial deeds, archives of the Dutch East Indies Company, property deeds).
Furthermore, the number of people you can add to your family tree, and the amount of disk space you are allowed to use for your family tree, also depend on your subscription level.
Planned prices are €30 per year for basic, €42 per year for premium. At the current exchange rate that is around $40 and $55. Very reasonable, in my opinion.
Note that at the moment only free trial subscriptions are available. These will allow free access to all available functionality until the end of the year (but there is a limit on the number of scans you can download).
Follow / Get in touch with WieWasWie
You did not ask for it, but I'll give you their contact details anyway. There are several ways to get in touch with WieWasWie:
- A contact page on the WieWasWie site lists their email address.
- WieWasWie has a facebook page.
- WieWasWie is active on twitter.
I asked @wiewaswie on Twitter about an English version and they said it is scheduled for next year.
ReplyDeleteThanks! Next year is a bit late, I think, if Genlias is closing down on Jan. 1, but at least it's planned.
ReplyDeleteLink to the twitter message.
ReplyDeleteHi Henk,
ReplyDeleteNice summary for our foreign public, thanks! We agree that the English version should be introduced ASAP, the sooner the better.
Of course we need to focus on the Dutch version first, but we're definitely planning for the English one!
I'd like to add here that you can email to our helpdesk for any kind of help at our site (we know a little English too; -)!): helpdesk@wiewaswie.nl
Thanks for the comment WieWasWie! Good to hear that an English version is planned. But I do think many people would appreciate it if the English interface is available before Genlias closes down.
ReplyDeleteIf you use a Chrome browser you can effectively use WieWasWie in english as it has an auto translation built into the browser.
ReplyDeleteI have found this to be almost as good as the old Genlias english version which managed to switch back to Dutch with certain links.