We're sorry. WikiTree is currently overloaded, likely due to malicious bot traffic. We are temporarily blocking all anonymous visitors. This could last a few minutes, or a few hours.
If you're human, please login. WikiTree is completely free and you can easily delete a guest account at any time. After 18 years, most genealogists and serious family historians have accounts.
Bots have become a serious problem for open websites like WikiTree. These bots scrape content to feed AI models in China and elsewhere. They hide their identities using semi-legal "residential proxy networks" that exploit apps on mobile phones and software vulnerabilities in internet-connected devices in people's homes. These sleazebags advertise their services publicly! Here are quotes from real ads on Google:
- "Web Scraper API - Extract Data From Any Website"
- "99.95% Success Rate. Avoid IP Bans and CAPTCHAs."
- "Genuine residential IPs with very high success rate!"
- "Real IPs ... perfect for scraping"
- "Guaranteed Block-Free Scraping"
- "Scrape Heavy Data at Tier-1 Speed"
Isn't this outrageous?!
Thank you for understanding. WikiTree is committed to being free and open to everyone. The servers will be open again soon.
