title: What is a Tracking Reference?
body: <p>When I push a new branch up to a remote repository via Git Extensions, I get an alert saying</p>
  
  <pre><code>The branch {branch name} does not have a tracking reference. Do
  you want to add a tracking reference for {branch name}?
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>What is a tracking reference?  I've found only a few mentions of tracking references in Google and no real definition.</p>