Who is responsible for the data shown in a family tree "drawing"?
Who is responsible for the data that goes into making the "tree" drawing, and who do I contact when I know for a fact that a whole branch of my tree is wrong because someone used the wrong person to base it on? I see so many "wrong" branches on my tree that it's hard to believe any of it that I don't personally know is correct.
I have submitted "contributions" to get it corrected, but corrections never happen.
Best Answers
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You can use the records on FamilySearch - which are EXTENSIVE - and never worry about the tree. It's all up to you.
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Here are a few of the reasons I use Family Tree that you might want to consider before deciding it's not the place for you:
1) The tree on Family Tree is a joint effort. Everyone interested in a person works together on the same record to get the best information with all documentation and sources possible together in one place.
2) My great-great-grandfather is found in 888 trees on Ancestry. If I find some new information on him and post it there or try to correct information on him, no one will ever see it. If I post it on FamilySearch Family Tree, everyone following him gets notified of that addition or correction and everyone going to Family Tree will see the same information for him.
3) When I die, a tree on Ancestry then stagnates and any work there will probably never be seen by anyone ever again. Since Family Tree has just the single tree, everyone related to me will continue to see, maintain, and improve the work I have done.
4) If Ancestry ever goes out of business, all my work there is gone. Being completely owned by a religious organization that started compiling and maintaining family history work and genealogies as the Genealogical Society of Utah in 1894, FamilySearch has the best track record of staying in business of any genealogical site out there.
Regarding your concern that data in Family Tree could change with each new user that comes along, while there can be controversial individuals with conflicting guesses about their information, for the most part, if a profile is well documented with plenty of sources and has only correct information, the information there really should stay very stable.
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Anyone who wants to can edit the tree.
If you share the person ID of someone on the tree who does not belong there, we can take a peek and advise you.
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If you mean the details of individuals in the collaborative FamilySearch Family Tree, anyone can add/change/edit. You can see the details of who made recent changes by viewing the changelog on the right side of each profile.
For example, I've been working on members of this family in recent days. If you look to the right of Cecilia Conlon's profile, you will see my username on several recent changes. https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/MR3X-THY
The basics are here: https://www.familysearch.org/help/helpcenter/article/how-do-i-change-vital-information-in-family-tree
Hope this helps.
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Thanks for your response, but I'm not sure it answers my question. Perhaps my question wasn't clear enough.
When I log into FamilySearch, it brings up a "picture" of the 'tree structure' for my family tree. It begins with me, goes to my parents, and then to my paternal and maternal grandparents. So far, so good. When it gets to my paternal great-grandparents, then people are shown in the ancestry from there that DO NOT BELONG IN MY TREE. I can (and have) submitted my comments and corrections to make the tree correct, but it doesn't change. It still shows the wrong people. But if anyone can change it, then it seems that it could be one tree today, and another tree tomorrow, and somebody else makes a change the third day.
I would imagine that there is someone somewhere who takes the data input to FamilySearch and turns it into the tree. Who is that, and how do i communicate with them to get MY tree corrected? If it is going to continue to show incorrect data, then there is little reason for me even to visit it.
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The data showing in the tree is created by a computer from the relationship links on the person page so there must be an incorrect link from you parental grand parents to the great grand parents. I would suggest that you go to the person pages of your grandparents and look at who it shows as the parents in the family members section. If there is an error you can correct and make it as it should be see the following help center article about editing parental relationships.
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@MaxByers, you can fix the tree yourself. [Edit to add: FamilySearch does not make corrections; that is for the community, meaning you, me, and millions of others, to do.]
Family Tree is a work in progress, and arguably the solution to the problem of bad trees. Bad trees are everywhere; on Family Tree there is a reconciliation process based on historical records. Here is a really good video on the topic:
Why Use the FamilySearch Family Tree - James Tanner
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Sorry if I wasn't clear. The tree is the result of the information/records attached to each person. The same happens with a tree in Ancestry - a tree display results from the information I have entered in my tree or you have entered in your tree. The difference in FamilySearch is that it is a single collaborative tree, meaning that what a distant cousin enters in your family impacts what you see.
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I've been on Ancestry for many years, and it creates a tree for me (only) based on what I put in. Someone else could create the same tree, with an incorrect branch, and it wouldn't affect me. But Ancestry provides a way to contact that person and have a discussion about what is correct and what isn't. I don't see that on FamilySearch.
I was not aware of FamilySearch until I got an email with a "hint" recently, so I am new to it. When I checked it out, I did find information that I wasn't aware of (such as, a direct link from me to the sister of Daniel Boone through my Wilcoxen relatives, which I suspected but didn't know for sure). But I also saw a tree from me to my great-grandfather that was correct from my personal knowledge, but from him back it was a totally different set of people from what I know to be true. I don't know who put that information in, or how to contact them to let them know it is not correct. When I first saw this several weeks ago, I made a "contribution" for a correction but no one contacted me to follow up, and the tree remains the same now as it was. It is the only tree that I see when I log into FamilySearch. If that is a "collaborative" tree, then anyone can change it with "corrections" that are not correct.
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As you say, you learned some information when you learned of the existence FamilySearch. It's a trade-off - some people will make errors. Some will add to your knowledge.
BTW - many of the records available on Ancestry are due to the work of FamilySearch volunteer filmers and indexers.
https://www.familysearch.org/blog/en/getting-started-shared-family-tree/
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Well, thanks for your help. I do appreciate it. I managed to work my way through the process of changing the parents, but gee whiz! That is one tedious process when everyone related to the correct person now has to be individually changed as well, including all of the children. I'm not sure I have the time or inclination to do all that. I think I'll stick with Ancestry. It's much simpler.
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Gordon, how do you know your ancestor is in 888 trees if you cannot see those trees?
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