Private and Public Family Search Trees
I am a long time Family Search Consultant. I have worked hard to link my lines together. I will get a lot done linking my lines together, and someone comes in and not only changes one name, but a whole line that is not really connected to my family. It is easy to have mistakes in Denmark and Sweden. I just do not want my lines to be changed. I have put the time into researching them. It is difficult to put everything back the way it should be. I understand I could go to Ancestry for this type of tree, but I really want it on Family Search, because the sealings are so important.
Why can't the Family Search team allow us to have a private tree and keep the shared tree as well. That way, we can at least continue our research without needing to go back and fix issues caused by other people. It is so time consuming, and it wastes valuable time to continue the work of sealing families together.
Perhaps the programmers from Ancestry could help Family Search with this option.
Thank You,
Shirlene Peck
Comments
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Will this post go to the powers in Family Search who can make a real difference? I go to Roots Tech every year and I have heard to rationale that Family Search is a public document. I understand and agree. But at the same time, why can't we keep track of our research and lines in a Private Tree that will also allow us to do Temple work for our ancestors? Shirlene
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Currently you can submit a GEDCOM - from a third party tree database management application - to genealogies:
I support and also have made this suggestion here in Community:
Such a change would be a departure from FamilySearch's open-edit Family Tree. There are pros and cons to each idea - I think the idea I have suggested is a middle ground. Now it is up to Community to decide whether the idea has merit - and upvote it or not.
I do not know FamilySearch's development roadmap but their recent Discovery Pages for persons could be a step in this direction - I don't know.
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This is a problem that's been going on for years, and I've been told a few times it doesn't matter as long as the works been done, WRONG it does matter. For instance in one case a child died soon after birth, did the work, got her sealed to her parents, only for someone to come along and change her name slightly and had her married to someone. Had to delete that person, and resubmit her name as her Ref number couldn't be used. Time and money wasted. For me, I think the FamilySearch programme is over complicated, not a user-friendly one. The sad thing is there are people who give up and even leave the church. A tree shouldn't be open to anyone to tamper with without consent. Frustrated? you bet.
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The trees you can upload to Genealogies - mentioned above - don't get changed.
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@speck3275907, unfortunately, you may have a vision of FamilySearch and Family Tree that does not match that of the originators of FamilySearch; therefore, I am afraid that you may not be satisfied with this answer.
The fundamental concept of FamilySearch and Family Tree is found in the Help Center article, What is the purpose of FamilySearch and Family Tree? - part of which says, "Family Tree is different from other similar genealogy sites in that it is a single, public tree linked together in families, rather than a site that only allows users to create and manage their own private trees. This distinction means that everyone works together on the same data, allowing for the potential to connect every member of the human family."
Imagine - a single tree that has the potential to connection all of the human family.
But, your concern is a very real issue for all of us that use FamilySearch. FamilySearch has accommodated the option to maintain a separate and private data base that can be synced with FamilySearch. Compatible, family tree management programs can be found in the Solutions Gallery in FamilySearch. Although not part of FamilySearch, these programs are generally, extremely compatible with FamilySearch, even including temple related items.
This solution, unfortunately, does not eliminate to problem of seeing someone change work that you have added to FamilySearch; nor does it eliminate the need to correct bad information that shows up in your portion of the tree.
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@Mike357 Can you speak to the Tree syncing capabilities correcting changes to the Tree? Is correcting changes just a matter of re-syncing or is it similar to manually undoing/restoring?
Thank you.
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I have overcome some of this problem by following ancestor pages. I follow many of these ancestors and their descendants -- over 700 of them, picking the main people that could have changes or problems. This may seem like a lot of people, but usually it's only a select few that are ever touched once records are added and pages are cleaned up. I dedicate about an hour or two once a month to going through the following list updates/changes. I keep a record of where I left off on that list so that I don't duplicate reviewing. By doing this regular review routine, I'm able to catch problems early.
Another way that I have overcome this problem is by working on lines methodically from the bottom up. I clean up EVERYTHING. As I move up a line, I clean out all descendants from that line before I move up again. While this may take a very long time (yes!), what it does is creates a deep knowledge of those lines. And also by cleaning out everything -- no records left to attach, everything standardized, any known errors fixed, etc. -- there's less of a chance that people go into the records to do something they shouldn't. Nothing within the system tempts them to go in there.
Further -- when there is a repeat problem page, I utilize the Life Sketch to put up a notice, along with the reasoning. In some cases I have resulted to creating a fully cited genealogical document (or find one that is already completed), uploaded to Memories, tag all the relevant deceased people, and then note in the Life Sketch -- this usually solves everything; you should realize that a fully cited genealogical document is a hefty time commitment with a standardized format.
The problems I continue to have are --
- people adding possibly living people -- you message the person who attached the living and then send a notice to FamilySearch to change to living
- people pulling out their old family group sheets and adding what's on there instead of looking at the data and sources (which often weren't available when compiled family group sheets were made years ago) -- this can be a monster to tackle, if the person made a lot of changes to the record
- the occasional difficult person who does not understand genealogical research and/or Church guidelines and who wants something to just "be" the way that person wants -- luckily, this is rare but still incredibly difficult because that person usually is a challenge to communicate with. However, most people are well meaning and want to understand and be accurate.
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