What Happens when a FamilySearch User passes on??

Dennis J Yancey

This question gets asked just about every few weeks

So some time ago I wrote up an answer to it and posted it on an external site where I can simply point people at - and I can update as needed.

There are some FS articles on this specific subject - but frankly I find them very limited in value and often don't answer the real underlying question the person has.

SOME HELPFUL LINKS

https://yanceyfamilygenealogy.org/when_you_pass_away.htm

see also:

https://yanceyfamilygenealogy.org/when_others_pass_away.htm

when I do post links to external sites it is NOT meant to distract or devalue the Community.

Rather simply to make the community a more valuable place to be as we each share tips and valuable knowledge with other community users.

working TOGETHER and sharing tips and experiences makes the Community a valued tool.

Its a great place to interchange tips and experiences.

African American Records

That's one reason I never suggest actually deleting an account.

also with your new account ; it should be nothing more than reconnecting yourself to your deceased parents,

There are very necessary and clear reasons that the only way an entry in a "private space" is marked as public is if the account owner marks it as deceased. any other scenario would result in blatant security flaws .

and there are clear and obvious legal reasons for not just automatically making items public that were once marked as private on a deceased persons account.

Just because the user is deceased - does not give FS the right to make their records that were marked as private , all of a sudden public even if they are dead.

as to items that you uploaded in your prior account. Did you put a title on them? were they marked as "private"?

Dennis J Yancey

if you didn't actually mark the items as "Private" its possible they could still actually be available

(unless all your records on that account were physically deleted --- Im looking into the answer for that question)

if you did add titles to each item - try doing a MEMORIES FIND with some key words and see if they come up.

https://www.familysearch.org/photos/find

One should NOT assume simply linking a memories item to a living person somehow makes the memories item uploaded "private" - --it does NOT explicitly do that. what is private is the profile record itself (along with corresponding facts and relationships) but items in Memories dont necessarily fall under that same set of rules.

if you do explicitly MARK a Memories item as private it is totally private.

if you dont -whether you link it to a deceased person or a living person -it is still technically public.

(though if it is linked to a living person ;-people may not be able to easily navigate to the item)

Dennis J Yancey

also in re-reading your response

I see this comment

No, I have never added anything to FamilySearch that I felt was "private." 

what I meant was there is actually a function in FS where you can mark a FS Memories item as "PRIVATE"

if you do that it is restricted to your account for viewing ; if you don't then technically it can be viewed by others even if it was linked to living people.

as an example

this is a photo of myself:

https://www.familysearch.org/photos/artifacts/72984753?cid=mem_copy

it is NOT marked as private

thus anyone (who knows how to get to it - ie. this url) can actually see it - it is NOT marked as private,

EVEN THOUGH my profile record with all my facts and relationships - because I am living - is totally out of of site to other people (in my private space) - even if they had a URL to this "private space" info etc. the access would fail based on the security applied.

Dennis J Yancey

I talked to a database admin - and they didnt think your Memories items would have been deleted unless there was a very explicit request to physically delete them (which is not the norm). simply that they are attached to an inactive or deactivated account.

which means your memories items are still probably out there though if they don't have a description may be hard to find . .

Dennis J Yancey

"Private Memory" is simply the category of an item you want to keep private

It doesn't have to mean "juicy gossip"

Many people mark photos of living people as a "private item"

It can be something very regular - simply that the account owner doesn't want it to be shared with others over the Internet

if your memories items were not marked as private - you should still be able to find them

doing a MEMORIES FIND and looking for key words in the title that you included on the item (hopefully you did include a title) if you didn't it might be extremely hard to locate them.

so for example if I wanted to find a memories item related to my father I could type in his name on the MEMORIES FIND tool

BRICE YANCEY

click on this link as an example

https://www.familysearch.org/photos/find?searchTerms=BRICE%20YANCEY&searchType=text-search&searchCategories=IMAGE%2CPDF%2CTEXT%2CAUDIO%2CALBUM&page=1&maxRecords=50&firstRecord=0&_=1640318732872

YOU can do the same using your OWN key words that you would have used for items you uploaded.

(BUT the assumption is you DID enter a title for the item - if you did not - them all bets are off. )

Dennis J Yancey

so to clarify - whether my father is alive or deceased or whether me (the uploader) am alive or deceased

that search for BRICE YANCEY will return the same set of photos etc. (based on matches it finds using the keywords of the title)

and based on the fact that such items are NOT marked as "private"

this is how security for memories items works

This is different than the security that is applied to my data record / profile (my name, event dates, and places, and my relationships with others - all that set of numerous facts and data that is linked to my person record in my "private space" which is always kept private as long as I am alive.