What do I do, if I have found a duplicate of a living person?

James Jennings

I have found a duplicate of my great grandmother, who is still living. It has the same date of birth, name, and everything like that, but it says that the duplicate has passed away and that she needs her temple work done, which is incorrect. I have no idea how this happened, but I don't think I can just delete her because of things like her son who passed away is attached to it. Should I just sort through it, transfer the things that are accurate, then delete the duplicate?

Paul W

@James Jennings

There have been a number of similar reports lately. If you find only one person has worked on the "Deceased" duplicate of your great grandmother, you could contact them and ask them to delete the record. You might also wish to query why they thought she had died, when she is actually very much alive.

Otherwise, you can change the "Living" status to "Deceased", but in order for that to "stick" this will have to be reviewed by FamilySearch Support. I'm believe the other ID will remain in Family Tree (once the status is switched to "Living"), but you will not see that record any longer, as it will be in the private space of the user who created it.

As I have not experienced such a problem myself, I hope another member of this forum will confirm whether my suggestions are correct, or provide alternative advice to you. I am particularly concerned about any further problems relating to the deceased son being attached, as you seem to be.

I'm tempted to withdraw my response, so just hold on before taking any action, until another Community member (maybe more than one!) adds their comments here.

kathryngz

I agree with @James Jennings 's advice to contact the person who created the duplicate that is wrongly marked deceased. Ask them to change the duplicate's status to living (I believe they can do this without involving Support).

After her status is changed to living, her deceased son will still be visible in Family Tree; but she will not be visible until she is once again marked deceased, which hopefully will be when she really passes :)

Does that help? If you have other questions, please ask.

CDBurk

@James Jennings

Two wonderful comments have been provided regarding how to handle concerns when a person that we know is living shows up in Family Tree as being deceased.

Because this does happen, a knowledge article in our Help Center explains how this should be addressed. It is always best to try to work with the person who created the record, however, the minute more than one user had worked with a record, the Tools usually say Delete Person Unavailable. When that appears on the details of the record, a ticket must be sent directly to the FamilySearch Support team that can mark the record as living as outlined in the knowledge article we have provided below.

https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/how-do-i-change-the-status-from-deceased-to-living-in-family-tree

We hope this instruction is helpful and that you will be able to resolve the issue with the record of your great-grandmother which contains the incorrect status.