STOP 🛑 allowing Gedcoms to be uploaded to the main tree
Please we recently had someone upload a Gedcom of more than 3000 profiles approximately 10 of the 3000 were new Profiles the rest were all duplicates. There’s about 30 people working on this to merge profiles since march 10 it’s a huge waste of time.
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This has to be stopped. It has become a nightmare sorting out duplicate profiles for gedcoms added to family search as the number of additional duplicate profiles for the spouse/s and children added is significant. What's worse is there are absolutely no sources attached.
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Please PLEASE stop allowing the upload of gedcoms. With so many new or inexperienced people building a tree on FS the potential for duplication of profiles is immense. It is causing a lot of people such frustration that they simply give up having a tree on FS which is such a pity.
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Good luck on trying to change the system. Those that are in a position to do something by their authority, like Jacob of old, don't remember that it was the next to the youngest son that saved the family by direction from above. Leaders need to always be looking for inspiration from above but remember at the same time, sometimes that direction comes from somebody that is below them in authority, like Joseph.
Greg
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I am one one the team attempting corrections of this breach of the integrity of The Single Global Family Tree.
Just a correction, more than 37 000 profiles were loaded by one individual.
This affected Progenitors, their ancestors in the Countries of Origin, as well as their descendants.
It is a nightmare to correct as this GEDCOM contained no sources, sometimes one spouse matched to the existing profile, but there were subtle changes in the name of the spouse of the opposite sex, which resulted in a new profile being created, with the accompanying children also duplicated.Now imagine this happening along the tree for, say, ten generations, and you might grasp the enormity of our task. And the anger and frustration that go with it.
WE NEVER WANT THIS TO HAPPEN EVER AGAIN.
It will take weeks if not months, to meticulously go through each family group, checking sources , to try and get back to what was there before. Time wasted, that could have been better spent developing the Single Global Family Tree.
Please heed our plea.
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I support the request to disallow the uploading to Gedcom files to the Family Tree…. As has happened , it has caused a huge headache.
in adding profiles to fS I make sure that I add at least one source document to validate the profile ….. perhaps this needs to be a rule?
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I whole heartedly agree.
I mean I have no problem with the GDEDCOM upload to "Genealogies" (what used to be Pedigree Resource File)
But yeh I agree - then applying the upload to FS FamilyTree - is just a recipe for disaster.
(though one should realize that, as far as I know, the uploader does have to go person record by person record to do it (and most users then give up as soon as they realize how tedious and time consuming it is) . Its not just clicking one button and they all get automatically loaded with no further interaction - it does have to be processed one record at at time in an extremely tedious process) - but a process that will almost always end up with some duplicates and other un-intended consequences - most especially if the user is in a hurry and/or careless.
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As someone who did it twice with the same tree 😣 I know what a mess I made. I thought it didn't work the first time so I did it again! 5 years later I am still finding and fixing this mess I made. I'm sure others have also been cleaning up after me. If only I had known to use Roots Magic, I could have avoided this. Roots Magic allows me to keep working on my own tree, match my people to Family Search tree and add the missing people. With GEDCom I had the false expectation that it would be instant and then I could continue researching. Roots Magic allows me to keep working and match or add people a few at a time as needed. Adding or matching all of my tree to Family Search should take years if done carefully, and Roots Magic makes it easy to keep track of which people are matched and which ones might not yet be on Family Search.
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37,000 profiles in one upload? So the user ran a bot and demonstrated how easily checks on the upload process can be defeated.
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Please consider this seriously as it is becoming insane. Use of FamilySearch trees is being ruined by our having to spend hours a day correcting idiotic errors. It seems someone has just instantly popped hundreds or thousands of duplicate IDs, all over the place. Much of the stuff i have seen is also wrong. Allowing this kind of automatic adding is not helping at all. Thanks.
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why do you say it would have to be a "bot"????
Isnt it just the standard GEDCOM upload process??
I also have used Roots Magic
Even programs like Roots Magic - can create havoc
It does NOT catch all duplicates
and if a person is careless, sloppy, or "clueles" - again it can create tons of duplicates - if they don't mark the duplicates as they should. (the user can still choose to ignore the matching/duplicate records found)
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This problem is compounded by 'YouTube' videos showing how to upload a GedCom. I did see one and noticed a comment that said that FS specifically advises not uploading more than 100 names at a time.
I have tried posting a very polite comment about taking care but, unfortunately, it has been deleted.
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Isnt it just the standard GEDCOM upload process??
Doesn't sound like it. Even if one profile is different enough that it doesn't get flagged in the duplicates check step, that does not (generally) grow a fork in the tree. Duplicate child profiles should still be flagged as duplicates. So this many profiles uploaded in bulk smells of a bot that rejects every duplicate check.
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I have tried posting a very polite comment about taking care
Where did you post it, @Cedar Kedar?
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generally if it was a bot - there would not necessarily be a comment that it came from GEDCOM
the fact that it alludes to GEDCOM - to me is an indication that it truly is a GEDCOM load - and not some bot.
any GEDCOM file that has thousands of records can upload thousands of profiles. I believe it is the submitter who gets to choose whether the item is the same as a duplicate or not - and if they choose accordingly the system will upload new records. As far as I know the system doesn't force the user to merge with duplicates it finds - they can be ignored by the user.
also of note as some above have alluded to - - it could also be an interface with a program like ROOTSMAGIC
where again the user may be intentionally or unintentionally ignoring the matches found.
but in such cases It does not reference the word "GEDCOM" in any notes or comments.
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generally if it was a bot - there would not necessarily be a comment that it came from GEDCOM
On the contrary, there necessarily would be that comment.
An unapproved bot engaging with the FamilySearch user interface on the web, the interface intended to be used by a person, would cause the usual GEDCOM message to appear everywhere in Reason statements.
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yes if the bot was going through the GEDCOM upload process.
But it would be much easier for a person using a BOT to simply access public API (like what ROOTSMAGIC does) - totally OUTSIDE of the GEDCOM upload
such API's dont reference GEDCOM - because it is not a GEDCOM upload to begin with.
now if all of the 3,000 profile updates were made within a few hours - then YES I would agree with you (because no human being could do it in a few hours).
but these 3000 profiles could well be across various/numerous days - a person going manually trough the tedious gedcom upload interface process one record at a time - but simply ignoring matches.
I wonder what the time stamps on the records show?
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They took a Gedcom from Ancestry our issues is about 90% of our Country men and women that build their trees just copy everyone else’s information without verifying anything so a lot of the private trees on MyHeirtage and Ancestry are poorly researched. Then you have a large group of people that have chosen to build on family search with document. I can share a profile ID to show what this Gedcom has done. I don’t think too many people from our country knows anything about bots.
I posted this here in hopes I could get a load of people agreeing so I can then Call Family Search and hopefully have someone pass this information on to someone that has authority to change things on the website.
Best Regards Roslyn
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this is nothing new at all . . people (just as adamant as you) have been complaining about this for years.
don't hold your breath for any change . . .
by the way - as to the 3,000 profiles created can one tell if all the updates were made on a single day - or across many days . . .
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My comment about bots was in response to @SusanPretorius's comment:
Just a correction, more than 37 000 profiles were loaded by one individual.
Public API access ended a few years ago. Now only approved partner tools, RootsMagic etc, can use the API.
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@Roz14 I would be happy to take a look at a few PIDs. You can message them to me if you don't want to leave them here.
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yes - but there are surely ways that the nefarious can easily "spoof" API access as if it was coming from Roots Magic. and I thought there were a couple other companies that had update access.
any bot program could easily be used to simulate a person working from rootsmagic and such interface would not reference "GEDCOM" anywhere.
but my main point was - why couldn't the 3000 (or 37000?) profiles have been created via the normal gedcom upload - I dont see why it could not.
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Salve , ho caricato diversi GDECOM, sempre passando da Roots Megic e non e mai successo che si siano creati duplicati. E possibile scoprire le cause? o ci sono dei disturbatori ? Grazie. ·
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translation:
Hi, I have loaded several GDECOMs, always going through Roots Megic and it has never happened that duplicates have been created. Is it possible to find out the causes? or are there any troublemakers? Thank you. ·
[Response by Dennis Yancey]
well that depends. . . Roots magic will let you know of duplicates/matches it finds (and it doesnt find them all)
BUT there is nothing forcing the user to accept such matches - they can simply ignore them and create duplicates . . .
many people that cause issues like this for thousands of people at a time are totally NOT using common sense or operating under normal behavior / rules.
When people dont play by the rules - all sorts of bad stuff can happen - whether its with GEDCOM, ROOTSMAGIC, or just plain manual input.
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I see Gedcom Duplicate profiles uploaded by the same person on March 10 and 11 so it was over a period of time. This wasn’t do thru Rootsmagic it was done by downloading from Ancestry and uploaded to the main tree.
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see: L63D-X4K
updates between march 9th, 11th, 15th
again seems to indicate an Ongoing GEDCOM process
(GEDCOM uploads in FS don't just happen with a click of the button - people still have to go record by record - and if the GEDCOM is thousands of records - this can take days or weeks.
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@Dennis J Yancey When I look at the profile L63D-X4K you mentioned above I am seeing Changes made and actively by WB and others but that profile wasn’t uploaded to Family Search by a Gedcom this one was uploaded from a Gedcom G686-MTQ👉
So I agree the Gedcom was uploaded over two days March 10 and March 11. The other activity you seeing is her making manual changes to profiles I think she’s trying to repair but its a huge mess and one can not do it alone. We just hope nothing gets lost in the process. 😡😞
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also people should realize that uploading a GEDCOM per se is not the issue
when you upload a GEDCOM it goes into a holding area - into what used to be called the Pedigree Resource File" - which uploads it to a disjoint area - with the family data - disjoint from anything else.
Many people simply stop at this point. and no impact on Family Tree.
BUT there is the option to then take that uploaded GEDCOM - and do a COMPARE (record by record) and review against records in FanilyTree and makes updates to the Family Tree based on the GEDCOM data based on user feedback for each record. This can be a very tedious process that takes days or weeks
This is where people get into trouble and / or make a mess of things.
Some people don't realize that this is a collaborative tree and not something like ancestry where there tree is private..
It is this 2nd phase to the GEDCOM upload - not the upload itself that is the issue at hand.
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I support the request to disallow the uploading to Gedcom, it has created such an issue on my family tree that has taken me years to do.
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At the very least. disallow them from creating people before ~1850. There's absolutely nothing a GEDCOM can contribute to profiles for ancestors older than that. Ancestry created the ecosystem where false information spreads from tree to tree; GEDCOM is how that infestation arrives here.
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FamilySearch emphasizes and promotes the importance of documented sources. They ask volunteers to index and then review documents so that FS can provide hints in the form of 'Preview and Attach' under the 'Time Lines' of appropriate profiles.
It is therefore perplexing that FS then allows indiscriminate additions in the form of GEDCOMs which, in most cases, do not have documented source material.
This goes against the whole idea of creating profiles on the FS Global One Tree with the appropriate documented source material to back-up such additions. It makes absolutely no sense at all.
Therefore, I fully support the banning of all GEDCOM uploads on the main FS tree.
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