COMPLAINT
I want you to take away where anyone can just go into anyone's tree and change add/delete information! How is anyone supposed to research their family and create a tree when anyone can go in there and change it? I am tired of going to my tree and I have a new family member that's supposedly dead or they have changed a relationship or the spelling of a name, ESPECIALLY when it's my immediate family! I will know if my Aunt dies before any stranger which by the way she is not dead and I shouldn't have to request permission to change a living/deceased status on my own tree! Strangers should only be allowed to add sources and if they have any other pertinent information they should have to contact the person who owns the tree and share the info with them, then the person who owns the tree can add it! I would appreciate the help a lot more if things I know to be true weren't being changed.
Comments
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The FamilySearch Family Tree (FSFT) is a single family tree for all humanity. No one owns any of the information about deceased people, and any FamilySearch user can edit information about deceased persons. Sometimes, FamilySearch talks about "your tree" which causes confusion, but the truth is that there is no such thing as "your" tree.
Of course this model doesn't work if vandals or incompetent users make incorrect editors. If you don't want to deal with that, there are plenty of websites and software packages that allow you to build a personal family tree that no one else can edit.
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Are you sure you have found your family in Family Tree? Could it be that you are actually messing up someone else's family tree, thinking it is yours?
If you would like someone to take a look, share a PID here.
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TheresaCrawford75..
in. re. "living people listed as dead",
yep, my pet peeve and I could add expletives. smile. Thankful an exception basis in light of the amount of relatives/ancestors we monitor with the "following" watch list tool Family Search had the foresight to add as a feature for this at times messy, aspirational source focused collaborative "build a tree together" concept vs. "my tree".
in. re. "permissions" and "gatekeepers/managers" discussion,
please no. no. and no. Finding sources sometimes takes time, or just finding time to get back into the hobby of family research and sharing the same, takes time....... editing web based genealogy of a handful of family or ancestors shouldn't involve permissions or waiting for weeks to get an answer/action from a single person "gate keeper"..., only to find out they (the gatekeeper) died, no longer interested in being a gate keeper/manager, lacks experience or knowledge but was first to get the job, backed up backlog of pending edit requests, choose to hoard a profile for their own unsourced research and too stubborn to be open to edits or alternate source based facts, etc...or add your own.
I just can't see a Findagrave.com "manager/gatekeeper" model sustainable or have broad appeal for new users to have to deal with. Learning a new website and genealogy in general is/was a hurdle for most of us.
in. re. "truths changed"
workaround tip for yourself or others reading., I find when I have things that I know to be true but see them get changed repeatedly, my workaround is to use the "reason" field to explain why I added what I did. Fact field reason fields, unlike ancestry's, are very generous with space for explanations and sources to be added.
good luck with your research journey in whatever path you take....!
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We understand your frustration but, to add to what has been said, here is are links to articles you could look at which will help you understand the over all Purpose of FamilySearch Family Tree
How can I prevent other people from making inaccurate changes to Family Tree?
You can also find your own answers in the help center by going to the circle with a ? at the top of any page on FamilySearch scroll to the bottom where it says Help Center and entry your question.
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I agree, we all understand that everyone is collaborating on their family tree. I know that advance researchers have conducted thorough research for years. However, people should not have the ability to remove or modify anyone from family trees just because they think something is wrong If anything if anyone have any questions or concerns about members of the family, the site should introduce a feature that allows users to ask their relatives about their family instead of allowing members to delete or edit information.
For example, some members of my family who I recently met decided to delete half of my family tree just because they didn’t think some of my ancestors belong to their family. They did this after I told them that I have documentation as proof as well as DNA proof. People are editing and removing ancestors and relatives based on assumptions.
That is something within genealogy that you just don’t do. There must be a solution to this problem.
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Sadly, there is nothing you can do to stop this type of behaviour, whether carried out by a close relative or complete stranger. Family Tree has an open-edit format, so other users can make changes to your inputs for specified reasons, or in providing no reason at all.
Obviously, this behaviour does not comply with the spirit of the project, which is meant to be of a collaborative nature. It can be reported as "Abuse", after which a FamilySearch representative might choose to act as a mediator in an effort to resolve the dispute. However, such actions are more widely regarded by FamilySearch employees as falling under the "abuse" category, so there is no guarantee you will be provided with any support with this issue.
I would persist in trying to reason with these relatives - often, the individuals who take such actions lose interest in the subject after a while and stop reversing your work - so leaving things as they are for a short period (albeit profiles containing inaccuracies) might be an option, after which you can again reverse the changes.
Many other users have very similar problems and are always advised to keep their records backed-up in their own software, or at least (if on a website) in a program that cannot be edited.
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Thank you for replying and this is why I think that people should use family tree genealogy software to sync their trees onto their computers along with using the website. I fully understand that FamilySearch uses a collaborative style format. In some ways, that is helpful especially if relatives are able to help you find ancestors. However, some people have issues with that format and I don’t think people really understand the format because some people have different perspectives of family lines etc. Because of the different perspectives, conflicts arises from that. I don’t think FamilySearch officials have considered situations like that. Sometimes relatives don’t see eye to eye on things even if the information is available to them. I have came across some extremely disrespectful and rude relatives when I have tried talking to them aout my relationship to them. I have tried to help them with finding records but they act rude and disrespectful towards me. I know I’m not the only one that experienced this.
It’s my suggestion that the policy should change a little bit. To have a collaborative format is fine. However, it would be helpful to have a similar approach like what Ancestry have with their family trees. A public format is ok, but to avoid unwanted edits or deletion, maybe have a feature that allows individuals to have permission to edit or remove things by a special link. A user can have full control of their tree but can allow others to contribute. That can eliminate any conflicts that people may have. Honestly, this style of collaboration that FamilySearch has right now, it’s not working for some people. The site officials have to know that there is an issue going on just by reading the comments. People do make mistakes in genealogy but people have done extensive research of their family lines, years and years of research. To see that other people remove their information that they have worked hard to obtain, that’s a big inconvenience. That means that they have to start all over again with placing that information back onto their tree. In addition to that, you are in constant disagreement with your own relatives about information.
I don’t think people understand how time consuming genealogy is and how complicated research really is.
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@ShawnyKaye, if you'd prefer to work in an only-semi-open-edit collaborative tree, I suggest you take a look at WikiTree. It has profile managers and trusted lists to limit editing rights on profiles.
One thing to keep in mind about FamilySearch's Family Tree is that it is ginormous. Billions of profiles. FamilySearch does not have the resources to employ people to keep an eye on really any of it. They rely on users like us to alert them to the most egregious problems, and to fix the rest ourselves.
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