Please remove the Confidential marking on this individual.

AnneLoForteWillson

The person is already deceased as is her husband and all of her children. No one else in her family is marked as confidential. Not her parents, siblings, husband, or any of her children.

LL7L-N43 Sadie Minerva Slentz

genthusiast

Apparently confidential persons are not visible by others/unrelated.

Here is the help center document - which vaguely gives a reason for confidentiality:

https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/living-and-confidential-people-in-family-tree

AnneLoForteWillson

Exactly. That's the point. I created this individual years ago, logged sources and memories to her, her husband and children. I do not see any reason why she should be marked confidential. Especially as her husband and children are NOT confidential. I can't prove it now, but I believe this has been a fairly recent change to this record. I only bumped into it because of a ordinance hint on another person who was created to fill the hole left because this individual is not visible.

genthusiast

I only bumped into it because of a ordinance hint on another person who was created to fill the hole left because this individual is not visible.

That certainly is an unfortunate side effect of 'admin' marking a record confidential - it is a little unclear whether the 'admin' is FamilySearch or a submitter. Another article seems to imply that it is a submitter marking the record confidential:

https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/are-the-confidential-people-in-my-family-tree-private-space-ever-made-public

https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/list-of-living-and-confidential-people-added-to-family-tree

I vaguely recall some 3rd-party tree management applications might allow marking profiles confidential.

In the past there was either another help center article or community discussion listing reasons for why people are marked confidential (sorry I didn't search too much). I recall:

Service in foreign wars or locations where 'law' might necessitate confidentiality for some 'benefit' to family/descendants.

dontiknowyou

Some profiles I work on get flagged confidential. The criteria for flagging become apparent only after enough historical records have been attached and place names standardized that it becomes apparent the profile meets criteria for suppression.

A few times I successfully petitioned to get the flag removed but it was too much work, at least too much for me. Now when a profile gets flagged and parked in my private tree space I just delete the profile and avoid inadvertently creating it again as I work through the tree. I avoid it by following a spouse or parent and adding a private label and note to self.

I only bumped into it because of a ordinance hint on another person who was created to fill the hole left because this individual is not visible.

Exactly. A confidential profile is invisible to everyone else, leaving a hole that is soon filled by a duplicate profile. It is so frustrating!

Julia Szent-Györgyi

What I have never gotten an answer to is, exactly whom does FS believe itself to be protecting, and from what, when it marks a profile confidential? "Oh, look, someone with your surname lived in the Middle East for a year a century ago! I'm going to ___ based on this fact!" What on Earth can that blank be filled in with that FS is so afraid of?

(And no, @genthusiast, submitters/contributors cannot and have never been able to mark profiles confidential. The designation is almost always made by an automated process that is triggered by certain locations, with no consideration for their actual role in the person's life, and the designation can only be changed by FS staff.)

AnneLoForteWillson

I guess I should have asked my question differently..

Please, un-confidential-ize this individual record in Family Tree.

LL7L-N43 Sadie Minerva Slentz

All of you are great about responding, maybe your responses will help answer some of the questions someone else has on this topic. I actually do understand all of this. I just need someone to forward this record to the department that can un-confidential-ize it, or at least be able to tell me what piece of information caused it to go into the confidential zone, so that I can remove that information.

Thanks everyone!

genthusiast

I vaguely recall some 3rd-party tree management applications might allow marking profiles confidential.

And no, @genthusiast, submitters/contributors cannot and have never been able to mark profiles confidential. The designation is almost always made by an automated process that is triggered by certain locations, with no consideration for their actual role in the person's life, and the designation can only be changed by FS staff.

@Julia Szent-Györgyi thanks for verifying all the 3rd party tree apps with tree-synch capacity do not have the confidential element.

dontiknowyou

@genthusiast does raise an important issue:

If the confidential flag is applied robotically then it can be abused to hide a profile from other contributors. Simply enter a false detail to trigger the flag and move the profile into your private tree space. Of course, any contributor can fill the hole left behind in the tree by creating a new profile and attaching the same historical records to it, so the utility of hiding any profile seems limited.

@AnneLoForteWillson : The Help Center page explaining what to do is recently updated: https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/are-the-confidential-people-in-my-family-tree-private-space-ever-made-public