How do I correct errors in my family tree as viewed on Family Search?
How do I correct errors in my family tree as viewed on Family Search?
Best Answer
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So on FamilySearch you share ancestors with many people, and there are literally millions of contributors who may be working on ancestors in your lineage. This is one world tree and neither you or I have "our tree" here. If there are contributions to your ancestors which you disagree with, you can edit the information and update it. On the main person page you will see lots of little words "edit" if you are on the old person page and lots of little pencil icons if you are on the new person page. (A software update is in progress.) Just make sure that you have sources to back you up and add the sources to that section of the person page. If sources already exist, study them to make sure it is not YOU that is wrong.
This is a collaborative environment. Don't be afraid to send a message to someone and ask questions. For every piece of information you will see links to names of members who last contributed that information. Good luck!
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Answers
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I started my research about 25 years ago. I am the only one of my family to live in Canada, and almost all my research is in Scotland.
Initially, I went to a family history center located at Aldergrove, British Columbia. In those days, we used floppy disks and sent off requests to Salt Lake City for the use of a film or the copy of a document.
I owe thanks to a nice lady - Sister Pat Simonis from Oregon - who helped me with my family history and gave me a photo of myself she had taken in the Center. But this was all a long while ago, and I am now 85 years old and reluctant to let all my work go to waste. I try to enter the information, which I know to be correct, but keep getting asked questions which just confuse me. Any help or advice would be welcome.
Irene.
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Making changes in FamilySearch is very straightforward. Click on the link below for step by step instructions and other useful Knowledge Articles.
If you contact your local Family History Centre, they will be able to help you out with one to one guidance. However, if this isn't convenient, you can post your specific question here.
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After having just spent two full days correcting errors made by an inexperienced user completely mixing-up the identities of two individuals (and their families) I would hardly agree with you that: "Making changes in FamilySearch is very straightforward". It can be a very complex issue, only being "straightforward" when there are just one or two errors that are simple to correct.
There is nothing here to suggest that the problem here relates to correcting parent-child relationships - although I admit that could be the issue. My problem did involve incorrect relationships, but I also needed to sort-out which of the many sources that had been attached to these IDs applied to whom, detach those sources and add to the correct ID (where necessary) and delete many of the entries that had been carried across to the "Other Information" section. The "Help" article which you have provided mentions nothing about the additional actions required when correcting relationships.
Making changes is the part which is straightforward, but correcting errors can be a nightmare.
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Paul:
Thank you so much. As an 85 year-old person, I found Barry's response of very little help. To be honest, it is possible that I am responsible for the error in my tree. It is a question of people having been added in to the wrong generation., so I need to remove two or three individuals and move them up one generation.
I find all these ID numbers very confusing. The instructions seem very complex.
If you could give me any advice or help, Paul, I would be very grateful.
Irene
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@IreneMitchell2 Hello. Good question. Can you please give me a person ID number related to your question.
When signed into your family tree, go to a person page where your question is apparent, or shows up.
See the person's name at the upper left. Their Person ID number is next to the last name. Please put that ID number in your response to this message.
Then I can take a look at how your question pertains to your tree.
Thank you,
Anitra
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Irene--
You can also call 866-4061830 and ask to talk to a Family Tree missionary who will walk you through this process.
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Thank you for the telephone number. I am not sure that a telephone call would suffice... let me think about it!
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I have had luck in the past correcting minor items in my tree (placed by a well-meaning nephew) who thought it would be fun to add names. I had to go back and make changes since I've been working on this for years. It was fine and I was happy he was showing an interest in family history.
Recently I looked at my tree and was dismayed to find a family name misspelled for two of my relatives. I wanted to make changes but could not. Apparently the documents were mis-read while indexing as can often happen in German docs from the early 18th century. The handwriting is very difficult to decipher.
And so I called yesterday and spoke with Sister Davis, who was enormously helpful. She said I should contact: nasupport@familysearch.org. Once there I can report the individuals (with ID numbers) and point out the error and the correction on two people. Once on the site I did not see a way to do that.
Can someone please advise me about making these corrections?
Many thanks,
Cat
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There was possibly some misunderstanding here. Whilst errors in the way names have been inputted to Family Tree can be put right (usually by yourself), if the error is found in an indexed record it can only be put right (again by any user) if the record is "editable". So, if the "EDIT" button (at the top of the record) is greyed-out, you just have to attached the record (with incorrect spelling, etc.) to the individual in Family Tree to whom it relates. Even in cases where a record can be edited, it is sometimes only possible to edit certain parts of the record (say a name or place, but never the person's sex, it seems).
In summary, if you can't put an error right, it is unlikely "FamilySearch" will be able to make the correction, either. So, the well-meaning advice you received is probably incorrect. However, it is easy to misunderstand an issue, so if you could give exact details of this example (the specific record / source or an ID reference of the person in Family Tree) my response could be either confirmed or corrected, depending on the particular circumstances.
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@IreneMitchell2 If you have a family history center near you, that is where I would go so you can have one on one help as it would be much easier than a telephone call. The consultants at the family history center are trained and I am sure they will be able to help you figure all of this out.
Kind Regards,
Shannon
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@CatherineNordstrom @IreneMitchell2
Hi. I am a FamilySearch employee and community moderator. Would you be willing to share the ID so that I can take a look at what you are seeing? Perhaps I can see what steps need to be taken.
Maile 🙂
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Today, when I sign in, I see: "Add your missing great-grandparent. Jane Marshall Burnet does not have both parents listed in Family Tree".
That sounds simple enough, but it is not. I could try to input the names, but already I can see difficulties.
Jane Marshall Burnet's mother had a prior marriage so Jane had older half-siblings on her mother's side. How do I include them? How do I add the previous husband?. Then, after Jane's mother died, her widowed father re-married and had two additional sons, so Jane has a step-mother and half-siblings on her father's side as well. Thus, it is not a straightforward matter to input my missing great-grandparent. I have all the names and dates, but that does not make it any easier.
I am grateful for the suggestions. I would attend at a Family History Center if there was one in the town where I live, but there is not.
As far as providing my ID, it is not just one thing I would like to correct. In fact, I have dozens of families to input, having worked on genealogy for 25 years. I do not understand the ID numbers that are given to individuals and why some people have more than one ID.
Here are people in my family tree that someone has already input. The ID numbers are confusing to me. Who allocated them? This is a man, his wife, and his son, and yet there are 3 completely different numbers:
Alexander Watson
1857-1912 • 9WWY-2R3 (Alexander is a brother of my maternal grandmother)
Ann Maitland
1861-1940 • LXQR-P8R (she is Alexander's wife)
John Maitland Watson
1890-Deceased • LB7W-4TS (son of Alexander and Ann. My mother's cousin).
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@IreneMitchell2, that "Add your missing XYZ..." message must be some sort of introductory fluff piece, because I don't recall ever seeing anything like that, and there's certainly nothing like it on my landing page. Instead of trying to figure it out, I suggest going to www.familysearch.org and clicking Family Tree - Tree. This will put you on one of the tree/chart views, centered on you. I don't know which chart type is the default, but you can change it by clicking the button at the top right that looks like a pair of mismatched eyes, or tiny fish. (It's actually supposed to be a pair of sliders, like on an old-fashioned sound system.) From the chart, you can go to any individual's Details page by clicking the name and choosing Person on the flyout.
The profile ID (of the form NNNN-NNN, where N={1-9, B-Z except EIOU}) is a database identifier, unique to the profile in question, and randomly assigned by the computer when the profile is created. It is used to locate/identify the particular profile, for example in the URL for the profile's detail page.
I think the Details page is relatively self-explanatory, once you figure out the basic logic of FS's interfaces. There are also articles in the Help Center that can get you started, or if you try and fail at doing something, you can ask here in the Community.
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