How to answer a question about marking living people as "deceased?"

LAHS6 · December 24, 2022

Is there an article or something that I can refer ?

Here's a bit of the conversation I had with someone who creates new PID for people who are possibly still living and marks them as deceased.

Me: ."... You've shown them all as "deceased". Could you please site, or let me know, where you found their death information, as they might be less than 80-85 years old? "

Them: "...The reason I marked them as "deceased" is really so other's can see the individuals I have added. A big issue I have with FS is that I am the only one who will have access to living individuals and once I pass then the info is unavailable. I can't seem to figure out how to include my research for living people who are in their 80s and above."

Paul W · December 24, 2022

I would hope your report will lead to you receiving a private message from a moderator, who would then escalate your specific issue.

This appears to be deliberate misuse of the system and in breach of FamilySearch's policies on privacy for living individuals. One would hope this Family Tree patron will be contacted and advised sanctions will be applied to them if they continue to behave in this manner.

genthusiast · December 24, 2022

"...The reason I marked them as "deceased" is really so other's can see the individuals I have added. A big issue I have with FS is that I am the only one who will have access to living individuals and once I pass then the info is unavailable. I can't seem to figure out how to include my research for living people who are in their 80s and above."

In response: including research for Private Living Space persons is done in the same manner as for deceased profiles - attach Sources/Memories.

This situation has been much discussed here in FamilySearch Community. While it is true that Private Living Space persons/PIDs one contributes are not visible to other FamilySearch users - it is not true that "once I pass then the info is unavailable" (at least not necessarily).

Once a person in your Private Living Space passes away - FamilySearch can accept any information you added to the Private Living Space profile once those two profiles are merged. The question then becomes - what if I pass away and cannot merge them - or the specific information/memories I contributed? While creating Private Living Space profiles is important (others have differing opinions) - some important information of a profile - Vital records - should make it into Tree without too many duplicates ( I guess depending on how many friends you have) - the more important - unique/rare information you can contribute - are Memories/Memory Sources of that person (this is a topic/Idea I would like to discuss in perhaps a subsequent post - hopefully I can get a round tuit).

Idea (yes wrong category - but in response to this thread):

I would answer with another question: Since the FamilySearch's Terms of Use grant them a full/perpetual license to use any of your submissions in any manner - what would prevent FamilySearch from periodically running a batch matching process on your Private Living Space to match or Hint - to yourself (while living obviuosly), other users or internally with FamilySearch volunteers - any matching deceased persons (recently passed for which profiles exist in Tree)? This batch process could also be run against your contributions periodically after notification of your death. The key here would be the batch process would only match deceased persons that have an existing deceased profile in Tree.

There could be a short gap - or potentially longer period of time - between a recent passing away and a profile appearing in Tree - so this means if persons wanted to be included in Tree - they could have created their own autobiographical Tree profile, someone else can enter them from a death (or other) record - or FamilySearch can exercise its license to enter them into Tree (especially and perhaps most accurately the Private Living Space version the user created of themself). Perhaps to appease the more lawyerly-minded - a related Idea - such as a Profile Setting checkbox - to allow FamilySearch (or anyone else for that matter) to view/merge one's own profile after passing could be set (or Private Living Space contributions - though essentially that is done when creating a profile - as mentioned above)?

An alternative Idea would be a reverse batch sort of match (which I am sure will receive frowns)...

If someone enters a deceased profile for a living person - with an existing autobiographical FamilySearch account/Private Living Space profile already in Tree - that living person should receive an Alert - see the profile information of the person creating that deceased (or potentially even Private Living Space) profile - and a collaborative discussion could ensue about what information the person attempting creation of the deceased profile was wishing to contribute - and/or - creation of that profile could be prevented. At any rate - since I am living and have a FamilySearch account - I would like to merge any deceased/Private Living Space doppelganger profiles of myself with my Private Living Space autobiographical profile (there only needs to be one of me when I die). Or I am fine with Private Living Space profiles being merged into my autobiographical profile after I die.

As @Paul W mentions any account creating many deceased profiles for Living persons (if this becomes a habit) should be scrutinized for abuse of the policy.

dontiknowyou · December 24, 2022

I find most contributors who mark living persons deceased do it deliberately, knowing they are violating the TOS, so there is nothing to be gained by my discussing it with them.

Instead, I simply edit the profile to change Deceased to Living. I add a note that I am unable to confirm they are deceased or know they are living, as the case may be. FamilySearch staff will engage with any other contributors. I know this works because I get emails informing me "a correction has been made" and the profile no longer appears in the public tree space.

In some cases the profile was created on the old NFS system, or the first contributor has died, or the profile gets flagged Confidential for geopolitical reasons, or some other reason. Then the profile gets put in my own private tree space. Once it is there I can delete it.