Unlink my family line in familysearch, from a wrong lineage that is perpetuated by other trees
First time for me in this discussion space, so I hope it is appropriate for your attention. I am not sure what will come out of the, hopefully other researchers can relate. FamilySearch; for their use in matching me to others, (like those members in RootsTech, links to famous cousins, or in their generating Fan Charts of my tree, etc.) has my line linked to a specific incorrect ancestral couple. That has occurred from inaccuracies that populated thru many trees over the years. I have had discussions with tree owners, that the Y-DNA and autosomal DNA proves our TN to NY connection they have is inaccurate, but owners are not willing to change. They keep modifying changes I make in the FamilySearch space. This of course stifles our chances to collaborate on finding our actual ancestor. As frustrating as this is, I feel we are all responsible for our own trees and I would not care beyond our discussion of the error and data, yet FamilySearch keeps my link into this groups. Granted I do not know all of the FamilySearch features you have built in over time, that might allow me to bypass this (or other) errored ancestors, so I am open to suggestions.
Other cousins (thru their research) have come in line with my findings and their researchers are equally frustrated with their discussions with those of such rigid thinking in some FamilySearch members. But; I am unsure how to get my family line in FamilySearch, broken from these link to these old groups and to the errored ancestors. I need this so that your tools could be more useful in my search for the exact relationships. To have your tools and links useful in narrowing down my true line, I need the ability to break what FamilySearch identifies as my specific direct ancestor. Clues, Census and other data you find linked to these wrong ancestors creates information noise, that I don't want to keep sorting thru, nor should other cousins.
Appreciate, if you could create an ability to have a specific ancestral couple lineages removed from what FamilySearch establishes as my ancestral family path. Problem is that DNA-wise, several of us show the our ancestor born in TN, came from the Southern surname group somewhere, but data, and documents found to be used a clues to me by FamilySearch, are generated for this wrong line in New England. I want to keep FamilySearch as a valuable research tool, and not have my lineage helplessly dictated from FamilySearch, with no control to bypass these sub-groups' wishes. I don't want to control their trees/individuals, I want FamilySearch to assist and allow my research to control what FamilySearch finds and provide and displays for my research. DNA has not become a major tool yet in your information space, other than what we provide from the outside. Appreciate your looking into this and allow us some flexibility in what you generate to assist! Thank you.
Answers
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You seem to be operating under a misconception about the "author" of the conclusions you see on FamilySearch's Family Tree.
Except for a few very narrow areas (such as read-only and private profiles), FamilySearch or its staff do not enter or edit any of the data in the collaborative Family Tree. Even the legacy (or "seed") data that is credited to "FamilySearch" (usually with a 2012 date) actually comes from user submissions, but it was in preceding systems, and the transfer to the current system did not preserve any submitter information.
Instead, the "author" of what you see here is various users of FamilySearch: people exactly like you and me. It is an open-edit system, meaning that if you believe there is an error, you can correct it yourself. Just keep in mind that it is a shared tree, intended to have one and only one profile per deceased person. The solution to Jack not being Harry's father is not to change Jack's profile into George's, but to detach Jack's profile from Harry's and replace it with George's instead.
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Julia, Thanks you!
I have no misconception, that FamilySearch does not edit or modify collaborative Family Trees. My confusion seems to be how FamilySearch determines my lineage to provide me with family clues, to makes family matches with RootsTech members, to determine ancestors to be put on my Fan Chart, to find links to famous people, etc.?
Detaching Jack, FamilySearch will not record that action for my specific Lineage and show my Harry without Jack, no matter whether someone else reattaches Jack to Harry. It appears to me, to be a stand-off, a back-and-forth between two who hold strong opposing views, and that FamilySearch’s only concerned is using the ancestral data of who made the last change. My conclusion seems to be that I cannot reliably change, what FamilySearch uses as my ancestry, when they get their source from your collaborative environment. Are there any alternatives?
Thank you
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Couple of questions:
1) Do you know exactly where the family line makes a wrong turn?
2) Do you have documentation other than DNA to support what you now consider to be the right linage?
3) Are there sources on the incorrect linage that you can remove? If so, be sure to put very thorough explanations as to why you are detaching them in the reason they are being removed statement.
4) Do you have an alternate linage or just know the current one is wrong because it leads to a wrong distant ancestor?
In other words, in Family Tree do you have a definite point where you need to remove a child from a set of parents and place that child with different parents and the other users put that child back whenever you do? If so, then in this situation you can for now just leave the child with two sets of parents, follow the profile, and every time someone removes the alternate set of parents put them back. On this alternate line you would, of course, want to include just every bit of sourcing you can.
If, however, all you have is a more vague "somewhere in this one hundred year span something is wrong but we really don't know what so I'm just going to take this child out of this family because this is the last spot on the line we really have any evidence for at all," things will be more difficult because your lack of paper sources will need to battle the other group's firmly established family tradition that doesn't need, in their view, sources. In this case, all you can do is hope you can discover enough evidence to document step by step how you get from your authenticated end of line to your correct ancestral couple, are able to actually build that family line in Family Tree, and are able to win over that other branch of the family to your views.
In any event, although it won't help with being able to take advantage of Family Tree's hints and such, you certainly should put together a thorough analysis of your findings as a PDF document, upload it as a Memory, and tag it to everyone involved as a memory and attach it as a source to them as well. I would give it a flashy cover page so anyone going to either Sources or Memories will see it.
This will be ignored:
This is more likely to get read by a few people:
You can put a lot of information in a 15 MB PDF. No one can delete a document you upload. But other users can detach a memory from a Family Tree profile so you would likely want to follow everyone you put this document on and make sure no one does.
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Gordon,
Thank you for your advice. The main purpose in my question is to understand and see how I can get FamilySearch, to serve as a more useful research tool in my quest for finding my family. FamilySearch is obviously very useful as it is now!
FamilySearch, however; appears from this conversation, to be locked into its analysis process for finds, based on the last man standing in the collaborative space (with no individual adjustments that would assist me in solving specific mystery areas). Their solution seems to be, for me to hound that collaborative space, with my DNA and other analysis, till that space sees and concedes. Some just will not see, and it is a two-way street with them not showing their rational, other than other un-support trees. With such an impasse, FamilySearch must have no way around this dilemma for me, yet finding the truth is still our goal.
I’ve come across several researchers over the decades, that will never change their minds, sticking with the crowd. Some are unwilling to see flaws in their research, they understandably are unwilling to throw away years of hard worked research efforts or they want to perpetuate their lineage to maintain membership in some prestigious genealogical groups or societies. My goal is not to try and change every mind, it’s to pursue the truth in my research, and let that help to change minds. Part of changing their minds is finding the correct parents, which is my ultimate goal. Then the data, even theirs (DNA and obscure documentation finds, etc.) will usually add up and lines up over time. It can be a hard search with ancestors on the frontier, ahead of legal and administrative structures that document, where with parents' death occur and their children are absorbed into the exist friend and family structures and the family Bible or documentation no longer exist. Gordon, thanks again for your clarity![b1]
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