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New here! Basic question about "how things work."

James De Fazio
James De Fazio ✭
May 9, 2023 edited July 11, 2024 in Family Tree

Hi all,

Been looking at the site, off and on now for a couple years. Was wondering, I'm seeing updates being done to very close family members (some with incorrect information) by persons I do not know or know of. Are there folks who are just generally going into records and making updates to families they have no connection to?

I messaged one person doing this, twice, and that has person has not responded.

Thanks!

James De Fazio

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Best Answers

  • Julia Szent-Györgyi
    Julia Szent-Györgyi ✭✭✭✭✭
    May 9, 2023 Answer ✓

    There are people who spend their time on FS editing other people's families, yes. Often, the "targets" are nobility or other subjects of published genealogy works, or notables of some form or other. (My Famous Relative's still-living spouses get periodically added on FS by enterprising individuals apparently bent on entering all of Wikipedia, for example.)

    The other possibility, of course, is that the contributors believe -- rightly or wrongly -- that those profiles represent their family members. Note that you can't rely on FS's "show relationship" function for determining whether they're right or not: it only uses direct relationships. If I'm working on my spouse's great-uncle, and enter his wife's parents, it'll say I have no relationship to those parents.

    1
  • genthusiast
    genthusiast ✭✭✭✭✭
    May 9, 2023 edited May 9, 2023 Answer ✓

    In Family Tree all user accounts have the same edit privilege -whether you're near, distant or unknown relation to the profiles you're editing. It is a wiki-style tree - 'open-edit' free-for-all. There have been announced some potential Family Group changes - but those have yet to be implemented.

    Oh ... There is some Facebook platform parts mixed in. I used to think they should have made profile conclusions on Twitter platform ... Then we could have had a twikier twee.

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Answers

  • James De Fazio
    James De Fazio ✭
    May 9, 2023

    Yup, thanks guys. Kind of what I assumed. In one instance, the person did email me back, and we're still working on trying to see how/if we're related. In the other instance, the person has not responded to two messages, now going on two years. I just want to see if we're related, as it's a surname which is not in my family, but could be by marriage.

    Thanks, Jim

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