What to do? A person is continually creating duplicates
This problem started in Feb 2022. I believe they did not understand they should check for duplicates when uploading a Gedcom. I messaged the person about the huge number of duplicates they had created and had no reply.
Since then this person has added hundreds more duplicates, adding the same family members to each of the duplicates they had previously created.
It did not help that there was already some duplicates. Those duplicates could have been fixed, though it would have taken a considerable amount of time.
The wife in this family has been entered with her maiden name and her married name, in one instance with duplicated husband's there are 26 children, many of whom are duplicates listed under the duplicated parents.
Plus there are at least 3 other duplicated wives and 11 duplicated husbands. Is there some sort of teacher/mentor that could educate the member?
Or can a FS leader fix the duplicates?
Answers
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@Shannon Potter Wilcox is there a way to contact the person adding all the duplicates, and help them understand the effects of what they are doing?
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@Rhonda Budvarson Anyone can contact a contributor. Just look for their username on one of the problematic profiles. Click on it to send a private message.
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Rhonda, Monica wrote in her first paragraph that she tried to message the person, but had no reply.
Unfortunately, it sounds like this problem involves the GEDCOM compare-and-add process that FS continues to offer, despite the many, many comments over the years pointing out that it is badly flawed. My analogy is that it's like working in the Tree blind, with only a six-year-old to read the screen to you.
Add to the flawed tool the flawed understanding that many users have about FamilySearch in general and its collaborative tree specifically, and you get a recipe for the kind of problem that Monica is encountering. The user creating the duplicates has probably never actually looked at FamilySearch's tree, except through the compare-and-add tool, and therefore has no idea of the problem he is creating. He's likely operating under the unconscious assumption that FS is exactly like Ancestry, meaning that his comparisons and additions only affect his own copy of a family tree. If he's seen any of the (likely angry) messages he's received (assuming he even knows how to look at his messages), he probably thinks those other users are either clueless or confused, because he's working on his tree, not theirs.
As for what to do... No, FS doesn't employ anyone to fix the tree. I have no idea whether there's any method by which anyone at FS could contact the specific user for teaching or mentoring, and if there is, how one would start that process. Perhaps you could try the "report abuse" tool? No, the activity is probably not intentionally abusive, but it is in direct contradiction of the purpose and structure of the Tree.
But other than that, I see two choices: fix it yourself, or ignore it. I haven't tested this in a while, but I believe that none of the tree/chart views show possible duplicates, i.e. it's only when you're actually on a profile that that particular data problem shows, so if you're satisfied that "your" versions of the profiles are as complete and correct as you can make them, then you can simply choose to work on some other corner of your family.
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I spent most of a whole day merging some of the duplicates, so far it has been 30 merges and I am far from finished.
It really is very unsatisfactory that FS appears to have no way of 'a leader' of some sort who can contact this person and say "Heads up' you are creating huge problems'.
And there is no 'Code of Conduct' that says this is unacceptable. I agree on Ancestry people can make as many mistakes as possible and it doesn't affect other trees except for the mindless copying of mistakes.
On Ancestry where I have my main trees, some people who share my 3 x GGM have her having 14 children in 11 years, some in South Carolina with a husband named George Ross, she apparently had a child the first week of April, then got married to another George Ross less than 3 weeks later in England and had another child 3 months later, then had the other 12 children in 2 places in England and also in South Carolina in the next 11 years.
When I looked at collaborative trees there is a reason why I did not choose FS, there is no way to counsel people such as this one.
I chose to enter my extensive family history on WikiTree where this sort of inconsiderate and damaging activity would have resulted in a mentor contacting the profile manager and formal counselling would have been initiated.
Don't get me wrong, FS has an incredible collection of records and sources, which I truly appreciate however there are far too many very messed up family histories to use FS trees as a valid source.
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