Random Guy Making a Mess of my tree
I have been working on my tree for years and now some random guy with no relation to anyone is making a mess of it. He is adding and removing people based on his own ideas. I contacted him and asked what his relationship to the people he is editing and he says he doesn't have one. He changed the name of my grandfather, he added a whole bunch of brothers and sisters to my grandfather's tree and now deleted a bunch of his family. That side of the family is Goldstein and there are a whole bunch of Goldsteins in NYC area but what he is doing is wrong. When grandad was alive as well as my mother we worked on this together now it is being destroyed. At least he cannot edit my Ancestry tree, but this is getting annoying.
I just sent him this today
I know these people, they are relatives. If you want to change the tree to however you want, I can't stop you but you are making a mess and adding and removing recklessly
Best Answers
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Yes, this help article explains how to document name changes
In general, enter the birth name in the Vitals section of the Person page. Enter other names, such as nicknames, in the Other Information section. Legal name changes are an exception.
- For a legal name change, enter the most recent legal name in the Vitals section.
- If the person did not use the legal name in life, you have the option to enter the commonly used name in the Vitals section and the legal name in the Other Information section.
- When record sources do not use the legal name, enter the variations in the Other Information section.
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It is unfortunate that an individual has added or changed data submitted by yourself..
FamilySearch, FamilyTree is a “one world tree,” or a “unified database” that aims to contain one entry for each person recorded in genealogical records, therefore all FamilySearch users are able to add persons, link them to existing persons or merge duplicates. Family Tree is different from other similar genealogy sites in that it is a single, public tree linked together in families, rather than a site that only allows users to create and manage their own private trees. This distinction means that everyone works together on the same data, allowing for the potential to connect every member of the human family.
Family Tree compares records and sources in order to help you resolve mistakes or duplication in records. It also provides messaging and collaboration tools, as well as free expert phone support, to help you resolve errors. Family Tree draws from FamilySearch's enormous database to provide record hints. This makes it easier to link you and your ancestors to earlier generations.
The following article maybe useful and can be found using the hyperlink.to make it easier to read and study:
How can I prevent other people from making inaccurate changes to Family Tree?
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Answers
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I appreciate this must be very upsetting, but this happens to many of us and - as you realise - owing to the open-edit format of Family Tree just cannot be stopped.
You are doing the right thing in communicating with this user. I hope he will respond in a collaborative manner, in line with the ethos of FamilySearch's Family Tree.
It can be messy getting things back to how they were, but this can all be put right by examining change logs of the IDs concerned, which will show the changes you need to reverse and, perhaps, the individual profiles you might need to restore.
Other advice you will be given probably will involve adding as many sources and other back-up information to your relatives' profiles, but, sadly, this will not always put off the more determined user, who really believes they have a better version of the "facts" than you.
As a "last resort" you can report these actions as "Abuse", but FamilySearch generally requires evidence of genuine, malicious intent before regarding such actions as actual "abuse".
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I contacted support and they reprimanded me saying something like do not contact support for this.
Maybe he will just go away. I guess that's the way it goes.
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I've had this problem as well.
I wish FamilySearch would NOT allow things to be posted/changed unless there is accompanying documentation. I realize that "documentation" could be falsified, but at least it's an additional step (something akin to selecting a picture or identifying a letter/word to prove you're not a robot) that should to be taken in order to make a change.
Open source is fine and good but it can take minutes to destroy years of careful posting.
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You stated: " I contacted support and they reprimanded me saying something like do not contact support for this." So I guess your next step is to report it as abuse. What is more malicious than taking a family you yourself admit you are not related to, doing very shoddy work, and refusing to accept advice from a close relative of the people?
I do hope that was a novice, poorly trained support person and not the typical response someone gets when wanting to get help with this sort of problem.
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@Gordon Collett I had a similar experience when I reported a contributor who was changing names to nonsense words, deleting records, disassembling families, and adding rude ethnic slurs in the comments. The support reply appears to be a form letter. It can take a great deal of patience and repeated reports before any progress can be made.
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If you can find his correct family he might leave your connections alone, review what he is entering and see if you can find those profiles in the tree and then do the necessary changes or merges or try sending the information to him. Or create these new profiles so he does not hijack your family members. Think about helping him learn how to work and use the tree correctly and teach him rather than criticize. Familysearch does not react unless there is abuse not just disagreements.
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In the box that is on top that says names it says for female use maiden name. I thought that would apply to men as well. If a man came to America and was born as Moshe Goldstein and after naturalization is Morris Gold, then the new name will go in the alternative name box. Is there a rule pertaining to this?
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I am growing frustrated with an anonymous named member messing up my tree. Distant relatives I am slightly bother but my mother and father is getting ridiculous. I just emailed him this.
'You changed my grandmother and grandfather's date of marriage, you changed my mother and father's date of marriage. I'm going to ask you to please stop editing my family'
This is getting frustrating
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Trust me, we've ALL been there.
I find I have better success by researching the family the other contributor THINKS s/he is editing. Then I add those records and documentation to that other similarly-named family. It's a bit of a chore, but it almost always stops that contributor from editing my close family.
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@AndrewHolstein Have you heavily sourced your parents and grandparents? If not, I would add all the records you have to source them. If you rely on people trusting that you know your grandparents, then you have made a serious mistake. Add your parents and grand parents' birth certs, death certs, obituaries, and marriage certs, census records, city directories, as well as everything else you have. Take the time to do this. It should discourage others from changing their identity.
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Yes, I have done that a lot.. Correct the family I am working on and then Correct or Create the family the added to my family.... and add the correct sources to theirs.
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Have you read this article about entering names in Familysearch. You should use birth names but there are exceptions. You can read about legal name changes (such as an adoption) and using the most commonly used name which can happen when someone immigrates and changes their name. Maybe reading the article will help you understand what name to use and when.
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Mod note - two discussion on the same topic by the same author have been merged here
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Thanks, Maile
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I completely support the suggestion made by @Áine Ní Donnghaile. Whenever I find a case where two (or more) identities have been confused I make every effort to fill out the detail of the other individuals / families. So, instead of merely detaching relationships, I try to immediately go to work on the "unrelated" family (well, there is possibly of some relationship being found) and create or find an existing family branch for them.
I have a number of ongoing "projects" intended to show the pedigrees of various individuals of the same name, who have been the subject of either incorrect merges or having individuals added to their families who have turned out to be totally unrelated.
A commonly reported problem is two "John Smith" families being mixed-up, even though they never lived within 200 (sometimes 2000!) miles of each other. However, I find the far greater problem is when the families are of very similar identity, and lived within just 10-20 miles of each other, at the exact same period of time. As an example, there were around 15 individuals named John Reay / Rae who were born in the same period in the adjoining counties of Cumberland and Dumfriesshire. A fellow researcher had mistakenly decided a particular individual was her ancestor, whereas there was documentary proof this was not the case. Okay, most Family Tree users would not have the time to go this far, but I have spend a good deal of the past two months in trying to attach parents / children / spouses for every John Reay / Rae (English / Scottish spellings, respectively) who lived in this area in the mid-1800s. I believe this will prove to be the best way to stop mistaken identity of these families in future: though I bet some careless user will still make errors here - which is why I have added them all to my "Following" list!
If you have the time I would urge you to extend your efforts into researching families of the same name / similar identity and creating branches for them, too. I am convinced this will be beneficial to you and others in cutting down (if not eliminating) the number of incorrect assumptions (and errors) that will otherwise continue to be made in connection to your family members' profiles.
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The editor does not have any trees or even a last name.
My grandfather's (G3ZH-MLF) death location was removed. There is no source to state where it happened, but I was there.
My grandfather did not have a middle name. He used the name Hyman on one legal for as a joke but it wasn't his name and he never used it but the guy insists on adding it
Somehow my grandfather now has two mothers.
Uncle Frank was deleted and replaced with another Frank with the wrong DOD G3ZH-S8D
Grandfather now has two brothers named Sam when I do not think he had one. :)
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