Has there just been a FamilySearch exercise to delete Alternate Names?
Over the last two days (18 & 19 September 2023) I have just noticed there have been around 70 changes recorded relating to individuals in my Following list - all shown as "Alternate Name Deleted". Only about 30 odd relate to separate IDs, as the pattern appears to be for two per person to have been deleted. Every one involves a "Birth Name".
Would a moderator / employee (or anyone else "in the know") please confirm whether this is a known exercise that is currently underway? Something similar happened some years ago, but appears to have stopped when some users complained. I'm okay with this (as I only ever add AKAs, so know they're not alternate names I originally added), but believe we should have been advised of such an exercise being undertaken.
Answers
-
Just checked my Following list, @Paul W, and I see the same.
0 -
In every case I've seen, it's an exact duplicate that was cleaned up. Family Tree doesn't allow you to add exact duplicate conclusions now, but several years ago it was possible. It seems that this cleanup process is simply intended to delete duplicate conclusions that are no longer allowed. Since they are exact duplicates, nothing of any value will be lost.
0 -
Some of the ones I'm seeing are not exact duplicates. Of the 3 at the top of my following list, 2 were not exact duplicates.
1 -
Funnily enough, I thought an earlier exercise had already wiped out (all / most of) these duplicates, but I have been working fairly solidly within Family Tree over the last few fays and seen many of these (some multiple) Birth Names on the profiles I have been dealing with. I even deleted I few myself!
Last time something similar took place was at a time FamilySearch engineers actually engaged with users, so we were well aware of the intention in advance.
2 -
All the one’s In my list have either been duplicates of the alternate, ie. there is still an alternate name that matches the deleted one, or a duplicate of the main name field.
0
