Adding (potentially) living people who you do not know. What's the policy ?
My grand aunt's (she's deceased) husband (he's deceased) had a previous wife (who may still be alive) and children (who are likely to be alive).
I added them all to the FamilySearch tree because they're the only link to documentary evidence about his role in WW2 (he's Walter Baranowski GKDT-76H).
I added them all as living because I have no evidence that they're not, so they should only be visible to me
But if the first wife or any of her descendants happens to to be using FamilySearch it should be they who add these people.
I'm a little bit puzzled about this.
Answers
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There is no "policy" as such, but different Family Tree users have different approaches to adding living persons to the tree. Personally, I do not consciously add anyone of my parents' or my "generation" to the database. If I did, I would not differentiate regarding their relationship to me. However, for some, there wish is to use Family Tree as a way to record all their family members - living or (recently) deceased - as well as individuals (dead or alive) to whom they possibly have no known relationship.
So, while my recommendation would be to use Family Tree for the purpose it was originally intended (a database containing one profile for every deceased person who can be documented as having lived on Earth) others will present different ideas.
At least you appear to realise that, whichever living persons you do enter, only you will be able to view their profiles. This is how there are so many duplicate records for the living on Family Tree: you will enter, say, a profile for a living cousin and other members of your family (and even non-family members) will enter their own "version" of that individual (without being able to see - or perhaps even being aware - that multiple instances of that individual's profile have been added to the tree).
The short answer to your question then is that you do not have to be a close family member to add such records. But, as long as you ensure they are marked as "Living", only you will be able to see the ones you do add.
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If the first wife or any of her descendants are using FamilySearch, they may very well have entered these people -- but if the people they've entered are living, then you wouldn't see those entries, any more than they would see what you've entered. But either way, there's no rule against doing exactly as you have done: entered the necessary profiles for connecting the deceased as fully as you can manage, and only marking recent profiles as deceased if you have positive evidence for it.
That said, I wouldn't feel it necessary to create profiles in order to attach a source that mentions them. I could explain the possibly-living status of the other people in the Notes/Description field of the source that's attached to the deceased person's profile, or, if it got really complicated, I could write it up in a Note on the Collaborate tab.
(Every now and then, some helpful soul creates profiles for The Famous Relative's third and fourth wives -- who are both still living, last I checked. None of these volunteers ever have any relation to us, and I'm not sure why they feel it necessary to add these profiles -- there have never been any accompanying sources or any other excuse that I could see. I would welcome suggestions on what I can write in a collaboration note to stop them.)
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