family search input names without sources

LewisNORMANSharonMarie

i don't understand why names and thus families get added without a base of information. example: Rachel Ballard lzj6-zvf. added 2017 no sources and since then people have add more family etc. carry on until 1626!! temple has been worked . i am trying to prove and keep family straight. this has thrown me for a loop...

sharon marie norman lewis

Julia Szent-Györgyi

Based on the bottom (beginning) of Rachel Ballard's Change Log, her profile was imported from a prior system on FamilySearch.

These prior systems did not have a mechanism for attaching sources, and the import into the Family Tree was not able to preserve contributor information.

Gail Swihart Watson

There are certainly sources associated with Rachel Ballard Phillip's children; tons of them. It's too bad that most people don't connect a record with all the persons listed there. I found Rachel and Philemon Phillips listed in a daughter's death certificate, so I went ahead and added that source to all three, daughter and parents. Now she has one source, and you will know that Rachel really lived. Most casual family historians do not understand the need for connecting parents to children, or even the need for sources.

When you look at Rachel's ancestors through her grandparents, there certainly is signs of mixing up multiple lines of Ballard's and Hardwicks, and that is not something just anyone can untangle. Her apparent great grandfather, William Ballard, LHKM-T96, is a proven Revolutionary War patriot. No, he didn't fight being born in 1715, but he supplied the Army with provisions. Modern day descendants have submitted DAR applications through every child but Thomas (Rachel's grandfather) and a couple of others, so again, parts of this family lived and are well documented even if not in FamilySearch.

I think it is safe to say that this is a complex lineage and it must be frustrating to have to work with it, but we cannot expect lineage experts have touched every family.

I would say you have a lot to do to untangle the generations between Rachel and her great grandparents.

ScottSeegmiller

@LewisNORMANSharonMarie As you come across these common names with potential for mis-merge or incorrect sources, there is a process for asking for caution from "causal genealogists."

Alerts can be added to the top of the record, and if they are examined, it may at least slow someone for adding data blindly.

This article describes the Notes and Alerts.

Maile L

Per Scott's suggestion above, here is the article about notes: How do I add notes to a person in Family Tree?