Abuse and misinformation in family tree
Hi All,
I was doing research on the family of a famous deceased person and came to find that many of the family member's profiles contained obvious errors and relied on sources referring to completely different people. I believe this person is trying to prove that said famous person was of Native American ancestry; I have no idea if the claim is true but the evidence presented, at least on their familysearch profile, is all false.
The biggest issues I saw amongst many profiles in this family were as follows:
- Many profiles were false merges; in some cases two or three people who shared only a last name merged into one profile and in other cases the merged profiles consist of different people with completely separate names (merges of the latter were based solely on the fact that their spouse shared a last name).
- Attaching sources to certain individuals based solely on the fact that the last name was the same, even when their parents' names were completely different.
I spent a considerable amount of time trying to correct the profiles (undoing merges, separating the merged "mega families" appropriately according to census data and other sources and changing names back to what they should be) and tried my best to leave detailed notes as to why certain sources were being detached and evidence of the fact that the two profiles consisted of two different people. One day later, I found that a user (who was responsible for the incorrect merges and false sources) had undone much of my work. I tried sending them a message but I received no response, and they had also removed many of the notes that I wrote explaining my rationale.
Below are examples of the blatant errors one particular user is making:
- According to Social Security records (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6K4D-83BY), Manuel de la Cruz, born in La Puente, California on 3/4/1922 and died on 2/12/2003, was the son of Roberto de la Cruz and Anita del Villar. Census records show this family This person was merged with the profile for Manuel Cruz (or Manuel Ybarra Cruz), born on 3/6/1922 in Oxnard, California and died on 9/23/1966 in Monterey, California, was son of George Cruz (or Jorge Cruz) and Gertrudis "****" Ibarra.
- In addition to merging the two Manuels, the person decided to re-merge (despite the notes and evidence I had attached, as well as obvious conflicting dates and places of birth) the two fathers (Roberto de la Cruz and George Cruz) into "Roberto George Cruz" -- a person that never existed. For the two mothers, the user simply merged the profiles into one "Anita Villa," while just completely ignoring the name of the other mother (Gertrudis Ibarra).
- On the profile for Manuel Cruz this user re-attached a record from a census of Native Americans showing a person with a different first name and a completely different set of parents (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QGYS-VX3K).
- On the profile for "Roberto George Cruz" this person attached a census of Native Americans despite the fact that the wives and children had completely different names (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:W924-R76Z).
Is there something that can be done about this? I would have preferred that the user read the notes I left and respect the research I had done but they seemingly have no interest in collaborating.
Answers
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This same user is now making absurd claims and is saying they've reported me for a variety of offenses. I explained to them in detail how these sources referenced different people but they do not care.
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Since we cannot get this person the professional help he or she clearly needs, I think you have two choices: use the "report abuse" option yourself, with a reference to your chat; or abandon these people to their (ignominous) fate for now, and try again in a few months. Perhaps by then the person will have moved on to better things, or gotten help, or gotten reported/banned for other abuses.
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I think the key phrase here is "I explained to them in detail how these sources referenced different people but they do not care."
I think Julia is right about your options. I'm sorry that this is happening to you.
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