FamilySearch Family Tree Changes and Corrections
A question has arisen within my local genealogy community. If a family relationship is sealed in a temple ordinance, can that relationship is changed where the information appears in the FamilySearch Family Tree?
I have heard of genealogists making changes in the FamilySearch Family Tree, and that within a short time, that data has reversed to the original before the change was made. I understand that the provider of the original information could change it back, but could a reversal also occur because the original information was part of the temple ordinance?
If the incorrect information is unwittingly provided during the temple work, and an ordinance has been completed will FamilySearch Family Tree be corrected with the submission of documentation proving the correction?
It's important to me that I am providing to fellow genealogists that is the official standpoint from the FamilySearch Library.
Thank you for your time.
Debbe Hagner
Answers
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I'm not LDS, so I don't know what happens from a church member's point of view, but as far as I can tell, no, there's no reversion of changes based on what has or hasn't been submitted to the church. An individual user may revert another user's changes, usually because he/she believes those changes to be wrong, but no FS employee will interfere with this — even if it turns into an edit war — unless a user chooses the "report abuse" option and jumps through its hoops. (And even then, they may decide it's not abuse and not do anything.)
From what I can tell, FS employees only ever edit the Tree under extremely limited circumstances, and church submissions/rites do not create such circumstances.
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I'm also not LDS, but one family group on my RC paternal branch converted to LDS in the 1930s. My cousin had done the ordinances for the family of her 3rd GGF (the older brother of my 2nd GGF), using an incorrect ancestor - a Welsh Church of England family rather than our County Louth, Ireland, Roman Catholic family.
In 2017, I disconnected the Welsh family and attached the Irish ancestors, with sources, evidence, and a lengthy proof statement. The family unit is still intact in the FSFT.
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Here's more unofficial information: One thing to keep in mind is that Family Tree does not really hold official temple records. As I've understood it, there is a completely separate database that holds each ordinance with all the information used to complete that ordinance. Nothing done in Family Tree affects that database. That is why when a family entry gets completely messed up in Family Tree and after you have made all needed corrections, you can submit a request under the Temple category here and ask them to review an individual's ordinances to make sure the ones showing in Family Tree are the correct ones. I've had to do that a few times when three or four families have been totally confused and incorrectly merged in such a way there was no way to completely untangle them without creating new profiles for some of the involved family members. After everything was fixed for the family, I submitted a request to have the correct ordinances moved to the correct people and that was taken care of.
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