How do I make deceased people Public when they are showing Private???
I have noticed some of my ancestors are still listed as "Private person" when they should show "Public person". I can not seem to find out where or how to change that. Please help. Thx
Answers
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@Bonnie Blazek Kosmider - One problem is that the FS FamilyTree software can automatically make profiles private for various reasons that are less than clear. People who are associated with the Middle East, for instance, can be automatically set as Private as soon as they get a Middle East placename on one of their events. This is especially annoying when the chap in question is a soldier in the British Army who died at Gallipoli (Turkey) say and cannot be commemorated properly because of this. It doesn't always happen which makes it even more annoying.
We believe that the principle is to protect someone (not clear who) especially when there are people who move from Muslim to Christian.
If you can see these private profiles, then I suggest that you examine them for places in Muslim countries. The usual way out is to remove those placenames and put them elsewhere.
This is just my suggestion and it could be wrong or just one of many possibilities.
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There was a glitch a few weeks ago when public (deceased) profiles were showing as private. It cleared up, but it does happen from time to time.
As Adrian says, there could be a variety of reasons that the problem occurs. Since we can't see the profile, we can't help much. You may need to flag your post so a mod or staff member with the correct permissions can look at the profile and be of more help.
Good luck!
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just to double check the oblivious, you did add a death date to these people. If not, add the death date.
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When profiles are made private by FamilySearch out of an abundance of caution, they are often described as "confidential" profiles. They appear in places like your Recents list where they are listed as "Private Person". However, a hallmark of these profiles can be seen when you look at their profile pages. There is an unmissable banner at the top of the page which states "Confidential: Only you can see and edit this profile. However, anyone could potentially see the photos, documents, and stories that are attached to this profile. Learn more."
Here is a screenshot of part of a profile page for a profile that I created some time ago. The thing that triggered the system to make this profile "confidential" was the entry of the birthplace (İstanbul, Türkiye).
If you see such banners on your ancestors' profile pages, then that is the explanation for your observation. My recollection is that merely removing the problematic places from the profile does not cause the profile to automatically become public; you would probably have to create new profiles without specifying those places. Then you would have to trust that no other user would, in the normal course of events, add that information to the new profiles, thus rendering them confidential!
If you don't see such banners, then Adrian's advice would be the way to go.
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I found these knowledge articles on changing deceased confidential to public, and why some are kept private.
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Most times it just means the ancestor was never marked as “Deceased” in FamilySearch. Go into their profile, click the little pencil by the Death field, and change the status to Deceased with a short reason (like “born 1800s, clearly deceased”). Once saved, their record flips to public. If you still see “Private,” it may be a confidential record (FamilySearch holds those back for about 150 years). In that case, you’ll need to contact support or just wait it out. After making them public, don’t forget to check for duplicates and merge.
Helpful links:
FamilySearch Help
Merge Guide
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The thing that triggered the system to make this profile "confidential" was the entry of the birthplace (İstanbul, Türkiye).
I would have expected that FamilySearch would know that for hundreds of years there were many Europeans in the area encompassed by the former Ottoman Empire, and that there is a branch of genealogy devoted to this, which has an active Society, the Levantine Heritage Foundation (LHF).
The website https://levantineheritage.com says
"The peoples and communities who traded and settled in the area were diverse in origin and faiths, including Venetians, Genoese, Greeks, Turks, Persians, Armenians, Jews, French, Italians, British, many other Europeans and Americans. With the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire in 1923, many of the cosmopolitan communities of the Levant region scattered around the globe. The Levantine Heritage Foundation is piecing together these communities’ histories and legacies for future generations to study and build on".
It seems to me that persons using FamilySearch are much more likely to be researching persons from this European background, so it makes no sense to me that a person with a British/ American sounding name should be made confidential.
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As just commented against another post, here is (also) an example of a post that needs addressing by a FamilySearch employee. It is such a shame that speculation over this ongoing issue cannot be addressed by a "definitive" response.
As illustrated (by Adrian, and previously by others) the location factor really makes little sense as an explanation in many cases. Of course there are other factors - e.g., publicly showing a profile illustrating a conversion of the recently deceased person, say from Islam to Christianity - this possibly being a "safety" concern for their living relatives. But, surely, any algorithm could be adjusted to exclude at least some of the factors that appear to currently trigger this behaviour (of making some profiles private "unnecessarily").
For a start, surely the article referenced above by @sc woz could be expanded to provide some specific examples. More important would be a complete review by FamilySearch into the whole practice and current criteria that is being applied to this matter.
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@Paul W said:
It is such a shame that speculation over this ongoing issue cannot be addressed by a "definitive" response.
Precisely. The second of those linked articles (the one headed "Why are deceased people on my list of Private People in Family Tree?") says:
Administrators mark records as confidential if the ability for the public to view the information could harm the contributor.
Two things - firstly I for one thought that the whole process was automatic. If there are genuine human beings marking these people as Confidential (and is it "Confidential" or "Private" by the way?) then they need training to understand that there were European soldiers fighting and dying in the Muslim world.
Secondly, the justification is that making the information public could "harm the contributor". I think we need to be told how this happens, because I remain to be convinced. I am more convinced that Muslims who are related to the contributor might suffer by association if the contributor has changed religion. But that's not what is claimed.
The simple truth is that we are here in this Community trying to help the users of FamilySearch FamilyTree but on this aspect at least, we are failing to help because we don't understand what's intended.
Please, FS, help us to help your users…
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