How/Where do I suggest to Family Search to make it more difficult to mark “deceased?”

Steffanie W_1

Over the past week I have found public profiles of three uncles and one aunt of mine marked as “deceased” but they are very much alive. The profiles were created by a tenth cousin twice removed, or a nobody. It’s difficult and timely to get the “deceased” changed to “living”. Why is it so easy to mark a person, who is less than 100 years old, as being “deceased” without a death date? Who do I contact to get this changed? This place has so much information on screens that I can’t find who to contact.

Alan E. Brown

You can always make a suggestion here on Community using Suggest an Idea.

This topic has been discussed here many times. You might be interested in previous discussions, which you can find if you search for "Mark as deceased".

Ger876

I encountered a similar situation a few months ago when a FamilySearch user was creating an entry for a living uncle and marking him as deceased. When I realized this, I looked up who created the deaceased entry and contacted that person why he did so. I reported him when I had last contact by which means (face to face, email, phone call, with differing dates of such events, all in the current year). Within a day, the creator of the deceased mark not only removed the deceased mark, but also the complete person entry, with the reason of my uncle still being alive. So my guess is that if person creator and deceased mark creator differ, then the latter is the one to contact if it is not possible to fix it directly.

Quint Hurst

@Ger876 : This article explains how to change a deceased entry to a living entry. (

How do I change the status from deceased to living in Family Tree?

Article Id: 815August 06, 2025Share

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Protection of the privacy of individuals and families is a top priority at FamilySearch.

The process to change the status of a Family Tree record from deceased to living works differently depending on who contributed to the record and how many contributors exist. When you change the record from deceased to living, the record becomes visible only to its contributor. If you are the only contributor, only you see it. If you are not a contributor or the record has multiple contributors, the process is more complicated.

Note: A contributor is the person who created the record or anyone who has contributed to it.

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints can sometimes see a living person as deceased. If you encounter one of these situations, please contact us:

• The person's Church membership record was incorrectly marked as deceased.
• Completion of temple work incorrectly marked the person as deceased.

Before you start

Be sure that your account settings contain a valid email address or phone number. Both can be helpful in working through the process of changing the individual's status. If you are using a tablet, we suggest you use the Family Tree mobile app rather than the website.

Steps (website)

If you are not the only contributor:

Note: If you are not the only contributor, someone else created the record or others have contributed to it.

1. Navigate to the person page of the individual who is living.
2. Click Details
3. In the Vitals section, next to the listed death date, select Edit.
4. In the box that appears, click the circle labeled Living.
5. Enter how you know the person is still alive.
6. Click Save.
7. Enter an explanation for the system administrator to review your request. Please provide this information:
   • Your relationship to the individual needing attention
   • How you know that the person is alive
8. Click Submit.

A request now goes to FamilySearch Support. A system administrator reviews your request and takes appropriate actions.

If you are the only contributor:

Note: If you are the only contributor, you created the record and no one else has contributed to it.

1. Navigate to the person page of the individual who is living.
2. Click the Details tab.
3. .
4. In the box that appears, click the circle labeled Living.
5. Enter how you know the person is still alive.
6. Click Save.

The word "Living" now shows in the Death field, and the Private Person banner appears at the top of the person page. The record is now visible only to you.

Steps (mobile app)

If you are not the only contributor:

1. Navigate to the person page of the individual who is living.
2. Tap Details.
3. In the Vitals section, tap the death date.
4. On the far right of the screen, tap Edit.
5. Depending on your device, tap either the circle or rectangle labeled Living.
6. Enter how you know the person is still alive.
7. Tap Save.
8. Enter an explanation for the system administrator who can review your request. Please provide this information:
   • Your relationship to the individual needing attention
   • How you know that the person is alive
9. Click Submit.

A request now goes to FamilySearch Support. A system administrator reviews your request and takes appropriate actions.

If you are the only contributor:

1. Navigate to the person page of the individual who is living.
2. Tap Details.
3. In the Vitals section, tap the death date.
4. On the far right of the screen, tap Edit.
5. Depending on your device, tap either the circle or rectangle labeled Living.
6. Enter how you know the person is still alive.
7. Tap Save.

The word "Living" now shows in the Death field, and the Private Person banner appears at the top of the person page. The record is now visible only to you.

Working with a system administrator

The administrator could contact you to ask for the physical address of the living person. The address helps the administrator to verify the living status of the individual.

If the administrator makes the update, and you can no longer see the person's record in Family Tree, you can add the person.)