Family Search Memories

Mel Leavitt

In FS Memories, I would like to upload photos and stories of myself and my siblings. We are all still living. If I upoad them as Private, when we die does everything become public? Or how does all of that work? Or am I able to do this at all for a living person?

mellamay26

Hi @Mel Leavitt,

Here is an article on what happens to your memories when you die. It goes over how you can make sure that others can still see the private memories after you pass on, https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/what-happens-to-memories-submitted-by-a-deceased-user

This is part of the article.

Áine.ní.Donnghaile

In the Memories area, you will see the following instructions when you are uploading:

AmberML1

@Mel Leavitt

If we are talking about uploading images of yourself and living family members, FamilySearch has a great featured called Family Groups. There is a Community Group that deals specifically with the Family Group feature, and you can find plenty of Help Articles that will help you learn how to start/build one.

Why I use Family Groups is so that I can upload all my images filled with living people, mark them as private, and assign them to that Family Group. Then I can share them with those I invite into that Family Group.

Another great reason for using this is that a Family Group allows up to 3 Administrators. So if anyone of them dies, the 2 living Administrators can manage those images and assign another 3rd Administrator.

Alan E. Brown

@AmberML1 Yes, using a Family Group helps somewhat. But the ownership model currently used for Memories makes it really hard to do what the OP hopes for, even if you use a Family Group. Your statement that "the 2 living Administrators can manage those images" is quite misleading — even a group administrator has no permission to change the visibility of a memory created by someone else (or indeed to make any other change to the memory, except for tags and comments).

Making a memory private and assigning it to the Family Group makes it possible for all the Family Group members to see that memory. That is great for the group members. Then when the contributor of the memory passes away, the group members can continue to see the memory. Still great for the members. But since only the actual contributor of the memory can change its visibility, that particular memory can never become visible to the public, even after everyone referenced in the memory has passed away and there is no reason the memory could not become public.

As long as there is a living group member with access to the memory, they could download it with the intention to upload it as their own contribution and make it public. But then when they try to upload it, they'll get an error because it is a duplicate memory. If they are savvy enough, they could then edit the memory slightly so that it is no longer a bit-for-bit copy of the original. Then they can upload it as their own contribution, make it public, and tag it to the now-deceased people in Family Tree.

But there are still huge problems:

• The fact that a family group might help will not be at all obvious to the vast majority of users, and so most will not even create a family group to help preserve private memories.
• Even for those who create a family group, this is all very complicated and thus most users can't do it.
• It requires someone in the Family Group to stay on top of all the group's memories, to be aware when everyone in the various memories has passed away, and then to be able and willing to do all the above steps.

My guess is that even with good intentions, less than 1% of the memories marked private will ever become public. I understand why the lawyers required all these restrictions to be put in place, but the result will be that millions of memories will be lost. For years I've advocated for a true bequeathment feature where a designated heir can take on ownership of a deceased user's memories. But that request has fallen on deaf ears, and it has all gotten worse since the introduction of private memories.

Alan E. Brown

@mellamay26

Thanks for trying to help, but that article does not at all explain "how you can make sure that others can still see the private memories after you pass on." Everything in the best practices section of that article applies only to public memories. None of those steps will help at all for private memories.