Changes to Family Tree
Others continue to change the Family Tree even though I have posted alert notes and have documented my research with sources. What can we do to stop others from making changes that are not correct?
Answers
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Hello @886EZLContact ID,
I appreciate your frustration. I too have posted alert notes which have been ignored and a well-sourced person has been edited beyond recognition.
Unless the changes are deemed "malicious" by FamilySearch (and there's a very high threshhold for malicious behavior) there isn't currently a mechanism to stop other users from making changes that are not correct. After thirty years of careful genealogical research I have come to realize that many family researchers (1) are not interested in sources; (2) are simply name and date collectors; and (3) always think they are correct no matter how much proof you provide.
The FamilySearch FamilyTree is a collaborative open-edit tree which means any user can contribute/change/edit information.
I would suggest you contact the user(s) who made the incorrect changes to discuss the changes made.
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Another situation that often arises is that the other user has good intentions, but is confused. They see someone in Family Tree named John Brown and assume that it is their ancestor John Brown, rather than my ancestor John Brown. Perhaps they both lived in Somerset, England in about the same time. They are intent on making the profile for John Brown fit everything they know about their ancestor, but instead of creating a new profile, they modify my ancestor's profile.
Fixing such a situation will also require communication and persuasion, but I have often found in such situations that it is very helpful for me to create a profile for their ancestor, adding sources and other evidence as well as I can. I connect their profile to that person's parents, spouse(s), and children. Then my conversation with the other user becomes much simpler. I just show them that this other person profile exists and is distinct from my ancestor, and that they can profitably proceed with that profile. They then have no need to be concerned with my ancestor's profile.
This doesn't always work, but you might consider whether something like that is happening in your case.
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@886EZLContact ID I agree with @Robert Seal_1 , you should definately contact the users who made the incorrect changes to the tree. This is can be very frustrating with a shared family tree. If you continue to struggle with these issues, you might consider a few ways that you can keep your information private. Of course living persons in FamilySearch are always private. The other options are setting up a family group tree, which keeps the information private and only allows other users that you invite to participate. FamilySearch is also now testing a feature that will allow users to maintain a seperate, editiable and private tree ( called User Trees ) that is disconnected from the public FamilySearch tree. Ancestry also offers the option to maintain a private tree. Hopefully one of these options will work for you!
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@betsy123 Note that a Family Group Tree doesn't keep information about deceased profiles private. The only profiles unique to a FGT are the living and confidential profiles. All the deceased public profiles are the same profiles that everyone sees in Family Tree. So a FGT won't really help with this situation — when the deceased public profiles are edited in the context of the FGT, that will affect the public Family Tree, since they are the same profiles.
The User Tree suggestion will, however, succeed in avoiding unwanted edits from anyone outside the invited editors.
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@Alan E. Brown Thanks for the clarification.
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Many of us share your frustration. It's disappointing to spend significant time and energy - and even money - to document an ancestor correctly, only to have our work erased in a moment.
I spent most of today documenting John Joseph Haggerty GZF5-RSR because someone had confused and conflated him with John Francis Haggerty GXYX-KGW.
But, that's the best method I know to combat the random incorrect change: heavily documenting "the other guy."
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"... that's the best method I know to combat the random incorrect change: heavily documenting "the other guy." ..."
Totally agree. Whenever I split a bad merge, I always try to document "the other guy" with enough data to make the difference clear between the two profiles. "The other guy" isn't a relative of mine so there's always going to be a limit about how much I can do or want to do, but I always try to make the difference clear. And I have this idea that people are more likely to accept your wrecking their (supposed) research if you can also be positive and tell them who their chap really was.
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