Family Tree no secure

LegacyUser

Paula Jewell said: I want to remove my family tree from your location. It has been changed so many times by people it no longer resembles my family tree. I'm sure from the way my tree has been changed that no tree on your site is correct.

LegacyUser

Jeff Wiseman said: Hi there,

You do NOT have a tree on this site. NOBODY does! There is only one single tree here containing over 1.2 billion records that is owned entirely by FS, and is shared by everyone.

So, for example, your great grandfather's record will only appear in ONE place in the tree, and anybody with a FS account can modify, add to, remove from, or otherwise correct and improve that same shared record.

If you create a duplicate of a record that is already in the tree, that duplicate will be visible to everyone else, and someone will eventually merge it together with the one single record that was already there.

This is totally different from most other "you pay to use it" type genealogical websites that give each person their own private space where they can build "their own tree". Many people make this mistake when they start using the FamilySearch FamilyTree.

So you have no tree to remove as those records now contain research and corrections made by other people as well. You do not own those records, you have only contributed to their contents.

LegacyUser

Gordon Collett said: As another user of Family Tree, I'm sorry to hear of the trouble you are having.

Family Tree has never been and was never meant to be a secure, private tree. In fact, we don't have trees here at all. It is a public open edit tree that we voluntarily add information to for everyone to share. Here is basic information about it and how to work in it:
https://www.familysearch.org/blog/en/...

We don't have separate trees that can be deleted since we all are in the same tree.

Before you leave, however, it would be useful for the programmers and the entire community to understand what has gone wrong for you. If you could post a few examples of individuals in the tree that have been changed to no longer be your family, it would be very helpful.

Most of the time these situations seem to arise when people are working with individuals who have no sources and no documentation either because no one has added them or because it is so far back in history, there are none or when different users have confused and mingled several similar individuals into one. Often, just determining the actual problem and fixing that allows one to restore and maintain correct family lines.

I, for one, have found that the information for my family lines has been very stable and is just getting better as dozens of close and distant relatives add sources, documents and photos to document the family.

LegacyUser

Marianne **** said: Hi Paula,

Please don’t despair. I have found that the best way to combat this problem is to highlight the “watch star” on every family member’s file. In this way Family Search will send me an email each week that any changes are made to my family members’ files.

I have been using Family Search for nearly a year, and in that time I have received several emails detailing changes to my relatives’ files. Some of these changes have been incorrect and required correction, but mostly they have been positive, such as the addition of more relatives (which I investigate, to ensure accuracy), the addition of extra information, sources attached and photos added to the Memories section.

I hope this gives you the confidence to persevere with Family Search.

LegacyUser

Jeff Wiseman said: Also remember that for watchlist persons, you can check for changes anytime you want. You don't have to wait for the changes email each week.

LegacyUser

Marianne **** said: Thanks, Jeff. I’d forgotten about that!