Correcting FSFT Entries with Closer Family Relationships
Issue: I wonder why a (polite) message (to me) indicating errors in "such-and-such" a family isn't a big problem. Why would the person that knows more about this family not simply correct it? I do.......when the situation presents itself.
I have a large FSFT. Many people have closer relationships that mine. If you have the data, please make the changes.
I have "Watches" on the people with whom I have needs or difficulties.
If someone knows more about the person/family, jump in! Correct it!
Wondering if my thinking is off-the-mark here.
Comments and suggestions, please.
Cousin David
Comments
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Jeff Wiseman said: Cousin David,
I don't think that you are "Off-the-mark" at all. However, I do find that handling the collaboration can vary depending on circumstance.
For example, if I see where someone has been doing work around a family of their relatives and I've spotted an issue, I'll point it out to them and allow them to do the "fixing" themselves (since they may prefer that.
If it is a complex issue (e.g., two or three very similar families where merges are incorrectly happening), I might go ahead and fix things myself. Afterwards, I'll send them a note stating what I did and asking them to contact me if they disagreed with it so that we could resolve any issues together.
If I have previously put A LOT of researched information into a set of profiles and much of it was deleted or merged away AND NO REAL REASONS WERE PROVIDED FOR WHY IT WAS DONE, then I will make the corrections myself.
If it is happening way out on the fringe of my relatives and it is minor changes, I'll just inform that person and let them update things. If they continue or don't bother fixing it, then I'll go in later myself.
Yes, what you are thinking seems to make sense to me, but the tricky part is the wide range of experiences as well as the politics of it all.
And as far as dealing with multiple inaccurate changes in the FSFT, you will feel far more comfortable if you have your own private tree linked to the FSFT so that you can make easy comparisons and reversals of unjustified changes. A tool like Ancestral Quest or Roots Magic can help deal with a lot of that frustration.0 -
I find a LOT of incorrect data, but I don't see any way on the page to correct it, or to submit corrections. For example, I got an email from FamilySearch about one of my collateral ancestors, Arthur U. Billings. But when I went to that page, I saw it was headed Arthur W. Billings. That was a misinterpretation of the handwriting on a death certificate. It is the same person as Arthur U. Billings, with the same parents cited (although again misinterpreting the handwriting on the certificate for the mother as "Ducie" Billings (her name was "Dicie"). There is no edit button, or any other way to correct it that I can see. There are so many errors contributed by other people in my FamilySearch tree that it makes me doubt any of the other data I don't already have.
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@MaxByers, which part of FamilySearch's vast sprawl are you looking at? I cannot find an Arthur W Billings with mother Ducie in either of the main name-searchable parts of the site.
The Family Tree on FS is open-edit: if you're signed in (which you have to be, to look at anything other than the fluff page, otherwise known as the "About" tab in the new interface), then you can edit every conclusion that you see. The other important thing to keep in mind is that the Tree is a single, collaborative endeavor, intended to have one and only one profile per deceased person. In other words, there is no "my tree" and "your tree" here, because it's all one tree that we can all contribute to.
The other part of FamilySearch where you can search by name is the indexed historical records. The names and dates in some indexes can be edited, but that is just a way to improve the finding aid. Indexes are not data, and they often get things wrong -- but if they helped you find a record, then they served their purpose.
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