Account continuity via beneficiary when submitter dies
Rather than just closing an account when a submitter dies, it would be really helpful to allow each submitter to designate a relative as beneficiary of their account. In other words, everything submitted by the deceased contributor now is managed by the beneficiary.
The benefits to this would be:
- Living individuals entered in the deceased submitter's account would transfer to the beneficiary so they can continue to be worked;
- The beneficiary's contact could be linked to all the deceased submitter's contributions so that questions by other researchers can be answered by the beneficiary.
Thanks for considering!
Sheryl Neal Slaughter
Comments
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Would you be able to put an option in our settings where we could assign a relative to have access to our account after we pass. Maybe it could be for a specific time, two years? But they could access live information and memories.
Thank you
Wendy Phillips
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It's a good idea to have an up-to-date (preferably paper) record of your important logins and passwords and device hassleifications, kept somewhere that your heirs (and you!) can access at need. There is no need to involve the websites and device manufacturers in passing down this information.
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Thank you for your suggestion. Your idea has been forwarded to the appropriate manager.
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This is a great idea. My wife had a tough time getting access to her sister's stuff after her sister passed in 2018. The information in FamilySearch is way more important than my life insurance and banking info.
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Such a great idea! I have far too many things that would need to be tied up, should I pass away.
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I am quite shocked at the number of upvotes (31, as I write) this suggestion has received. As @Julia Szent-Györgyi suggests, why not just leave instructions and a password addressed, say, to your next of kin? Access to Family Tree must be just one of a large number of issues that need to be addressed after ones demise, including access to other websites and making other very important arrangements, financial and otherwise.
I agree such an option might be useful, but there are just as straightforward ways of dealing with this issue, without requiring FamilySearch to get involved in arrangements.
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In the summer of 2021, I was contacted by an attorney handling the estate of "Evelyn" a deceased member of our stake who was an avid genealogy researcher. I have served for many years as one of the directors of our 2 family history centers in our little Oregon Stake. Evelyn left six boxes full of her family history research. The attorney was in the process of clearing out the remainder of her household belongings and informed me that her few surviving heirs had no interest in Evelyn's family history research materials and she was going to have to throw it away. She couldn't bring herself to do that and thought of me. I acquired the boxes and they were stored in our Family history Center. So now we are in the process of organizing a group of "Orphaned Ancestor Rescuers" to make sure that Evelyn's family history research is uploaded to FamilySearch Family Tree, including making sure that images of the boxes of documents and old photos are also uploaded and appropriately tagged to the relatives on the Tree. Right now, we would have to fill the Galleries in our own FamilySearch accounts with non-related materials in order to use the scanner / copier in the FHC to finish the work that Evelyn started by uploaded images of her documents / photos / special materials to FS FT. Her current heirs have no interest in doing this work and we are trying to preserve it for future heirs who might some day discover this material on FamilySearch Family Tree. The original material will be sent to manuscript collections at Genealogical Societies, Libraries, or Historical Societies near to where her ancestors resided.
Not being a relative of hers, there should be a way to help the deceased, just as we do the living patrons, via a "helper number" or some other way, so that images of Evelyn's materials can be uploaded to her FS FT Gallery and not the Gallery of the "rescuer" working to preserve her family history online.
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@Laraine Firstly - agreed there should be a way. Secondly - I'm pretty sure there is a way - but you will need a 3rd party tree management with FamilySearch sync capability. You can fully create such GEDCOM and attribute it to 'Evelyn' as the compiler (or with posthumous note). I would recommend waiting to do so with the GEDCOM 7 compatible release (which is supposed to be sometime soon or this year) because then you can upload such GEDCOM to Genealogies> MyTrees (oops here's where your request of helper number would be helpful) - either way the GEDCOM can be made to attribute to her. If you made such a GEDCOM - then you could sync the Memories/Sources to the Tree profiles in Family Tree (perhaps easier than doing so profile by profile in the Tree or from My Trees themselves).
In fact you could probably 'skin the cat' several different ways (create a posthumous free account with 'Project -Evelyn...' username, etc. Just make clear to Tree that it's posthumous compilation in her name and from her collection. My recommendation would be GEDCOM project ... But either way should have options.
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I think it would be a GREAT idea to have a beneficiary to my account.
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Thank You genthusiast! I did not know you could create a posthumous free account! Is My Tree the only one you can do that with?
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Genthusiast,
Where can I find out about GEDCOM7?
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This (see attached) is the Knowledge Article in FS about GEDCOMs...there are two more links at the bottom of the screen. (I tested it out on my Ancestry Tree. It was easy!)
This sounds like a perfect solution for Laraine! I'm sorry you can't "download GEDCOM files from FT" but once your other tree is in FT, you can compare the loaded information with info already on FT. I wonder if Ancestry has a way to turn your account over to a friend or a family member when you pass away.
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@Paul W & @Julia Szent-Györgyi , leaving a password after my demise is not really an option for me. Once the church clerk marks my membership record as deceased, my FS Account is locked. Also I would prefer a successor to act in their own name rather than acting as the long departed. I would really like someone to have the ability to mark my Living copy of my PID as deceased. I can source myself pretty well.
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I agree it would be awesome to have all the work I have done shared with one of my kids when I die. It seems a shame that it would just be locked and inaccessible for my family! Please change that feature.
Thank you!!
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A new feature announced in the FS Blog for some time in 2023 may have a “beneficiary like” function if the Family Group has access to the same Living. I’m not sure how this feature will work, but seems promising. Maybe someone has more specifics or maybe this will be presented at Rootstech?
https://www.familysearch.org/en/blog/whats-new-in-familysearch-2023 “Another new feature will enable members of family groups to collaboratively add and share memories with one another about living or deceased relatives. They will also be able to collaborate with one another on adding facts and sources for a living relative.”
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Somehow I missed your response, in your post of January 14. Yes, sorry - not being a member of the Church I had completely forgotten about Church members' accounts being locked after the clerk marks a record as deceased. I now realise how important this issue is for Church members - and see the upvotes has now increased to 44! I hope this matter is addressed to your satisfaction.
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I suggested this because when a member of the church passes, Family Search is notified and their account is frozen. You can not get on to it. I don't know how quickly this happens, so if you have their password and username, you may still be able to work with their account for a time. I work at the Family Search Center in St George, Utah and after discussion, this is my understanding. I even had help writing the request with a "higher up" who works with me.
Thank you so much for all of your replies. It is good to know that others are concerned and interested.
Wendy
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