Changes on my tree
Hi, please can someone let me know how I can prevent changes in my tree.
I have several people making changes on my tree which have nothing to do with the family, how can I prevent this happening? It is so frustrating and making a mess of my work I have done previously.
Looking forward to your response.
Sue C
Best Answer
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Dear Sue,
Thank you for your question in FamilySearch community.
We understand your frustration.
As you discover and connect your ancestors, you may notice other users adding to or even modifying some of the information you’ve contributed.
That’s okay. We believe that the more people there are working on Family Tree, the faster it will grow - and the more accurate it will be. In fact, we’ve created several tools to enable our users to work together.
We find that using sources and reason statements, in particular, helps prevent other users from changing good information to less accurate information. It might be helpful if you review your legitimate sources and give a strong reason statement why your information is correct, to prevent others changing your data.
Collaboration tools in Family Tree
· You can follow up to 4,000 records that interest you, and FamilySearch will send you a system notification whenever someone updates one of them. The follow option is located on your ancestor’s Person page, in the top banner containing his or her name.
· In the Latest Changes column, you see a summary of the most recent changes to a deceased person's record. The Latest Changes column is located on the Person page, on the far-right side of the screen.
· Sources enable users to trust the information they see. To access Sources, go to an ancestor’s Person page. Near the top of the screen, you’ll see a button labelled Sources.
· A reason statement quickly explains a change or contribution to an ancestor’s record. You’ll see fields for entering reason statements wherever you add information—and on the Person page in the Latest Changes box.
· The life sketch provides a quick synopsis of an ancestor's life. This helps users quickly identify whether or not the ancestor mentioned on screen is the same as the one they are searching for. The life sketch is located on the person page, directly below the ancestor’s name.
· The discussion tool allows you to start a conversation about a shared ancestor. The conversation will be visible to everyone who visits your ancestor's Person page and clicks on Collaboration.
· Use Notes to record insights, conclusions, or questions that don't seem to fit anywhere else. Notes are located on the Collaboration tab.
Working together on the bigger tree
Other users sometimes allow us to publish their email address or other contact information. This allows you to contact them directly. If not, you can send a FamilySearch message to any FamilySearch user.
As you collaborate with other users in Family Tree, please be courteous and respectful. We need everyone’s help to succeed!
This information was found in the article:
https://www.familysearch.org/help/helpcenter/article/how-can-i-prevent-other-people-from-making-inaccurate-changes-to-family-tree Clicking on this link will take you to the article.
You can view more knowledge articles in Help (the small circle around the question mark at top right of screen)> Help Centre.
I hope that I understood and provided information that answers your question. Thank you for using Community and I hope this link, or the Help Centre, provides the answers you seek.
If you need further help regarding this question, please reply directly to this community discussion.
Jill 2021
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Answers
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Thank you Jill
You have answered my question thoroughly and I will look through your response.
Sue C
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I agree that you have received an excellent response in respect of how to address the difficulties you are encountering.
However, please be aware that even if you take every recommended action to safeguard your well-researched inputs, there will always be careless or inexperienced users who will, from time to time, cause you (possibly many hours of) unwanted work in putting right incorrect merges, or the addition of relationships that never existed ((e.g. unrelated children added to a couple).
Try to ensure your work is backed-up in a private program of your own (for example, Roots Magic or Ancestral Quest - of which free versions are available for download). This will help in restoring records to how they were before. Of course, we all make mistakes, so it is possible that sometimes the another user will have the correct information. But, as you have been advised, providing as much evidence / back-up to your inputs is very important - as is trying to politely communicate with those who have made the changes you believe to be incorrect.
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I found that someone had changed my grandmother's mother. I could understand that the person changing it might think it correct because the father had two different wives. I changed it back to the correct mother. Again, this same person changed grama's mother to the same person as before. I changed it back to the correct mother and sent a note to the person who changed it saying that this was my grandmother, I owned her personal records, and I knew who her mother was because I had been "into" family history for decades and discussed many times with my father about his grandparents' lives. Even after that, his person changed my grandmother's mother again! Just so you know, my grandmother is very very well sourced with birth, marriage and death records and the name of her mother and father in many of those records. I had attached dozens of photos of my grandmother with her true mother and identified them in the pictures. After the last time this person changed my grandmother's mother, I sent her a note that I had tried to work with her but she was not cooperating so I was going to report her to FamilySearch.org. She has never changed my grandmother's mother again! I keep grama on a "watch" and know if anything has changed.
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these are some great videos to watch
WHY USE FAMILYSEARCH FAMILYTREE
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I have had many problems with individuals making changes to family members in my tree. It IS very frustrating! Now I check the "Follow" button on individuals to watch for changes.
I'd like to tell y'all about one time in particular that a member of my family was changed. It was on my mother's side, her uncle who was born in Denmark and died in the US. As I was scanning the tree, I noticed that his data had been changed. The name was the same, and the dates were approximate, but this individual had died in Denmark. He had been merged! I started to get all riled up. I normally communicate with people who change data on family members, but I was very tired of this--how could this user not see that everyone else in the family had died in the US, and this HAD to be an error on his part??? I started to fire off a rather indignant message, but something told me to breathe deeply and start again.
I wrote a kindler, gentler message to the user, saying that "perhaps there had been a mistake." I explained that MY ancestor had died in the US, and should not have been merged with his. I asked the user if he knew how to correct the error, or would he like for me to do it? I got a very apologetic response. The user explained in excellent English (but I knew that it was not his first language) that he was new to Family Search, and that he had made an error. He asked if it was a difficult problem to fix. I told him "No problem." Then I commented on the Danish traditions I had grown up with, especially at Christmas. He was amazed that an American would know of such things. We began communicating, and he started to send me information on my mother's Danish ancestors, from sources that I do not have access to. I was able to complete her family line back to the very EARLY 1700s, with information I could have obtained in no other way. He is a wonderful, intelligent, interesting man, and his wife is a darling. We communicate every couple of weeks--photos, and conversations about every topic under the sun. He has sent me photos of my ancestors' homesteads, given me information on their occupations, etc. I sent him a copy of the letter that my great grandfather wrote home to his mother and fiancée upon his arrival to the US. In the local archives, he found a copy of the REPLY to that letter (in Danish) and sent me the letter and the translation. These are a treasure to me! He and his wife have become dear friends of ours. I always look forward to his emails and news of his family.
My point is this: You never know what information you will find, and what friends you will make, by collaborating with other users on Family Search. Changes are not malicious by default. 😉
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