Who Edits What?
Yesterday, I found that a Thelma Hartman had deleted John Corneil from my Family Tree. John Corneil is my great-great-great-great grandfather, and because he had a younger brother Jacob (possibly middle name John, not in family records) Corneil, she assumed duplication. Repeat child names are common in Irish records, for many various (often unknown) reasons, so I view this as a real dumb move.
It has taken me an afternoon to rebuild my family tree on Family Search. I also repaired the damage done by Thelma Hartman.
May I make a suggestion: For trees submitted by your members, there could be a sidebar box for "Suggested changes". Such changes would be dated, and a reasonable time allotted to allow those managing the family tree to respond (discard, modify, or accept). We all make mistakes (even Family Search personnel), so a digest time before a change is implemented would improve the reliability of the community. It would also allow idendification of "impossible data" (errors in dates, locations, wrong families, etc).
When I encountered the incorrect changes made to the tree I had submitted (it has been a long time in development - started in early 19th Century, and has had multiple generations and families working on it), my first reaction was to give up on Family Search - I joined because I understood that greater care and security was offered by Family Search than I had encountered with several other similar organizations. However, second thought leads me to suggest a simple means of improving collaboration, and improving reliability. Genealogy is complex; recently I have found important revelations in assessment and other financial records. John Corneil was a very prosperous member of the Limerick County community of his time, Jacob, his younger brother, was not quite as successful a business man; their eldest brother Adam owned and managed the Killeheen Estate, with thriving Farming and Weaving businesses. Family ties were strong, and John's wife Ann returned to the Killeheen homestead for her last few years of widowhood. Her three youngest children had migrated to Canada, the fourth youngest to Scotland.
Ray Corneil
Comments
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@Ray Corneil, do you know about WikiTree? That is a one-tree site like FT, except some contributors can claim a family or surname and control what edits other contributors can make.
Also, next time an incorrect merge happens, go first to the change log where in many cases the merge can be reversed.
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I tried the "change log". It didn't work.
I know about WIKI Tree. I have tried to convince them that Adam Cornelius (descendant of an "English voyager", John Cornelius) and Adam Corneille (Palatine Emigrant), both living in Rathkeale, County Limerick, Ireland on and after 1709, are two different people (and families). I may have convinced a few of their "expert" contributors, but there are many "doubters".
Control of "contriburors" on Wiki is a myth, I have been involved in the removal of "duplicates", and I'm not comfortable with the process which lacks due process and serious investigation.
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@Ray Corneil sorry those tips have not done the trick for you. Another tip is to proactively work up profiles for the other persons being conflated with your person. That way doubters can see the other families with supporting evidence in context.
I do grasp the problem. The origins of many early immigrants to the Americas are not known. Profiles of these persons are prime targets for attaching to random English couples. Detaching and leaving a "don't do that" comment goes only so far. If the surname is rare, working up those couples' profiles is very effective.
Edit to add: I see on the profiles what you mean. I also see that due to the inappropriate merges, each man's profile has acquired, as alternate names, the name of the other man. That will result in erroneous matching in searches and bad FT hints.
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