How do you recommend someone for "counseling"?
There are some people out there working on Family Tree that remind me of Dean Winters, the "Chaos Guy" from the Allstate Insurance commercials. They seem to have no idea what they are doing and chaos follows in their wake wherever they go. It's not that we differ in opinions or interpretations of data. That's easy to deal with. It's that they create rats' nests of impossibilities. People who are married before they are born. Fathers married to their daughters. Loops that are so strange that they defy description. Confabulated families that flip back and forth between Ohio and Yorkshire, willie-nillie. I've sent one of these people a gentle request to please try to be more careful after I spent a half-hour of my life untangling a virtual Gordian Knot of their creation.
Is there some sort of system for reporting people who, out of ignorance, just create chaos? They aren't really abusive, (e.g. posting porn in memories) they just act very irresponsibly out of ignorance. I've seen the same thing happen in Ancestry.com trees, but in that case, it's just your own tree that's getting messed up. Here, it's a community tree. It only takes a few people like this to "spoil the soup" for everyone else.
Here's a simple example of a father who's married to his daughter. (I understand it's biologically possible but it didn't happen in this case.) LWYF-YZ8
Best Answer
-
Hello Donald Newcomb,
Thank you for your question, and for trying to correct the errors in relationships. We understand your issue with other users, and the messes they make on Family Tree. One of the best ways, to cut down on the misinformation, is to add additional information in other areas of FamilySearch, such as life sketch, notes, good reason statements, etc. We are enclosing the article link that explains where and how to do this.
You likely know how to delete the relationship between father and daughter already. We are enclosing the link to the article just in case it is needed.
https://www.familysearch.org/help/helpcenter/article/a-person-in-family-tree-has-the-wrong-spouse
If you have a specific gnarly record to correct, please ask here in the Community, and possibly others can work with you.
Good luck with your quest to decrease the confusion on individual’s records in Family Tree.
2
Answers
-
Dear Donald Newcomb
Thank you for contacting FamilySearch.
We understand about other folk and their contributions to Family Tree.
The overall purpose of Family Tree is to help you discover your family and, in turn, discover a bit about yourself.
- Family Tree is a little different from other similar sites in that it is a single tree linked together in families, rather than a site that allows users to create and manage their own private trees. This difference means that everyone works together on the same data, allowing for the potential to connect every member of the human family.
- Family Tree compares records and sources in order to help you resolve mistakes or duplication in records. It also provides messaging and collaboration tools, as well as free expert phone support, to help you resolve errors.
- Family Tree draws from FamilySearch's enormous database to provide record hints. This makes it easier to link you and your ancestors to earlier generations.
- The Memories section can help foster deeper connections to ancestors. It provides a place where you can preserve and share photos and histories.
- We want Family Tree to be accessible to as many people as possible. You can view it through a variety of means, including on mobile devices, with the Family Tree and Memories apps, or in areas with low bandwidth, with the Family Tree Lite website.
It is our hope that, through Family Tree, we can work together to create the best-sourced, public genealogical family tree in the world and allow family members to connect both in the past as well as the present.
To learn more about FamilySearch, visit FamilySearch.org/about .
Related articles
How do I send a message to someone who contributed to Family Tree or Memories?
How do I use FamilySearch memories to preserve my ancestors' life stories?
How do I find family names to bring to the temple?
Individuals for whom I can request temple ordinances
We do not have a system for reporting folk who create chaos unless that chaos is involved with abuse. We would encourage you to contact others who incorrectly make changes and additions, and offer to work with them. You can direct them to the Help Center so they can learn to use FamilySearch Family Tree.
We are grateful for the work you do in FamilySearch and for the efforts you put in to make the tree true.
We wish you the best.
0 -
Thanks for the replies. It's just so frustrating. I think that one of the major culprits is careless use of the Genealogy Bank abstracted obituaries. Those things are dangerous if used carelessly. The actual obits make perfect sense but the computer-generated abstracts cause strange things to happen; particularly where parents, grandparents and children have similar names.
I'm now going to fix the PID linked above, so it will no longer be nonsensical.
0 -
Donald Newcomb
We all experience the frustration that you feel, so we clean up as we go. The answers provided are accurate and the best solutions to the situation.
Remember, this is a world-wide tree, and some of our relatives, not matter how distant, are still learning how to work in this great work.
Press on with your good work. I, personally, appreciate all of the great ones like you who work to get the information corrected.
1 -
Donald
Welcome to the "Community.FamilySearch" Forum.
The "Community.FamilySearch" Forum was ORIGINALLY about, Users/Patrons, HELPING, Users/Patrons.
I am just another 'lowly' User/Patron ...
Short Answer: We DO NOT recommend a User/Patron for 'Counseling', we simply TRY to HELP them LEARN.
That is what WE (try) to do.
Nothing more, nothing less ...
That is what, MANY; Many, many, of us do, each and every day.
Just keep on, keeping on ...
One can just do one's best ...
That is all one can do ...
Good Luck.
Brett
ps: Oh; and, of course, try to address/fix things along the way ...
pps: I once spent, Two (x2) solid Weeks, SEPARATING, two (x2) Families, with the same and similar names, who live just a few Miles apart, that had been merged/combined in a 'wayward' "Merge"/"Combine"; and, that was by a User/Patron with a little experience.
REMMBER:
We ALL make mistakes.
No one is Perfect.
.
0
