Is there some way to make accurate information that is verified by actual documents unchangeable?

sharonfortnerwright

I have the members of my pioneer family ancestors set to "following." Changes are being made to these ancestors and I am not being notified. I know this because someone changed the death date of Avey to 25 Sep 1850. I know I did not add this because I always standardize the date and place. This had the place as MS. The census was taken on 25 Sep 1850. So what happened: did she just drop dead at 48 after the enumerator of the census came by? The excuse for this change was given as GEDCOM data. GEDCOM means that this information came from Ancestry and in all probability is incorrect.

I switched from Ancestry to Family Tree. I put my family on Family Tree one person at a time. I did research which is backed up by census data, birth certificates, death certificates, family Bibles, etc. I only attached accurate information that is know is correct because I have the source material. Recently someone took Sarah to be in their family. They gave Sarah two fathers and two mothers. My Sarah was born in South Carolina in 1800. The Sarah in their family was born in Tennessee in 1808.

And the most concerning change was when my pioneer ancestor, Nathan, came up missing. Someone changed Nathan's name to Archibald and moved Nathan from South Carolina to Tennessee. They took Nathan's wives and married them to Archibald and gave Archibald Nathan's children. They changed the birth and death dates and attached a picture of Archibald's headstone. Their family living in Tennessee are the ancestors of William Cuthbert Faulkner, the author. I am not related to the William Faulkner family. I almost had a heart attack when I saw that Nathan was gone. 25 years of research wiped away with a few clicks of the keyboard. Nathan has 23 sources and 29 memories. Why would it be possible to change a person with that many known and accurate facts attached.

The most recent change is a story I wrote and attached to my tree. It was mostly for my benefit. I never thought anyone would be remotely interested in it. This story is entitled, "What is the relationship of Drury Morgan and Pamela Bussey Fortner." It is a short story explaining how the family of Rev. Charles Bussey of South Carolina and Georgia is related to the Morgan family of South Carolina. It is now attached to a family in Washington state who is not named Morgan or Bussey and have no relationship to that family.

Correcting all the bad information people are attaching and changing to my family is trying my patience. I can't do anymore research because I have to keep correcting things I have already researched.

Sharon Lynn Fortner

MNuttall

Hello @sharonfortnerwright.

We understand your concern about incorrect changes in Family Tree and we appreciate the great amount of documentation you are adding to support the vital events and relationships in your ancestors' lives.

The short answer to your question as to whether there is a way to lock records that have been documented is "no." As you are aware, FamilySearch Family Tree is an open-edit, collaborative and global effort. Any user can make changes to any record in the Tree.

See this knowledge article for information about the purpose of FamilySearch and Family Tree:

https://www.familysearch.org/help/helpcenter/article/what-is-the-purpose-of-familysearch-and-family-tree

While we hope that we can all work together to create the best-sourced, public genealogical family tree in the world, we do realize that there will be mistakes. We also realize that our contributors are at various levels of skill regarding genealogical research and family history. This is why we have provided numerous ways to prevent users from making inaccurate changes. It sounds like you have employed some of those methods, discussed in this knowledge article:

https://www.familysearch.org/help/helpcenter/article/how-can-i-prevent-other-people-from-making-inaccurate-changes-to-family-tree

We can't say why you weren't notified of changes to a record that you were following, but, you should be able to restore a record that was edited incorrectly. Latest Changes is where you're going to find any change or edit to a record. Here is a link to the knowledge article that explains how to "undo" incorrect changes. This article includes links to other related articles that explain restoring deleted relationships, undoing merges, restoring sources, etc:

https://www.familysearch.org/help/helpcenter/article/how-do-i-undo-an-incorrect-change-in-family-tree

We would encourage you to do all that you can do to prevent inaccurate changes and hope that you will continue to enjoy your work in Family Tree. We count on folks like yourself to safeguard the details and memories of our ancestors and wish you the best.