Change living to deceased?

JosephConforte

I created a tribute tree for a friend and I login as that person. Now that person has died and I can't change their profile to deceased, which is the profile I use to login. What can I do? Joseph Conforte G3JJ-9N8

Julia Szent-Györgyi

What Gordon said.

But, on a more practical level, you can go into the "tribute" account, create a profile for yourself in it, and then change the root or focus person to that profile. (There was a post about how to do that somewhere on these forums just today.) Then you will be free to change the status of the deceased person, making the profile visible to everyone, including yourself when logged in "properly".

Gordon Collett

Unfortunately, unless I am completely mistaken, changing the root or focus person to someone else so that other person is the starting point when signing into FamilySearch does not change the owner of the account and the owner of an account cannot change him or herself to deceased. And, of course, we still do not have any type of bequeathal model to allow us to pass on an account to someone else.

Maybe I am misreading what Joseph said he did, but I though he is saying that he created a new account using the name of "John Doe," and in the initial set up where one is asked for birth date, birth place, and such to create a personal profile to start ones own tree, he entered all the information as if he were "John Doe." And now "John Doe" has passed away and Joseph wants to go into that account and enter a death date for "himself." That does not work.

MNuttall

Hello @JosephConforte.

If you are not Joseph Conforte then we advise you to make note of the living individuals you have added to the private space of this account. That is, record the information about living individuals offsite in some manner and then delete the account. Deleting the account does not remove any information you have added to Family Tree about deceased people. Then, you can work in Family Tree under your own log-in credentials. Because Family Tree is one global shared tree, anyone can work on any record of the deceased. This way you will be able to create a record for your deceased friend and continue to work on documenting his life and relationships.

Here are the instructions for deleting an account:

https://www.familysearch.org/help/helpcenter/article/how-do-i-delete-my-familysearch-account

As mentioned above, you should not create a false identity in FamilySearch.

Gordon Collett

You are correct. You cannot declare "yourself" as deceased. You will have to wait for someone from Support to see this message and contact you about how to fix this. They will require proof of his death such as an obituary so have the ready to send them.

Unfortunately, once he is marked as deceased, his account will be inactive, you will not be able to log into it, and you will not be able to access any of the living individuals you created under that tree. So if you created a large number of living extended family of his under that account, you may not want to get him marked as deceased and get locked out of that account. That way you could continue to maintain those other profiles.

One thing you might want to do is get a program such as Roots Magic or something that can load people off from FamilyTree and download your work. You don't say if you put on a lot of Memories. I'm not sure how those transfer, if they do at all.

Next time you do this, do not create a new account as another person. Just create the person as living in your real account and go from there.

Julia Szent-Györgyi

You're right, Gordon. I wasn't thinking this through properly. (Assuming we're interpreting the question correctly, anyway.)

MNuttall

Joseph, your creation of a "tribute" account does not reconcile with FamilySearch's Registration Guidelines, which state in part that you must provide true, accurate and current information:

Registration Obligations

In consideration for the use of this site, you represent that (a) you have read and agree to the terms of this Agreement, and (b) that you are legally able to register (if required) to use this site and any other FamilySearch affiliated site. If you submit personal information to this site, you agree to provide true, accurate, current, and complete information about yourself (including during the registration process) and to maintain and keep current and accurate this information about yourself, should it ever change. If you provide false, inaccurate, inappropriate, or libelous information or images, we may suspend or terminate your account and use of this site. During the registration process, you will be asked to create a sign-in name and password to access certain portions of this or other FamilySearch affiliated sites. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your sign-in name and password. You are responsible for all activities that occur using this sign-in name and password. If someone else uses your sign-in name and password in such a way as to breach the terms of this Agreement, you remain responsible for his/her actions, and use of your sign-in name may be suspended or terminated.

JosephConforte

To All: Joseph Conforte asked me to biography his life, which includes understanding his disparate family. Joseph Conforte has trees on FamilySearch created by his daughter and his nephew. They may have already adopted all the info I've accumulated on their extended family. (I borrowed and combined profiles with theirs) I will check with them to make sure and then the tree I created should be closed and made publicly visible, which is the ultimate goal for the sake of posterity. You can learn about Joseph Conforte on Wikipedia.

I like the suggestion of adding me as a family member so I can better maintain the tree I created, and to collaborate with the daughter and nephew. Again, I will seek their permission to do things a certain way so they are satisfied. I will post their desires to this discussion when available.

JosephConforte

FYI: Joseph Conforte's youngest daughter told me her dad passed away March 4, 2019 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She has no death record and I can't find one anywhere. She believes his body was cremated and half his ashes were spread at the shores of Sao Conrado beach and half were smuggled into the USA and spread at the former site of Conforte's Mustang Ranch brothel near Reno, Nevada. I will try to get confirmation from the SSA. If unsuccessful, the nephew can inquire with the State Dept. The process may take weeks.