Blank profile needs to be deleted

KevinKelly74

Hello. Recently looking through my branches of the tree, I found in the distant past, someones father listed as "?" with profile KPQW-V72. There really is no information there and I removed the relationship, but this profile is basically blank and should be removed.

GeoffHooper1

That is true of course, there will be thousands of 'people' with no name on Family Tree.

If you have the ID recorded you may be able remove that entry. Especially (only) if the relationship has been removed and the person ? is in effect floating loose as a isolated record.

Using the ID you should be able to delete this record - the article below should assist in this.

https://www.familysearch.org/help/helpcenter/article/how-do-i-delete-a-person-from-family-tree

How do I delete a person from Family Tree?

Which can be found in the help center or use the link above.

MNuttall

Hello @KevinKelly74

Regarding the ? as a name, you might want to review this knowledge article:

https://www.familysearch.org/help/helpcenter/article/why-does-a-persons-name-have-a-question-mark-in-family-tree

Paul W

@MNuttall

Thank you for posting this link. I am very surprised this happened as late as 2016, as I had been led to believe this happened before, or at the same time Family Tree was introduced. Either way, this action by FamilySearch has proved to be completely time-wasting and represents a practice that does not confirm to standard, genealogical practice. In particular, I find merging multiple "?" IDs to be a pointless exercise and am still to be convinced there is generally (if not always) any harm in just detaching the relationship of a "real person" with a "?" who has no known identity, or any sources attached. The children can just stay listed under their father until, hopefully, a real person is found who can be identified as their mother.

GeoffHooper1

If there are no sources the entry is of no value.. ? or not ??.. the question asked was how to delete the spurious entry.

If there was a first name which is frequently the case with females (mothers) these are not as easy to source for their maiden names.

People incorrectly state the married name, which from search engines perspective is less than helpful.

There is of course no harm having a ? name and ID.. IF floating and it has no sources, perhaps it is just housekeeping to tidy things up :-)