How to prevent "trees" being attached to data that is not correct.

Gordon Collett said: Careless users who are not paying attention but just attaching all Hints on a person without checking to see if the Hints are accurate or not.

When I run across these I usually just detach them again but make a note of the name of the user that made the mistake. Then if I see that name anywhere else I may be working I take an extra good look at what was done. Sometimes if it seems appropriate I'll send a message to the person to politely point out the error made and to encourage more careful work in the future.

Tom Huber said: The idea of "trees" is a misnomer. There is a single, all-inclusive tree in FamilySearch. What you are talking about is really attaching the wrong source to a person's profile.

As Gordon mentions, careless (usually inexperienced) users regularly attach a source to their relative because a hint was generated suggesting that the source applied to the deceased person.

The hinting system is far from perfect and can be made worse when a user attaches the wrong source to a person. It can be made better when such (wrong) source hints are dismissed.

If the person recently attached a bad source to one of my relatives and I catch it, I will send a kindly-written message to the person, thanking them for their efforts to make the person's record complete, and then talk about the source and why it does not apply to the person. I have three areas in the United States where my ancestral lived for two or more centuries and many of those in the line still live there today. They often reused the same given names, married into families that did the same, and are often confused with others that had the same names.

If is very important to communicate with users who have recently made changes (within the past year) to my ancestral lines if they errantly attached sources or merged people who were not the same person into a relative's existing record.

Tom Huber said: To send a message, my first recommendation is to prepare it in something like Notepad. Then click on the person's name which should open the person's contact information. Next, click on Send a message. This opens a fixed window that covers up the information that is usually needed when composing the message--- which is why I recommend composing the message in something like Notepad and then copying and pasting the message in the message field.