Changes to Family Trees by Volunteers and Staff
How can I locate source information for changes to family trees made by "F" - "Authorized Support Staff" and "V" - "Volunteer Project."
Answers
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"Volunteer Project" just associates locations from the places database with user-entered text. It doesn't change the user-entered text, or add or remove any data. It's done by users of FamilySearch exactly like you and me. Here's the page for the project: https://www.familysearch.org/tree/improve-place-names/.
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FamilySearch administrators hardly ever make any changes in Family Tree. If they do, I imagine it is only to make a change that only they can do and only by the request of another user. An example of this would be changing a person marked as deceased in Family Tree to Living when more than one person has worked on a record. As such, they would not be working from sources other than what the user requesting the change provided, if any. If you run across an Authorized Support Staff change, you probably need to contact other users listed on the page to see if one of them requested the change and what sources they provided to FamilySearch to make the change. Do you have an example of one of these changes?
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And, for the record "F" and "V" don't mean anything in this case, other than it being the first letter of the user name. There's a "monogram" A before my username.
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Surprisingly, I actually received a response when I sent a message to "Volunteer Project" (querying why they had inputted / indexed certain details in such a way). So, it might be worth clicking on the name and hopefully receiving a reply to your message from the individual concerned, regarding the query you have on their work.
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For the actual system contributor "Volunteer Project" that can't be possible -- you can't send a message to a system contributor. For example, if you look at https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/changelog/MVG5-XHH you will see contributions only by Volunteer Project and FamilySearch, both of which are system contributors. Clicking on those usernames doesn't pop up the contact card that would let you send a message.
But perhaps some regular user chose a username that is very similar to "Volunteer Project" and so you were able to send a message to them.
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this "Volunteer Project" and "USCensusProject" the other on.
Very infuriating!
So many errors and duplicates.
Finally I tracked down the person behind these projects and told HIM (he said him) to stop doing the damage he caused and stick to his own family
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Whilst I did get the username wrong, nevertheless (from the below) it appears I am referring to a username that represents a volunteer project, rather than an individual.
With regard to the latter situation, I have requested that FamilySearch vets the requested usernames of individuals opening an account to ensure we really do know we are dealing with an approved volunteer project, rather than an individual who has picked a name to make their work seem more "authoritative".
I am not sure if this "CommunityCensus Project" is part of the wider group of BYU projects, headed by "Professor Joe". You will note a fairly long delay in this particular reply and that he signs off as "Joe", However, the reply certainly suggests this in not just a one-person operation.
In summary, you are probably correct about communicating with "Volunteer Project", but it is possible (as with my example) messages might be picked up by the project manager / organiser.
(I admit my message - below - does a appear a little curt, but this is one of a series of messages I sent, the last of which remains unanswered!)
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FYI -
Here is another exchange I had with CommunityCensus Project on their methods of working (with apologies for typos / grammatical errors):
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