Repetitive Issue with no Chat option - Youth?
Over the last two years a grandaunt has been repeatedly added by multiple FamilySearch users to her father, but no mother is ever included…. She is already included among her siblings with the correct father and mother, so the system shows this same grandaunt in two families, but one without a mother included.
I began thinking this was some sort of game being played by other users. This has occurred 10 times (10 different user accounts) now since February 2023, and requires someone (mostly me, so far) to remove her from the relationship where there is no mother and state that she has already been added to the correct parent child relationship with both parents included.
The troubling part is that the Chat option is disabled for every one of the 10 users who have completed this erroneous task, so one cannot communicate with them and ask why this is being done. It appears that if a user is allowed to make changes to the tree that there should be some way to communicate with them, or there should be some restrictions on what they are allowed to do on FamilySearch. Is there any solution?
Best Answers
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@Ottley BQ I have spent some time with this issue you're having. It's quite the use case! I have created 2 engineering tickets. One to address the contacting issue. I love your idea of connecting a parent into a youth account so they can be contacted. I don't know how difficult that would be or if they will pursue it, but I submitted it just the same. The other ticket is to address how people (youth) are not connecting the couple only 1/2 of the couple. It has everything to do with how it is presented to them so hopefully they can make some changes to how you would connect couples. Your example is really helpful to show this problem. We'll have to wait and see what comes of it. Sam 😊
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@Ottley BQ Thanks for leaving us an example! I think we are ok. I was able to replicate what users are doing and got screenshots for them. Sorry I didn't answer you right away - I was out on vacation! Sam 🙂
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Were all of the additions new profiles created by the individual users? If they were, did you merge them with the original profile (discarding the duplicate relationship with the father) or did you just remove the duplicate relationship with the father? If the latter, then the duplicate profile(s) will still be lying around, tempting more users to reattach them in the future.
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@Ottley BQ You could post an alert note on your grandaunt's profile. Give it a quick and informative title that says the mother is known and not to create a duplicate without that attachment. I'd state your relationship to her too. Alerted notes don't always stop errors, but it's a start.
Also, there may be a tree out there with the mother left off that is misleading others. I'd search Ancestry, and maybe some of the other sites, to see if you can pinpoint a source for this erroneous data. That may give you a person to contact too.
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@JulianBrown38 new profiles were not created; the same PID for both child and father were the same, so nothing to merge, so the only non-profile lying around would be Add Spouse (blank) option….
@GFre I'm actually doing the best and most time-tested option there is, and that is to Follow profiles; I am quite vigilant at reviewing the many weekly change notices I receive. Alert notes are nice, but they don't blink, so they are rarely looked at by the novice.
There is an option to Request to View Relationship, which (if anyone responds to - not yet), may give me someone (a parent?) to Chat with, since it is not available for users under the age of 18, and is disabled for all 10 users who have created this issue.
I'm suspecting the issue is somehow related to setting up new accounts - probably for youth who must link from one generation to the next by creating duplicate profiles to find a deceased ancestor, unless FamilySearch identifies a possible duplicate which may be selected or rejected. I'm envisioning that these individuals FIND this grandaunt and merely select her father (their direct ancestor) instead of the couple option, so his wife is left behind. Not sure if it's the youth, the parent, or a consultant who needs training, but something is either being misunderstood, or there is some mischief going on (unlikely).
Anyway, I'm indicating that neither of your answers address the issue, and hope someone (a moderator, or system analyst, etc.) can figure out how to address the problem of not having access to Chat with anyone about the concern. Thanks for trying, so that I could add more detail that may help.
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I think your best next step would be to flag your original post and ask for a moderator to review it. You could include your grandaunt's PID so that they could look at the change log.
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@JulianBrown38 didn't know that was an option; just tried it, so we'll see what happens. Thanks for the suggestion.
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It seems to be an anomaly that individuals of a young age are able to make additions and edits to Family Tree yet are considered too young to receive messages about their work. As seems to have been suggested, surely young users should have a sponsor / parent who is accountable for their work and could act as a Chat contact when such issues arise?
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Indeed @Paul W - if the essence of FamilySearch FamilyTree is communication and consequent co-operation, it seems a little strange if FS forbids that communication.
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@Ottley BQ We will send this issue in to be looked at. Thanks for your patience while we look into it.
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@Ottley BQ, it's easy how this would be frustrating to anyone, but I'm just adding that FS doesn't forbid communication between users. Individual users may at their choice opt-in or opt-out of the chat or email feature in their profile. This is in place because some users have experienced unwanted/unwelcome contact and for that reason the feature remains an option.
Further, there isn't any evidence supporting the statement that the issue described in the original post is being caused by youth. The technical team will find the root cause when they review the user profiles.
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You can opt out of chat in your Profile by setting your contact methods to "private".
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There is no profile setting that allows you to opt out of chat. You can make your email address or phone number private in your Profile. You can also turn off the setting (in the Permissions settings) for "Include my profile information in directory search results."
But those settings don't disable Chat. FamilySearch might not allow you to chat, based on your age, country, or account status, but you have no personal control over whether you participate in Chat. If you have made any kind of contribution on FamilySearch (and FamilySearch has not disabled your Chat capability), then other users will definitely be able to send you a Chat.
You are, of course, completely free to ignore chat messages, and there are provisions for blocking abusive chats, but there is no way to simply opt out of Chat.
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@Alan E. Brown that is my understanding; no opt out provision for Chat, but only making your email address or phone number private in your Profile is an option for users. Possibly, @MDNash79 is in a country or other status where Chat is not an option….
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Yes, Alan is correct. Chat is restricted for those in certain countries or under age 18. I misspoke, thinking privatizing contact methods would prevent chats.
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I am having a little trouble understanding what you are refering to. Is the Aunt indeed in two families?
Not knowing what you are looking at I am concerned that you may not be understanding what you are dealing with. Sometimes when a merge is done or a record is attached and the father is mentioned but the mother is not it shows the person attached to the father with all her siblings but not attached to the mother. This is done because the program does not assume that the same mother is implied. Sometimes you just need to attach the mother also.
But is she attached to a different family with different siblings? That would be another case entirely.
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@jamiehadlock no, she was not a child in two families; born to parents who stayed together and they died about 4 years apart. She married about age 20, had 5 children, lived in the small little town with her one and only husband and they died about 2 years apart.
The issue is nothing that can be resolved at the user level. I have flagged the post and FamilySearch is considering possible changes to help resolve similar problems, since it possibly has more to do with setting up new youth accounts than anything else.
My apologies for the confusing explanation; hope this helps.
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@Sam Sulser just a note about this issue - it just happened again, but rather than correcting the issue I thought I'd leave it for review by the engineers, if needed. You mentioned that you created 2 engineering tickets. One to address the contacting issue and the other to address how people (youth) are not connecting the couple only 1/2 of the couple.
Same scenario, the child was only attached to one parent with no spouse, and creating another possible marriage relationship with the same child listed; and no access to communicate with the individual via chat or otherwise.
If you do not need this example for review please let me know so I can correct the issue and not forget about it. Let me know if you need more information. Thanks!
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