Heartbroken
Answers
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@Áine Ní Donnghaile I'm just now seeing your post and am absolutely devastated for you. To have over a decades worth of work demolished like that is criminal.
I had a similar thing happen some years ago, where every six months or so the same contributor would make sweeping changes to an entire family lineage, against all evidence, and wouldn't hear about it because "she had published books on the family". It only stopped because, well, she died. Fortunately in my case that particular branch is closely monitored by dozens of contributors so the clean up was shared.
I'm sure it feels insurmountable right now, and I completely understand if it just feels like a lost cause, but I wonder, if official channels aren't going to help resolve it, maybe we in the community can help.
Perhaps wait a little bit for this hurricane of an individual to move on, check to see if they're following any of these profiles (hopefully they're not), and then post a list of the profiles which have been affected. You may not be following all of them, but I imagine you'd be across a good number.
If we, as a community, could all take on even a couple of profiles each to help restore, I'm sure we could make more than a dent in the damage.
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Thanks, Rani. Unfortunately the other guest is following my entire family now. Not just the County Tyrone branch about which they are extremely territorial, but both my maternal and paternal family, all the way down to my parents and even my stepmother. It's quite creepy. The two great aunts that were merged are not even part of the County Tyrone branch.
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Oh no! That's very creepy and, if it doesn't meet FS standards of abuse, it's certainly in the territory of stalking and harassment. In light of that, I wonder if changing tack is the way to go. Rather than reporting them for abusing the information within the profiles themselves, report them for targeted harassment of you via your contributions and deceased family members. Surely FS are held to a certain level of duty of care?
By what you've described, it sounds to me like they are in breach of Terms of Use: Collaboration with Others - paragraph 3, and FamilySearch Content Submission Agreement: section 5 Accuracy of Contributed Data, and section 6 Sensitivity to Other Users.
This goes far beyond a disagreement in the accuracy of vital details.
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I completely agree with the comments of most of the posters above including @RaniM .
I ask the moderators to state the options for @Áine Ní Donnghaile to request her abuse to be forwarded "up the line" for review. To me , it does seem to be abuse, even though Family Search Support appear to have dismissed this.
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Thanks, all, for the support.
The branch where this all started, my 2nd great-grandparents, from County Tyrone, has dwindled to a tiny nuclear family. There are very few descendants, and I know them - they are my paternal 1st cousins, and not interested in genealogy. In other words, there is no one with a direct interest, and I've been building this research on my own from the beginning. Of course, I share with my cousins when I find something I think will interest them.
This has all been a bit shocking - and creepy. The guest drilled down to the US 1950 census, where I'm listed as a tiny baby, with my full birth name. My display name for FamilySearch is not the same, and I do not use my full birth name online. She started using that in profile notes, repeatedly. I've reported that as abuse, and I believe all of those have now been removed.
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Makes you wonder how many other people the abuser has been targeting.
Interesting that a history of clear abuse clearly hasn't been taken into account in decision-making here.
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In case anyone doubts the issue at hand, here's a snapshot of the branch, showing sources I have attached to family back to 18th-century Ireland. If you know Irish research, you know how slim early resources are.
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@Áine Ní Donnghaile A war by someone - who thinks to know it all - seems to be going on here. In Germany we call this behaviour "oberlehrerhaft", which means as much as pedantic.
He/She doesn't even seems to accept the meaning of the prefix Ní as "daughter of" and adding it wrongly to males (where it should be Ó). 🙄
I feel deeply sorry for you, because I know what a accurate researcher and helpfull person you are.
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Thank you, Lars, for the kind words.
My German is rusty, but oberlehrerhaft is familiar.I've repeatedly removed the ní designations with the explanation. This is my direct and close line, and I've found no evidence that O was used, either.
The guest has also used AI to write Discussions (indelible, of course) with incorrect information and false conclusions and does not remove or edit them even when shown the correct information already attached.
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Sam, may I contact you privately, please? The situation has just taken an extreme turn for the worse.
Thanks.
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Yes, please do.
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Hello @Áine Ní Donnghaile,
I am so sorry to hear this terrible news. I've run into this same situation in the past where the person thinks they are correct no matter how much evidence and sources you provide. In my case, this person had a Civil War tombstone placed on my gg-grandather's grave and he did not serve in the Civil War. It was a case of the same name in the same place. No matter how much evidence I provided she refused to admit her mistake. I had the Civil War tombstone removed from my gg-grandather's grave and replaced it with a civilian tombstone at my cost. Very frustrating indeed!
My condolences to you.
Sincerely, Robert Seal_1
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@Áine Ní Donnghaile, I'm truly sorry this happened to you. You are a treasure to this community. Be proud of your hard work and the help you've given to hundreds of people. Some day the tree will be put right again. We miss you and hope you return.❤️
At this time, I have decided to remove my name from the directory and turn off relationship sharing. I have concerns about misuse of this feature, as well as the follow button being used as intimidation. Please let me know the person or department that I can share my concerns with.
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