Changes continually made by FamilySearch
I have a serious issue that I already spoke to a missionary about just this past week. After an hour of chatting she saw the issue and forwarded it to Data Quality. I have not heard from them as yet. The problem happened again yesterday after we just fixed it earlier this week.
This involves two of my grandfather’s sisters. Several years ago someone changed the name on the records from one sister to the other and then removed the other sister. (Yes, this was prior to the change, when deleting an individual was still being done.) so one sister took on the identity of the other. After this happened someone added the other sister into her proper place. This was not a legitimate merge, but rather blending of 2 sisters into one.
Everytime one of the descendants (myself, Sherri, Patty, Brent, etc. fix the records with the 2 sisters attached to their correct husband, “FAMILYSEARCH” changes it back. Now the cousins call me to fix it. Already this year we have had to fix this five times. It happened again yesterday when FAMILYSEARCH changed it back to the wrong information.
KWCQ-WKG NEPHI MICHAEL JACOBSEN
KWJQ-PP7 FRANCES BEATRICE HEARN CLIFFORD
KWDM-H5W BERNT ANTONIUS EVENSEN
KWCB-K3X MARION GRACE HEARN CLIFFORD
- Nephi and Francis were married to each other.
2. Bernt and Marion were married to each other.
Myrtle was the daughter of Bernt and Marion.
Sherri, one of us cousins, corrected it again this morning.
We don’t know who at FAMILYSEARCH keeps changing this. Somehow FS keeps marrying Nephi to Marion (never were together) and adding Myrtle as a child to Nephi and Frances instead of to Marion and Bernt.
How do I get this to stop?
Best Answer
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@Sue Maxwell I received word that the database behind the scenes has been corrected. Both sisters show correctly with their own ordinances and relationships (in the database). There is no longer confusion on their records from the combining that happened years ago. Hopefully this stops the madness for your family! 🙃
Sam
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Answers
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@Sue Maxwell
Do you have the Labs option for "Improved Person Change Log" turned on?
There are known issues with "FamilySearch" showing as having made the edits instead of the contributor's name.
Looking at Nephi Michael Jacobsen KWCQ-WKG with "Improved Person Change Log" turned OFF, I can see the username(s) of the contributors who have added the marriage to Marion KWCB-K3X.
Go to https://www.familysearch.org/en/labs/ to check which experiments are turned on. If "Improved Person Change Log" shows with "Turn Off," do that and refresh the change log for KWCQ-WKG to see the names.
https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/189601/familysearch-is-still-appearing-as-the-contributor4 -
it was turned on, so I have turned it off. I can see the name but it means nothing (Thira35). It also says I cannot message this person. We have alerts and notes everywhere. If you look at the change log, it has pages and pages of this happening. What can I (we) do to stop it if I cannot communicate with this person?
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A user may opt out of the messaging system. Or decline to reply if they have enabled it. There are other reasons why chat may not be enabled, including if the user is not of age.
You could try the Report Abuse option, but the bar is very high for FamilySearch to intervene. That option is in the Tools box on each profile.
Something else we often counsel is to build the profile of the person who is being confused with your person of interest. That is, find every record you can for Frances, making her profile so strong that it becomes more difficult for someone to conflate or confuse her with her sister.
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I gather that we just have to keep fixing it? I’ve even gone through every source to see if something pops out that might lead someone to think this.
I really appreciate you telling me about the issue with the enhanced change log. That one seems to be a failure, haha.
I’ve been involved with family history since I was a child and that is a long time ago! I’ve had family history callings for 25 years and taught tons of classes, set up a very active FamilySearch Center, and was an Area T and FH Advisor for about 12 years with 21 Stakes. This one has had us baffled, not knowing why these people do this. If I could find anything that would help me understand what triggers this I could resolve it.But thank you so very much! You are an Angel!
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@Sue Maxwell I'm not LDS, so I cannot see what ordinances may be in those profiles. You may be able to dig deeper and see if an ordinance - possibly made in error - gives you a clue.
Best of luck.
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thanks, I’ve looked at that too. I still think there is a deeper problem going back long ago. FamilySearch does not allow people to delete a person, however, they used to let them delete. Originally, that record was for Frances and someone changed the name and several pieces of vital statistics do it became Marion’s. So one of the cousins wanted to change it back and keep the correct ID number which I believe caused the issue. She was worried about the ordinances, but that typically takes care of itself, because the ordinances are in the Temple file. But this happened before the current version of FamilySearch. I’ve written to another person that made a change to see if he can tell me what made him think this was Marion’s record. Marion’s name is all throughout the change log but it’s not the right person.
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'After an hour of chatting she saw the issue and forwarded it to Data Quality.'
I am confused by this, as far as I am aware there is no Data Quality support channel, only Report Abuse (and the Abuse team have a long history of not considering even the most egregious Data Quality problems to be abuse).
Could you clarify this please? If there is now a genuine DQ support channel, this Community needs to know about it.
Thanks.
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@MandyShaw1 There are staff and moderators responsible for the Data Quality project. https://community.familysearch.org/en/group/323-data-quality-score-feedback
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I will move this up the line and see what additional information we can find for you. It may take some time to review the situation and examine the change history in detail.
A ticket has already been created regarding the DQS issue. There is no timeline yet for a resolution, but we are hopeful that an update will come soon. Thank you for your patience while this is being researched.
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Thanks Áine, I'm still confused though since the DQS project in my experience is about providing functionality that flags DQ issues to users, not handling/remediating existing DQ issues within FS. I will ask in the DQS Feedback group.
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@Sue Maxwell This is being looked into. There is no Data Quality here in the community. I have changed the title of you discussion to prevent further confusion. When you spoke to support that created a support ticket for your issue and it has been escalated. I personally looked into it and have suggested what I believe is going on. We'll get back to you once that is checked into.
Sam 🙂
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it happened again today. Now I can see the name of who has been making this most recent change, “Name Removed”. I’m guessing it’s a youth and she just doesn’t understand. But since I cannot message her I can’t get this to stop.
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The Sister Missionary explained why we could not see the names that were identified as FamilySearch. It was an issue with the Labs project of Enhanced Change Log. We can see nicknames/names now.
The problem is still the unceasing changes being made that developed years ago when the two sisters records were combined, not merged. This took place back when people were still allowed to delete a person. It’s now been six times just since January that people are making changes thinking that Frances is her sister Marion. You can see in the change log how often Marion is mentioned. This is not Marion’s record. Myrtle is the daughter of Marion, not Frances. Too many people are seeing ‘Marion’ as ‘Frances’.0 -
We are seeing the combine issue you mention. It's being worked on and hopefully will be corrected. I'll let you know when I hear something but you should also hear from the support ticket.
Sam 🙂
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@Sue Maxwell thank you for your input. In the community, there is a feedback group for Data Quality related issues: Data Quality Score Feedback
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@Sue Maxwell Thanks for your message.
The old changelog was partially correct in showing the names of the people who made the change in the changelog, the new changelog is also partially correct in that it shows FamilySearch made the change.
When a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints creates an account on FamilySearch, an automatic script is run that takes some information from the church membership records and puts it in FamilySearch on behalf of the user. The problem is that when that information from the church records is inaccurate, each time a descendant creates an account, the data gets entered into FamilySearch incorrectly.
This is something has been going on for a while. Hopefully it can be fixed soon.0 -
@Mary Anna Ebert, so I’m guessing “Thira35” is a descendant which triggered the last change, correct? If the Church Membership is accurate then based on the 2 sisters being combined as one person years ago in FamilySearch, what can be done to get Membership to recognize the 2 sisters are not the same person?
Thanks for the update, but all I can do is chuckle that this record is causing mass mania. 😉 Should we just keep changing the info on the profile page, or forget that it’s not going to stay accurate?0 -
@Sam Sulser i can’t tell you how happy this makes all of us. This has been a long time coming! I appreciate your help.
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