Can Someone Help Escalate This? - Person is Making Massive Nonsense Name Changes on This Family
Please look at this. I've tried to restore some, but there are massive nonsense name changes being made on this family by someone.
https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/details/LYC6-CVR
And, under each of those names are more nonsense names.
I have also reported it on the Abuse section of a few of the profiles.
Thank you!!
Best Answers
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@Calliej27 I'm sorry this has happened to your branch of the tree. These kinds of changes can be upsetting and take time to fix.
Family Tree was intentionally created as an open-edit system, which is very different than other genealogy websites. Because of this, others can edit families even if you have sources to support the information you have added to Family Tree. Editing families in Family Tree is not against the Terms of Use, whether they have a source to support those changes or not.
We realize this model can be challenging when others change the data you add to Family Tree, especially when they are adding nonsensical information. You have done the right thing by creating an abuse report.
That department will review the situation and get back to you.
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I reported several of the profiles. One hopes that Support will see the level of damage.
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Answers
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I have no help to offer, but I'm glad you're pursuing the matter - drive-by vandalism is infuriating.
(And perpetrated on the family of my first cousin, eleven times removed, no less!)1 -
Thank you, both, so much. I was hoping it could be seen by someone and noted that it was vandalized (on purpose) and something said to the person doing it. I see the names are being restored now. I understand about editing and restore information in trees, but this was such a massive deliberate act of vandalism. I appreciate you both commenting. Thank you!!
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One observation I'll suggest: look at those changes, in the context Native American heritage, and possibly a user that is still learning the system. I'm not defending whether the changes are correct or not.
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I'm sorry, but this doesn't appear to be someone who doesn't understand the system. This appears to be deliberate abuse.
Another user has done some serious clean-up work this afternoon. She deserves a big thank you!4 -
Hi, Áine.ní.Donnghaile,
Thank you! I agree. And, yes, I went and thanked that person that stepped in and started the clean up work on those profiles. She did a lot and I was very grateful to her for all she did.
There are still a lot of names left to restore and I was not sure if I should leave them for FamilySearch to see, or go ahead and restore the rest of the profiles that need it.
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@Calliej27
If you want some of us to help, please just say. There are many very experienced users in this community.
I went through a similar situation last year. It took several months, but Support eventually stepped in and repaired thousands of incorrect edits.
From Oct to Dec 2025
https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/182769/heartbroken/p14 -
That would be great, thank you so very much! I'm working my way back with this section right now. I'm looking, but I'm sure I'm missing some other profiles along the way.
https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/details/M26M-2W6
Even making corrects and restoring, I hope Support can see what this guy did on there and speak to him about it.1 -
@shecorwe wrote
Editing families in Family Tree is not against the Terms of Use, whether they have a source to support those changes or not.
I'm sorry, but I strenuously object to the idea that nonsense names are acceptable.
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Oh, I'm glad you saved a screen capture! Back further he has One, Two, Three, etc on for the names.
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I always try to snag screenshots, even here in the Community. Posts or comments sometimes disappear.
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This is a huge mess. https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/details/PXJH-1QJ
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These are all new profiles created today and not linked (yet) with any other families.
Were they real people?
Or are they characters in someone's fantasy story?
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Thank you, Áine.ní.Donnghaile, for helping to report. I tried to go back and add more to my email I got (standard form reply) and it bounced back as spam now. I'm still seeing comments he made on some as Facts, etc on some of the profiles and have been trying to clean all that up as well.
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I've now received the standard second response from Support, "Appropriate action will be taken."
I do see that at least some of the PIDs from the screenshot by @Nyx773 have now been deleted.4 -
@Calliej27 We are keeping an eye on this and the efforts of the "Report Abuse" area. It does look like the last batch was deleted. Keep posting them here if you see any more.
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Thank you so much for all of the help with this. I truly appreciate it.
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