Family Search Tree has been overtaken by Pirates ! (find, accuracy, family tree)
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Well, maybe not pirates, but by people I do not know, are not related to and who have incorrect information.
They feel free to post it to my family tree and to change various names, relationships and dates. They add children who did not exist; they are basically evil.
I have warned one person a couple times to stop this. Once again, there are new people in my tree who are NOT related to me, and I know this for a fact. And once again, when you go back into the tree after being away for a while, so much has changed and it's not anything I did. A bunch of unknown names with NO resources posted.
I need to join Ancestry and delete the whole file on Family search. Too bad cause it's free. Guess you get what you pay for.
LOL, people do the same thing on Ancestry, and will take your ancestors and give them to other people. One person just took one of my uncles from the 1880s and married him off to a totally different woman of a totally different race, in a totally different state, and gave him all new children.
I don't know about FamilySearch but at Ancestry, at one time you could leave a note disputing the accuracy of the information. The best part in my case is an ancestor to my uncle's actual wife disputing the info, too.
It's different at FamilySearch because when you upload your tree there, it's not "your" tree - anyone and everyone can edit it, add to it, delete from it, etc. It's a universal family tree. This is precisely why I don't have my tree at FamilySearch. At Ancestry, only you and anyone else you choose to give permission to can edit your tree. You can also make your tree private so people can't copy it to their own tree.
The two of you seem to disagree. Michele says it happens on Ancestry, yet PA2UK says no.
I don't want to join Ancestry only to have the same thing occur.
The two of you seem to disagree. Michele says it happens on Ancestry, yet PA2UK says no.
I don't want to join Ancestry only to have the same thing occur.
People will bother from your tree no matter where you are. And report inaccurate results AS THEIR OWN RESEARCH. Is that not the root of the issue in the OP?
I have no idea how else to express this. I made a thread about this here years ago, where people were "borrowing" from my tree. "Borrowing" from my tree and reporting it on their own at Ancestry versus "editing" your tree at FamilyTree isn't all that different.
Crap in/crap out is still crap.
And btw, my tree at Ancestry is PRIVATE. And as such for a reason.
I like FamilySearch as a tool to search for basic information. I prefer Ancestry for the tree. There are people on Ancestry who have all kinds of wrong things in their trees. You have the option not to include it in yours. Don't allow other people to modify your trees and carefully evaluate all hints and you should be fine.
ETA: Yes people will use information you provide on their own tree and share it with others as such. If you don't want to share, simply don't put it out there. I made my info public because I want to share. I have a fairly large immediate family. I find my research to be more entertaining when I have people who will comment back and forth with me and giggle or be horrified at some of the same things I am. I have other people who are grateful to see pictures of great grandpa that they never met or even saw a picture of before. I'm happy for them because I was thrilled when I received those same pictures.
The two of you seem to disagree. Michele says it happens on Ancestry, yet PA2UK says no.
I don't want to join Ancestry only to have the same thing occur.
No one other than you can make changes on your Ancestry tree unless you give them editing rights to do so. Just make sure that if you invite others to your tree that you invite them as guests, not editors. Guests only have viewing rights. What you don't have control of is what others choose to show on their own Ancestry trees.
Your Family Search tree is a branch of the overall community tree to which you are contributing and anyone can make changes to any profile on the community tree. I believe there is a some sort of dispute mechanism to challenge changes by others but don't know more.
I like FamilySearch as a tool to search for basic information. I prefer Ancestry for the tree. There are people on Ancestry who have all kinds of wrong things in their trees. You have the option not to include it in yours. Don't allow other people to modify your trees and carefully evaluate all hints and you should be fine.
Exactly. I am an editor on exactly one tree at Ancestry. He is a designated direct maternal line relative and he owns that tree. We have, after all these years, not made much progress but it is an interesting connection. So I don't edit his tree nor he mine. But people can STILL adopt your tree and add it as their own research and ancestors. I know this as a fact. THIS AS A FACT.
Another relative, along the same line but a different branch, we KNOW how we are related. He is trying Ancestry as we speak. And he added my ancestress to his tree. I don't argue that, we both know the truth.
One thing that I like about FamilySearch is that it is free. However, I have never used their tree info like that. My biggest issue with them is their info seems to sometimes be "off" by exactly one year. Strange. My father's birthday is off a year. I have read this with others there.
What I do know is that Ancestry is affiliated with Latter Day Saints. And to me, that IS interesting, especially considering my ancestry. I never bothered to learn who FamilySearch is affiliated with. My tree isn't there and I use them for blind research, only. I use Ancestry for little of nothing nowadays.
So, I see that both Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org are both affiliated with LDS. I put no identifying info on FS and Ancestry only holds a tree. I am not a paying user there nor am I actively researching there. They do NOT have my DNA.
I will stick to doing independent research while using the free search engine at FamilySearch as needed. SMH.
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