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In my method the same person wouldn't have a different number on different trees, Ancestry would assign every single person ever born a unique number and that number is connected to that person for infinity.
But that is only possible if they switched from having individual trees to one, universal tree. If you want them to have a universal tree instead of individual trees, fair enough, but I personally hope they never do - and if they did, I would remove my tree from their servers before the switch. Crowd sourced trees may have their uses, but so do individual trees.
Will note I also find the IDs useful. Mostly because I have a lot of people in my extended family who have the same name and were born/died around the same time. I do wish that ancestry had a similar sort of way to go through your personal tree. I have thousands of people on my tree and I have multiple family lines with the surnames of Jones and Robinson and even a couple Smith in-laws and all of them are named John and Mary lol. So the ID numbers are useful on family search but agree you have to know the ID. I've printed out family sheets for most of my lines and they include the ID number when you do this on family search so I do have a reference for them (they are in 3 ring binders that I take to family events or genealogical meetings in my local area).
Thanks for explaining this. I drive myself NUTS every time because I feel like I'm looking at the same records over and over and over again. I'm going to pay closer attention to the IDs now.
Question for those using a free account at FamilySearch - what happens when you create this? Are others in your family tree able to see you have a profile on there? What sort of privacy options are there?
Question for those using a free account at FamilySearch - what happens when you create this? Are others in your family tree able to see you have a profile on there? What sort of privacy options are there?
I haven't attached myself to any tree there so it's completely private. Even if you do add your tree, living people are automatically privatized so all your vital details (like when/where you were born) will be private. However, anytime you work on a deceased person in a tree, people will be able to see your username and that you edited that individual and how. So yes, if you utilize the family tree part of the site, people will be able to see you have an account there, but you can choose to share only your username (which can be an unidentifying name). You can include your real name, email address, phone number, and mailing address in your account profile if you want to, but you don't have to. People will be able to send you a message through FamilySearch's messaging system though (they will not have access to your email unless you share it).
That's too bad that you can no longer order in micro film / fiche. I was not aware of that as I haven't needed to for several years. What I have found on FamilySearch is some of the information has been transcribed wrong. (Speaking mostly of old German Churchbook records). I have gone back to photocopies I have made from the microfilms to confirm that I had it right and sure enough, they got it wrong when they put it up on the website. That is one of the downsides of this technology - it might be more convenient, but it is definitely not as accurate! There are humans involved in transcribing this info - so there are bound to be mistakes. I would assume Ancestry is the same, but I have not spent enough time on there to notice.
Yes, transcriptions are often incorrect which is why I look at the actual document attached. This is where using both sites is good. One site might have only transcription where the other will have a photocopy of the actual document. Also knowing your relatives you realize that all the records transcribed as your relative going back and forth between Liverpool England and Provincetown, MA or other New England seaports are mistakes because it was Liverpool, Nova Scotia not England. Now that would have been quite the voyage to make in only a couple of days. Must have been a speedboat.
I haven't attached myself to any tree there so it's completely private. Even if you do add your tree, living people are automatically privatized so all your vital details (like when/where you were born) will be private. However, anytime you work on a deceased person in a tree, people will be able to see your username and that you edited that individual and how. So yes, if you utilize the family tree part of the site, people will be able to see you have an account there, but you can choose to share only your username (which can be an unidentifying name). You can include your real name, email address, phone number, and mailing address in your account profile if you want to, but you don't have to. People will be able to send you a message through FamilySearch's messaging system though (they will not have access to your email unless you share it).
Thank you for the explanation.
The free account creation process is a bit confusing to me.
To create a free account, you are asked to provide your name and birth date. Is that information going to be masked with a username? I'd like to check out the site, but I want to know who/where/etc my actual name and birth date would get displayed once I'm in there. I tend to be wary about providing such info unless I know in advance what's going to happen to it. Hope this makes sense!
The free account creation process is a bit confusing to me.
To create a free account, you are asked to provide your name and birth date. Is that information going to be masked with a username? I'd like to check out the site, but I want to know who/where/etc my actual name and birth date would get displayed once I'm in there. I tend to be wary about providing such info unless I know in advance what's going to happen to it. Hope this makes sense!
No one sees your info unless your user name contains your real name. I work there a lot, those with user names I'm not able to see who they are. There are times I've messaged people to ask if they're family; some say how they're related and some don't. With me it depends on who I'm contacting. I just spoke to a relative (using their hubs name as user name) of my brother's adoptive parents. I told them who my brother was; they thought that since his adoptive parents were in their 30's that they were his grand parents. I gave them his mothers obituary.
I agree on the username info. I don't use my real name on FS. I primarily used FS for many years and my membership with ancestry will be up at the end of the year (I was gifted a year last Christmas) so I'll go back to using them primarily again in 2019.
People can see your user name and when you edit and any notes you make in regards to your edits/additions.
I agree on the username info. I don't use my real name on FS. I primarily used FS for many years and my membership with ancestry will be up at the end of the year (I was gifted a year last Christmas) so I'll go back to using them primarily again in 2019.
People can see your user name and when you edit and any notes you make in regards to your edits/additions.
Thanks - so on the page where it asks you to enter first name, last name, and dob, that is the same as creating the username? Do you also put a fake dob in ?
Is it the same on ancestry? I haven't looked on there yet.
Thanks - so on the page where it asks you to enter first name, last name, and dob, that is the same as creating the username? Do you also put a fake dob in ?
Is it the same on ancestry? I haven't looked on there yet.
No, you add your info on the 1st page then click continue; you enter a user name and password on the next screen. As long as you select a user name that isn't your real name no one should see it. I'd go over your profile after you create it. I have a field in settings that says Display Name which I just changed to Roselvr; it had my real name. I don't think people saw it because I don't have the public button checked.
Go thru all of your settings, there are buttons you can check to make certain things like email addy public. None of mine are checked
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