Our goal at FamilySearch is not only to connect individual families, but to connect the human family. In order to accomplish that goal, we need everyone’s help. For this reason, FamilySearch Family Tree is a shared tree, which means that it is open for users to contribute what information they have.
Why Are There Changes That I Didn’t Make in My Family Tree?
Using a public or shared tree means that other people can add to or even modify information about the ancestors or relatives that they have in common with you.
We believe that the more people work on FamilySearch Family Tree, the faster it will grow—and the more accurate it will become. However, sometimes well-meaning users make changes in the tree that are incorrect. Thankfully, you can correct mistakes that you see in your tree.
What If There Is a Mistake in My Family Tree?
Mistakes in your tree might include incorrect relationships, an incorrect record attachment, or—one of the more tedious issues—an incorrect merge. Thankfully, every change made in the family tree is archived, and mistakes made in the tree are reversible.
What If a Mistake Keeps Popping Up after I Fix It?
There are a few ways you can prevent individuals from creating these errors in the information once it has been corrected. FamilySearch provides tools that can help you clarify information and collaborate with others. These include the notes section, discussions, and FamilySearch Messaging.
Give Good Reason Statements
When you make a change, you can write a reason statement that lets people know why you’ve corrected the information. For example, the FamilySearch user below explained why she removed a mother relationship from one of her ancestors. She also explained why she merged this person with another.
You can find the history of an ancestor’s changes and corrections on his or her person page by navigating to the right of the page and clicking Show All under the Latest Changes column. When making changes to the person yourself,you have the option to write a reason statement for making the change. This reason statement will appear in the Latest Changes list for others to see.
A history of changes and reasons for these changes can help others see why you made the corrections that you did and prevent future mistakes.
Write a Life Sketch
Sometimes, writing a life sketch for your ancestor can help prevent any future errors or misconceptions about your ancestor. In this life sketch,you can paste in the person’s obituary or any other quick outline of the person’s life, explaining details that could prevent future incorrect changes.
For example, you could explain in your great-great-grandfather’s life sketch that he married a woman with the same name as his previous spouse.This explanation might prevent others from accidentally assuming that the two wives with the same names were the same woman and merging them.
How to Correct Mistakes
As for how to smooth out the wrinkles you’ve come across in Family Tree, here are some tools, tips, and tricks to help you maintain accuracy in the information about your ancestors.
At FamilySearch, we care about connecting you with your family, and we provide fun discovery experiences and family history services for free. Why? Because we cherish families and believe that connecting generations can improve our lives now and forever. We are a nonprofit organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. To learn more about our beliefs, click here.
