A common complaint about Family Search is having to deal with people changing "our" genealogy. Many of these people have been working on their family history for decades, before the unified family tree on Family Search was created. They're used to working alone and previously didn't have to deal with strangers who were researching the same people.
Since I'm one of the few young genealogists, this hasn't been my experience. The Family Search Family Tree was created soon after I got interested in family history, and for the most part I've been thrilled with the program.
In recent months, however, I've found that I can relate more and more to the possessive attitude some people have adopted about their family history. My early experiences were researching people who I was clearly "sharing" with others because I was simply adding pictures and stories I had inherited and making sure my pioneer relatives were documented with sources. In contrast, my experiences in the past two years have been more independent because I've added at least 100 people to the tree and I've been doing research about people that other users hadn't worked on. I don't know that I feel "possessive" about those people (or their names), but I did put a lot of work in and I had the information entered the way I liked it.
With the recent addition of the Denmark Church Records database to Family Search, I've seen a lot more users making changes on these people who I worked on, and I've been feeling a little resentful of that. So I guess I'm not immune to it. Generally the changes are fairly benign--someone added some record hints or changed a place name, for example--but I cringe if I see a merge or relationship change because it could mean spending a couple of hours undoing a bad merge or restoring deleted relationships.
Anyway, here are my tips for "sharing" the space on Family Search:
- Acknowledge that your family history "style" might not work for other users, and therefore they might make changes so they can understand the information. For example, you might prefer sources organized by type, whereas others might prefer sources arranged in alphabetical order. You might want every single residence, occupation, and variation of names added to "Other Information," whereas other users might not feel a strong need for that./
- Remember that other users on Family Search are real people too. Sure, they mistakenly introduce errors into the family tree, but they're also the Relief Society sister who is always the first to volunteer to bring meals for the sick or the high priest who shows up to help every time someone moves. They're not deliberately trying to make life harder for you--they're good, well-intentioned people making honest mistakes or still developing their research skills.
- In fact, other users on Family Search are your family.
- Focus on the "collaboration" aspect of Family Search rather than feeling like you need to protect your research. Look forward to seeing the information other people might add that builds on your research. In a lot of ways it's actually really great that we can all work on the tree, because that means we don't have to do research if someone else has already put in that work. It's fun when someone else adds a record that you weren't able to find.
And here are some practical tips that seem to help prevent/reduce/deal with the big messes:
- Add all of your sources with good explanations and transcribe the information into Family Search. Sometimes I talk to people who complain that someone messed up their genealogy or did a bad merge, but if you look at the person they added, they entered the basic information and didn't add their sources. If someone else comes along, that makes it a lot harder for them to distinguish "your" Billy Hopkins in Edgefield, South Carolina from another Billy Hopkins from Columbia, South Carolina. Make your places very complete. Monroe, Sevier, Utah, United States--not just Utah.
- Move important records like birth/death/marriage certificates and censuses closer to the top of your source list so that they're easier for you and other users to find.
- "Watch" anyone who you have made significant changes on by clicking the star at the top of their page. You will get a weekly email with a list of changes made to anyone who you are watching. Then you can check these changes to make sure they make sense and fix anything that's wrong. (But again, remember that by using Family Search you're collaborating.)
- Send messages if there is a problem. Click on the name of the person who made the change, and a box will come up that has their email address and an option to send them a message. If you click Send a Message then the message will include a link to the person you are referencing, which can be helpful. Again, keep in mind that these are real people and be polite and friendly. A nasty message could make a new user so discouraged they stop doing genealogy, whereas a kind message with a correction or question could help that person learn (or you could find out you were wrong).
- Look through all the record hints and possible duplicates and choose whether they should be rejected or added. Sometimes inexperienced users just assume that Family Search's automated hints must be correct and add everything, or they assume that same name = same person.
- You can look through the entire list of changes to any person by clicking "Show All Changes" under "Latest Changes." You can undo merges or go to deleted people and restore them.
- If you make a correction, give a thorough explanation. Refer to sources to back up the change you have made. Make use of the discussions, notes, and life history sections to explain your research.
- Keep a personal copy of your research in another family tree. Ancestry.com is a popular one and is free for members of the LDS church. I also like RootsMagic. This way if someone makes incorrect changes on Family Search you'll have a separate copy that will help you restore the information. Make sure to save your sources on your backup tree.
No comments:
Post a Comment