Are there ghosts active on WikiTree?

Question

Open this image:

https://www.wikitree.com/photo/jpg/Van_Zyl-1271

You will see that it was uploaded on 3 December 2016 by Jurgen Johannes van Zyl. Click on the name to get to his profile.

He was born in 1851 and died in 1909.

Eerie, isn't it?

Comments

When you figure out how he did that, please let us know.  I can think of all sorts of ways this guy could contribute to a genealogy project!

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He's the ultimate 'inactive/unresponsive' Profile Manager LOL

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Hey, I think we should send him a couple of thank-yous and work him up to a 100 contributions per month badge.

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Ros,  How do you know he's inactive?  Have you tried sending him a PM and waiting a reasonable amount of time to allow him to respond? <grin>

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Creepy, indeed, Dirk!! ;-)

I went through your contributions and identified about 4 pictures on two different profiles that all had the same problem. Both of the profiles they were attached to had been merged.

I'll add this to the bug tracker list. Thanks for pointing it out, Dirk!

 

ETA: It actually appears to be a Last Name at Birth change that triggered the misattribution.

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>> the bug tracker list !!!!

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Review of Bugtrackers (2017):

Paranormal researcher Abby Glann (Melissa McCarthy) and geneaologist Erin Breen are trying to prove that bugs exist in modern websites. When strange apparitions appear in Manhattan, Glann and Breen turn to engineer Julie Ricketts for help. ...

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There are more than one living wikitree member named John Vickery: is why I sign my messages JPV IV :)

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That's pretty funny, Dirk, especially because it's more likely that I'd be turning to Abby and Erin for help. ;-)

Answer 1

For our peace of mind the image was upladed by you on Dec 03 2016 15:17 as listed on your Contributions.

But tell us, how you got the help of Jurgen??

Comments

There seem to be three issues at stake here. (Not a silver stake, you've got the wrong movie.)

1. Jurgen and I were both born on 5 January.
2. My GGgrandfather Dirk Pieter van Zijl whose name was inherited first by my grandfather and then by myself was a witness at the occasion of Jurgen's christening.
3. On Jurgen's profile, I had uploaded the photo of the baptismal register, given the FamilySearch reference and written "Transcription by [[Laurie-474|Dirk Laurie]]" without actually making the transcription.

I think Jurgen was using all the means at his disposal to send a signal to me that there was unfinished business.

This omission has now been rectified.

Answer 2

I asked this question not to long after I started on wikitree.  For different reasons.