Hi Chris & everyone else, I'm just seeing this now, because of another posted question just recently asked about adding ppl from obits. As someone who has in the last 3 years lost more relatives than I want to count at the moment. I will just give my honest opinion, that probably won't make any difference, but will give it anyway.
I have a brother who died in a horrible car accident it was back when I was only 16 years old, I'm now 57. I've only recently added his profile. why? because the memories of that day are still very hard-pressed within our whole family who loved him very very much. If anyone had added his profile without my knowledge, I would've been outright offended and very angry as I would've seen this as having no concern for me or my family. And the person adding the profile would not have known this person is related to me because he was legally a "step" but we never used this terminology in our family. We were all just "family". I also have a "foster sister" who also passed at a very young age because of a heart condition. Again, if anyone had added her, they would have connected her to her bio family not knowing that she spent her last years of her life as a full part of our family. Again this would've been done without malice or harm intended but would have caused unforseen harm to those that knew her and loved her.
I see no issue with using obits, etc to add ppl that are 50+ years back, but to add anyone that is less than this is to step on the toes of the families that may not want these individuals put online without their consents. This should only be done by the direct and indirect families and or their friends that actually knew the individuals with the consents of the families or because the families have already added them elsewhere on other online trees. A posted obit is to acknowledge their deaths, it is not a Public right to grab the persons' infos and display their lives outside of the obits.
I recently lost a sister-in-law only a few months ago. I've added her to the tree, it was a difficult thing to begin, but I did it, because I didn't want someone else to do this. My families are aware I am doing all lines of families connected to us, therefore they know they will find their loved ones on a genealogical page at some point (if they haven't done it themselves).. But they also know I will be the one doing it, because I knew them, loved them, and knew who they were. That is how it should be with those recently passed.. this is just my viewpoint.... I hope it matters even a little.