Incorrect (I believe) changes made to an ancestor's profile; no sources offered

Question

Earlier this year I spent a lot of time researching my great-great grandfather Alfred McDougall's parentage, and concluded that the sources I had found indicating John McDougall was his father appeared to be more credible than three related Findagrave memorials that claimed his father was Archibald McDougall. I found no other sources for that information, and concluded that Archibald was most likely not the father. Interestingly, the Findagrave memorial itself includes the notation "Burial details unknown, specifically, connecting family." (This would indicate to me that the person who created this memorial and the two connected ones was not entirely sure the information was correct.)

I detailed all of my research on Alfred's mother Elizabeth Scholastica Dubois's profile, including the sources, and described why I believed the Findagrave information was not credible. I also listed this information on the related profiles, i.e. her three sons.

Yesterday someone came along and changed my great-great grandfather Alfred's father from John to Archibald, and offered no sources to support the change. (Interestingly, he did not change Alfred's mother Elizabeth's profile to reflect a different husband, nor did he change the father of Elizabeth's youngest son Stephen Ignatius.) This change was made despite notes being present in every related profile indicating that no evidence exists for (a) a marriage between Archibald and Elizabeth (other than the unsourced claim on Archibald's Findagrave), or (b) Archibald being the father of any of Elizabeth's children (although his Findagrave claims he is the father of her youngest son Stephen Ignatius McDougall).

In addition, Archibald's Wikitree profile echoes the death date of 1852 from the Findagrave memorial (in which the death location is listed as Michigan) but then cites the 1871 Canada census as a source. Someone named Archibald McDougall, age 70, was living in Ontario then. Either Archibald did not die in 1852, or the man in the 1871 census is a different person.

I wrote this person a private message detailing some of my research and sources that support the original father John's identity (especially "Genealogy of the French Families of the Detroit River Region" by Rev. Father Christian Denissen, page 773), pointed him to the extensive notes on Elizabeth's profile, and told him I would be interested in seeing any sources he might have to support the change in fathers. I also said that if there were no sources for this (other than Findagrave) I will change it back.

Any thoughts on how long I should give this person to respond to my request?

Also... if anyone would like to have a look at the profiles and tell me if I appear to have gone wrong anywhere, the mother's profile is Dubois-3661, and the son whose father has been changed is McDougall-3528.

Comments

I think it was good of you to communicate with the member who made the changes.

But, you are the profile manager and the communication should have come from the other member before a major change was made.

I think you can change it back as it was, and put the explanation you gave in your question in a Notes section.

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Seconded. If you wanted to be overly gracious, give them a date to reply by, say 30 days to be extra fair, then go work on other things and set your calendar to remind you to change it back. But I don't think you are obligated to do any of that.

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I agree with Kristina. If anyone makes a change like that to a profile I manage, with no reliable evidence, I change it back when I find it.

Answer 1

Thank you, Kristina and Jonathan, for your comments and suggestions. I have gone ahead and changed back the information on the affected profiles, and placed an announcement at the top of the notes section in each person's profile explaining that there is no plausible evidence for Archibald being connected to the family, but plenty of evidence for John McDougall and Elisabeth Scholastica Dubois having been married and having 3 sons together.

Answer 2

Hmm.  A couple thoughts:

The profile could use some cleanup and reorganization.

There is a comment on the profile, only seven hour old, so there is another person engaged in the discussion, and maybe the answer to your question about how long you should wait is--a day?

Comments

The comment posted on that profile was from the person who changed the father, and it was just a copy of the message I had sent him. If he had had any sources that backed up the change he made, I would think he would have provided them... but since he didn't, I just went ahead and changed it back to the original (and hopefully correct) father (which does have supporting sources).

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Well, OK.  I'm just suggesting collaboration.

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I was willing to collaborate, assuming he could come up with some sources other than Findagrave for the changes he made. Since all he did was quote my own message back to me, I figured he probably didn't have any such sources to offer. Oh, and as someone else said above, since I am the profile manager, contacting me before making changes would have been the polite thing to do....

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It looks to me like what he did (though not well explained) was make your message part of the profile's public record.