Headstones without Date of Death

Question

I know I have mentioned this before but cannot locate the post.

I really think we need to set a rule, that if there is no DOD on a headstone for a spouse born after 1910 then a profile should not be created and abandoned.

I came across another today while working on unsourced profiles.

The profile was open and is now locked.

We have a responsiblity for accuracy but also to make sure the livings privacy is protected.

To clarify these were created and then abandoned within a short time. No attachment to family. It is only through research that I found they were living. I attached to the deceased spouse and locked the profile.

I am not saying that profiles should not be created for people born after 1910. I am saying with have the responsibility if we do so to set the proper privacy setting and attach to family. Otherwise they are just out there with noone.

Comments

I was just thinking about this subject when comparing someone born in the 1910's. Their privacy setting was "Private with Public Biography".  This makes the parents identity are private as well. The problem is deciding if that profile is a match when you know the profile has the parent's identified, but you can't see them.

According to the current rules, Open is not an option for living people so someone must have entered a date of death or  marked the death date "about/uncertain but non-living" and also manually changed the privacy setting to Open. If I understand the process correctly.

There is already a rule in place that says you shouldn't do this without a source.

I disagree that these profiles should not be created or abandoned, but should be set to private.

Wikitree is worldwide so the following suggestions only reflect how privacy is perceived by in the United States Government. 

We know there is a distinct difference in privacy levels between those born before and after April 1, 1940. Both my parents are still alive, but one was born before this date and one very shortly after.

I believe that the privacy level should be "private with public tree" for anyone born before April 1, 1940 unless controlled by a profile manager. I think this is similar to how it works for those born more than 200 years ago.

A Private with Public trees is exactly like Private profiles except that the person's Family Tree is public. Since they're connected, this also means the Gender and DNA test connections are public.

I think that for all private profiles, whose date of birth makes them over 100 years of age, should be Private with Public Tree. IMHO, revealing the Identities of the parents in these cases has merit.

In this latter suggestion, the privacy of the living does not change if we presume that those over 100 years a not living.

In the prior suggestion,  we still may want profiles who are less than 100 years old but born after April 1, 1940  to continue to be private. I don't think we can determine the intent of those already entered, so maybe changing the default to be private with Public tree for new profiles being entered. This allows for a profile manager to make it private.

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I would agree.  When a family establishes a headstone usually when  one spouse dies they set the other spouses spot up with the birth date but leave the death date blank.  The second spouse is still living.

Answer 1

In my case, my own deceased stepfather has a headstone with no date next to his first wife's http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=106228428. His actual headstone is with my mother (and second wife), http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=33155194.

If there is no DOD, the profile cannot be created as Open or Public, as I understand it.

Profile creation seems reasonable as this person does exist. They should be presumed living and therefore some form of private setting would be used, unless evidence to the contrary is found (as with my father). If the contributor wants this profile to be hidden, they can use Private. If privacy is less of a concern, the contributor can use Private with Public Biography and Family Tree setting.

Answer 2

Jacky, unless I am mistaken WikiTree will not allow any profile that has a DOB 1916 - 2015 and has no date of death to created with any setting other than one of the Private settings. This eliminates the first problem, they can no longer be Open because at least one date is required. As for the second problem I see no way to fix that because that would turn a large number away if they can not enter living relatives and if something happens to the profile manager then Admin.Wikitree becomes the manager.