What to do if you see a whole chain of incorrect connections?

Question

this incorrect chain is also unsourced, taken from Ancestry family tree data collection or something similar. I don't want to step on toes. I've sent a message, but there are just too many problems to address. What would be the most tactful way of dealing with this?

Answer 1

First, make certain they are the same families and not just families with common names.  Beloved grandpa's name can end up on several decendant men with near birthdates.  

Provide sources for all of your changes.

If the profiles are open, go ahead and make the corrections.  Put a note in the Biography section explaning your source and why you are disconnecting A and attaching B.  

If the profiles are public or private and you can't make the edits yourself, put the information with your sources in a public bulletin board message on the profile for each person.  Something like, "Please disconnect father Smith-12345 and replace with father Smith-6789 per this source: . . . ".  Provide the exact WikiTree ID so that it is easier to complete the changes.

Comments

I would suggest that before you start making changes, you try to contact the profile manager with a "summary" of what you think the issues are....communication before editing is key to the collaborative nature of Wikitree.

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I did once test this on a profile with good Swedish sources. When they emigrated to the States some relatives has done a Ancestry family tree that they uploaded and it's a pain to fix. 15 hours work to just understand that maybe we have a wrong sourced family tree ==> I gave up looking at others family trees it's a waste of time... you can never do a good work on someone else family tree is my lesson learned. 

A change must start with someone asking for help is my believe....

See Space:Lindgreen_Iowa_1880_merges  and the 7 extra children documented because of one wrong Census found in Ancestry land


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Genealogy is difficult and many people are not willing to learn and spend enough time to get it right....... see also G2G comment about WikiTree with quality ambitions maybe will make many people leave WikiTree and you get an inner expert group