What if the person I am adding already has a profile but some of that info is wrong?

Question

The person I am adding already has a profile from 2016 but I am skeptical of some of the information about several ancestors included there as I have not been able to verify them.  The source is "Ancestry Family Tree" and I find all kinds of errors there.  Can I merge, but reject some of the information? How does this work?  

Thank you - Vikie Stoltz

Comments

Can you post the wiki tree id of this person.

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Stowell-641 is the pre-existing profile

I added Stowell-745 as it was not flagged as an existing person until I began to add the father Josiah Sprague

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Communication with the PM of the other profile is a good first step.

Answer 1

Depending upon the privacy level of the profile, you can remove children from the profile, change the person's parents or spouse, etc. You click the "Edit" tab for the profile (after merging, presumably) and then there will be people listed in relationship slots in the right column with "edit" buttons for each type of relationship, which you can press to change the people occupying those relationships.

The thing about WikiTree, however, is that nobody owns an ancestor or that ancestor's profile. A source that one person thinks suspicious, another might find reasonable. If you know that those relationships are erroneous, you should ensure the profile is accurate - but it sounds like you don't have that level of certainty about this person. On the other hand, if the weight of the evidence is against the relationship, but you're not certain, it might be better to change the status level for the relationship to "uncertain."

EDIT: As Ms. Smith said, having proper documentation to back up whatever you do is key.

Answer 2

Hi Vikie!  Welcome to WikiTree!  Thank you for joining us.

The goal here is to have one profile for each person that can be documented that ever lived.  So if the profile you are interested in appears to have questionable data, we begin by documenting that data and making corrections to the profile as needed.  I suggest that post a public message on the profile that explains your research and your documentation.  You can also send a question to the Profile Manager through the private message system.  

Often times, undocumented family trees are used as starting points for further research.  Your research may have progressed farther than other researchers on that profile.  Usually, the Profile Managers are anxious to have the correct data and family connections on their twigs in the WikiTree.  Documentation or better sources usually carry the day.

Answer 3

Hello Vikie,

"Every person should have one and only profile on WikiTree. Our entire community is working together on one, shared family tree."

(https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Merging )

After a merge is completed there is the need to edit de Bio/Sources text of the resulting one and only profile because all the information from both of the merged profiles is appended in the text box of the resulting profile, so there are two "Biography" sections, Two "Sources" section...

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Matching_and_Merging_FAQ#What_happens_after_a_merge.3F

Conflicting information should be resolved based on the sources (Honor Code, section VIII):

VIII. We cite sources. Without sources we can't objectively resolve conflicting information.

There is also a "Matching and Merging FAQ" you may find helpful:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Matching_and_Merging_FAQ

Best of luck.