Procedure to delete a profile from WikiTree?

Question

This profile (Harlan Dixon) and his brother (Michael Dixon) do not, as far as I am aware, exist, nor have they ever. They got into WikiTree through a GEDCOM import, but their sourcing is highly suspect. Both profiles cite an Ancestry.com repository, but the links are 404. Both profiles also contain a biographical entry without proper citation. 

for Harlan:

Found a reference on the web stating that Harlan's mother was 12 years old when she gave birth to Harlan. I have not been able to verify this yet.

for Michael:

I believe Michael and Harlan were twins who were born to their mother when she was only 12 years old. I have not found a reliable source for this yet, only a family tree. If this is true they both also died the same year.

I suspect that these profiles are the result of some data corruption along the way. One of their siblings, Dinah Dixon, married a Michael Harlan. Thus his first name became one of her siblings, his last name became another. I have *no idea* where the story originated about their mother supposedly having them at the age of 12. 

So what is the proper procedure for simply deleting them, or otherwise hiding or orphaning them? Is there a purgatory where we can shelve highly suspicious/questionable profiles like these? They have begun propagating across the internet like a virus...

Answer 1

Hi Glenn,

Have you discussed this with the PM yet?

The PM of both profiles is very active in WikiTree.

It is very important because "collaboration requires communication":

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Collaboration#Collaboration_requires_communication

I noticed that you already added notes with this information to the profiles. A good alternative would be to use the "Questionable" template:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:WikiTree_Templates#Questionable

I hope this may be useful for you.

Comments

Ruben, after scrolling through the log of changes I do see that the current PM is the one who added the unsourced comments. I will message her about those.

I was unaware of templates - that looks like a very useful page, thank you!

---

My mistake Glenn. As you say, the notes were already there.

Perhaps, adding the template would close the circle.

You may find interesting this post:

https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/359552/when-can-i-use-category-uncertain-existence-in-a-profile

Have a nice day.

Answer 2

Unfortunately profiles aren't deleted from Wikitree; the method used to eliminate them is usually to merge them with the correct person. It may be necessary to add that person if they aren't in Wikitree yet.

Answer 3

Note that we don't (can't) delete profiles in WikiTree. They can be merged into other profiles, but before we do that we should make a valiant effort to figure out what the profile creator intended and whether the profile represents a real person.

In this case, it looks like Harlan and Michael were supposedly born about 1649, apparently in Ulster, to a family that later migrated to Pennsylvania. The fact that internet family trees identify their mother as a woman who would have been only 12 years old at their birth doesn't mean they didn't exist. It's likely that these profiles are based to some extent on real people, but they may be connected to the wrong parents (or at least the wrong mother), or their data may have been mangled in some other way.

I suggest that you add the template {{Uncertain Existence}} to the profiles for Harlan and Michael, and revise the biographies to explain the situation to anyone who visits the profile. State that the profile was created by a Gedcom import in 2011, that the source cited was an Ancestry Family Tree that is no longer available, that the parents identified in the import were Henry and Rose (with links to their profiles), but Rose was too young to be their mother, etc. If further research helps prove that Harlan and Michael didn't exist, then the profiles can be merged away, but I don't think you have that proof yet.

To get the process started, I added the "Uncertain" qualifier for both of Harlan's supposed parents.

Comments

Ellen, thank you!

On a related note, I have a question. When a family has been well-researched and well-established, as this family has, how should new, unsourced family members be treated?

This is one of the founding Quaker families in Penn's Colony. Thousand-page, multi-volume encyclopedias have been compiled over the last 350 years and not one of them has turned up these two siblings. To me, the proper stance is to hold off on actually creating profiles until proof surfaces. Otherwise these end up propagating everywhere and become difficult to kill.

In the meantime I will communicate with the current PM