What should I do with a profile that should probably be deleted?

Question

When I adopted this orphan, she was attached to Francisco Cadimo (Cadimo-2) as her husband, and the two daughters that are still attached.  However, there is no record of Francisco Cadimo's wife's name. It's not even certain the two daughters are his.  I deleted him as her husband and then tried to find a source that may connect her to the two daughters.  There is nothing.  Not even that, there are a ton of María de Tapias in colonial New Mexico.  There were 4 just in the recolonization in 1693.  To quote "Origins of New Mexico Families, "Some women of the Tapia Family also returned with their husbands, several named 'María,' so that it is impossible to classify them."

I've checked everything by Fray Chávez, "To the Royal Crown Restored," and everything online I can think to check.  I'm going to detach the daughters.  Should we just leave her to float free and unattached until a record pops up that tells us just which María de Tapia she is? Okay, I know the answer to that.  So what should I do with her?

Answer 1

One thing you can consider is adding some research notes to the profile explaining what you have looked at so far and why she is floating free. This will save the next person who stumbles across her from spending time duplicating your work if they are trying to pin her down.

Comments

Thank you, I'll do that!

Answer 2

If you adopt an orphan profile for which nothing can be found to further identify the person, since you are manager, you can just change the name and details to a new profile for someone you want to add. That effectively deletes the old profile.

Comments

In this case  Daniel, that is an incorrect procedure as Maria had been previously linked to other Profiles.  Please see Help:Recycling WikiTree IDs for further details on when and when you can't do this.

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Thank you for pointing that out and adding the link. I have only done it once when I created a profile by mistake, using the wrong name. Since I caught it in time, there was no change history involved.

Answer 3

If "Maria Tapia" appears to simply be a mistaken entry with no life on the internet, then merging her with a more appropriate profile, preferably the person she is really supposed to be -- will make the profile go away.

BUT -- if "Maria Tapia" exists on Geni or Ancestry or elsewhere on the internet, then the profile should be retained because if she is made to go away, Murphy's Law says another well-meaning person will re-create her.

I have already added the {{Uncertain Existence}} template to her profile.  If you think she has a life in popular genealogy, then make this your one-week notice that she will be marked {{Disproven Existence}}.  Then the Disproven Existence Project will manage her profile, all links to parents, spouses, and children will be cut (because people who never existed don't have relatives), and she won't be part of the global WikiTree, but if anyone tries to re-create her they will see that there is already a profile, and they will find the record of your good research!

Comments

That's the problem. There are multiple Maria Tapias in early New Mexico with little to no records. It's not that she didn't exist, we just don't know which one she is.  It is possible that there is a record connecting her to Francisco Cadimo or the daughters that I just can't find.  If someone finds that record, they can use this profile but otherwise this is just an extra Maria de Tapia profile that can be merged into another profile and be "deleted."

Personally, I think she should just be "deleted" and if on the very slight chance someone does find a record connecting her to Francisco Cadimo, they can just create a new profile at that time.

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We don't delete.  But we do merge.

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Yep, that's why I put it in quotes.