Matching with private trees

Question

What are you supposed to do when you get possible matches/merges with a private tree? For me it has reached the point of "why bother, too many trees are private". I didn't come here to spend all my time contacting other people and waiting for responses. The people I submitted are, for the most part, well documented and I wanted to share that. Granted, I did a poor job importing my gedcom (seems all spouses ended up unknown) but I have spent a lot of time fixing that. I want my info to be as correct as possible, but if "it is what it is" then I might as well quit now.

Answer 1

I feel the same frustration - I wish there was a way that if you plug in a death date it automatically blocks you from using the private setting.  I see way too many profiles of people who have passed, even decades ago, that are private.  I'm not quitting my work here, I just hope in future things will sort themselves out as people learn to share.   Other than sending a message or posting on the bulletin board, there's not much you can do.  :-(

Comments

I agree, Lauren.  I've seen profiles of people born as far back as the 1820's, set to the red "Private" setting. Aside from possibly some very rare, unusual circumstances, I can't think of any reason to do that except to inhibit collaboration.

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That is strange, Nan.  It took me a little while to sort out the privacy setting issue when I first started, but that seems extreme.  :-/

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Even worse, today I came across a couple who married in 1760 with about 10 children who are private (red) presumable as they had no dates, their chidren are open as the have birth dates before 1814, but there is no simple answer to the private nest in the middle.

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Well, I just discovered last night a couple of my earliest profiles are private that shouldn't be, so I will be fixing those.  They came from a marriage record (parents) and now I can't find any other info on them.  I had left out dates for later research and I guess that privatized them.  I might merge them away and list them in the son's bio.

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Note that with http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Special:PrivacyChanges you can confirm that people on your own Watchlist are as public as they should be. The "select all ancestors" links make it go fairly quickly.

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I did that a while ago, but must have missed those two - thanks Chris!  :-)

Answer 2

I rejected far too many on my initial import or i never would have finished my import. ALL other possible matches were not matches at all. I found 2 people, my father and greatx4 grandfather in a search before import on other trees but was never given them as a possible match after my import. Perhaps I am the problem!?

Comments

No, you are not the problem.  This is a young site and there are probably a gazillion people yet to be entered.  None of my fathers side were here and I am working in tandem with another genealogist who happened to be putting up many of my mothers side and families in my hometown.  Probably better to be cautious at first anyway than to incorrectly link or merge.  Plus potential matches will continue to accrue because there are new members joining daily.

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I think for now I will finish fixing all my "Mary Unknowns" and give it a little rest. At least most of my input will be valid and have some value. Do the people with private trees see the issue with my submittal and are they able to merge or whatever it's called?

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Kurt, all you can do is your best with your profiles and make attempts to contact other profile managers. At least there is a way to eventually resolve issues and I appreciate that consideration built into foundation of the site.  Here is a link to that information:

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Unresponsive_Profile_Managers

Hope you will continue with your contributions.  Best wishes.  :-)