Question

what is the point of unlisted and so private they are hidden, this begs for duplication. such intermate tree are not in any sense cooperative

Comments

Also, you can request to the Profile Manager to be put on their Trusted list if this is a relative; or you can send a private message via WikiTree to the profile manager of that particular profile and ask them to compare to see if what YOU have is a duplicate

Many Profile Managers place living relatives "behind closed doors" to protect what privacy they have remaining in an era when it seems so much information about almost anyone is accessible using search engines such a Google.

Answer 1

As of May 2018, Unlisted is required for all profiles of living people who are not members. See the GDPR FAQ.

There are also various degrees of Private, but in most cases, we would like to be working on our Ancestor profiles, and many genealogists will not add profiles for those who are living.

Answer 2

This definitely makes it a lot more difficult to do any matching. There are certain surnames I've run into where literally everything is marked private and there is no way to use that information. I can request access, and I have, but those are often seemingly ignored.

I think all you can do is request to be on the trusted list. Failing that, I suppose a duplicate is the only option left which will have to be corrected later.