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  1. #1
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    Default FamilySearch matching

    I have just had an interesting discussion with someone about a family tree we are both interested in. He used Family Search and came up with some family lines which I'm 99% certain are incorrect. In effect people with the same names and close dates but from different villages had been erroneously connected to provide an incorrect pedigree tree. I have posted to him images of parish records which I hope will convince him why his research is incorrect. However, he seems to be suggesting that the links derive directly from FamilySearch and not from him being incorrectly selective.

    I am aware that family trees are uploaded by private individuals and that many of these contain errors. I also know that once a tree is uploaded and is public it is likely to be copied by other people, complete with any errors. However, I seem to be getting the suggestion that staff at FamilySearch also create trees and if that is correct that these may contain errors too.

    Alternatively I wonder whether FamilySearch uses a matching algorithm that looks for identical names and dates and then creates suggested matches (or even trees). I know that potential matches can be flagged up on this and other subscription sites but as far as I knew they are purely for the subscriber to consider, then to accept or reject as appropriate.

    Does anyone know whether the matching process is more insidious than I've described and also whether FamilySearch or its parent organisation manufactures trees of its own without input from subscribers?

    Tony
    "People will not look forward to posterity who never look backward to their ancestors.” Edmund Burke

  2. #2

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    Tony, It's a great question and I hope you get an informed answer.

    Personally, I take no notice of any trees on family search; I use the site purely for searching births, marriages and deaths taken from parish registers or bishops transcripts, also census return indexes to upload links to the forum; I then follow up records found to see if they can be found within Ancestry, FMP and the Genealogists records as those sites often have original documents. That said, family search too have some original records and it is a great search site and good place to begin research, but some of its records should be taken with a pinch of salt.
    Alma

  3. #3
    Brick wall demolition expert!
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    Default

    I know a lady at my local FHS who volunteers at the local family search centre and I am sure that I have heard her say that she has done research on behalf of others, but like anyone we are all fallible.

    Also Family Tree Maker in addition to being able to sync with Ancestry and have all their "shaky leaf" hints also has the ability to get hints from Family Search if you sign into that account as well. I'm not certain if it syncs with their trees because I don't have a tree on Family Search.

  4. #4
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    Hi Megan

    Yes, a year or so ago I came across a tree created, I thought initially, by someone in Canada which ironically contained the same incorrect assumptions that I referred to above. When I contacted her and challenged the link she replied very politely to thank me and then said that she would ask her researcher to check the link. She later came back to confirm that her researcher now agreed with me and that her tree would be changed accordingly. Result.
    However, the lady concerned is a member of the LDS church so it seems highly probable that "her researcher" was also a member and may even be employed by FamilySearch to carry out such work.

    It is however one thing for private individuals to put up trees with errors and quite another for organisations like FamilySearch to do so. I have no proof that this happens however which is why I asked for feedback.

    Tony
    "People will not look forward to posterity who never look backward to their ancestors.” Edmund Burke

  5. #5

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    Hi Tony,
    I’m afraid that my feelings about Family Search are colored by the old days of the IGI microfiche and the considerable amounts of imagination involved. I have been assured by a LDS contact that they cleaned it up a lot when putting things online, but she also pointed out that it’s not their job to do quality control as a genealogy resource - the main function is to aid church members so that their families can be included in the church.
    Like Alma, I only use it to search document entries, and also to screen possible couples before spending my credits at Scotland’s People.i have never heard that their staff construct trees. I have come across one or two dodgy researchers, though!

    I’d guess that there are many carefully researched trees on there, but also many made by people who don’t realize how common some names are and that the documents of rich folk are more likely to survive... it’s always amusing to check on famous people and their claimed descendants.

  6. #6

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    Some twenty odd years ago we did volunteer work at a LDS the, but are not as members of the church. This was in the days of the igi and church members were under great pressure at certain times of the year to pruduce"temple ready" family trees. They did so and effectively just did name gathering. As an example I spent a lot of the explaining uk, particularly London geography, that Middlesex was not necessarily London and Surrey was the other side of the river. A lot of these temple ready trees ended up on the igi when there was no differentiation between register extractions and member submissions. With the advent of family search I understood that the submissions and the extraction was separated, but i am not convinced that could be a perfect exercise.
    www.jeaned.net
    [url]https://edmck.blogspot.co.uk[url]

  7. #7
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    Default

    Thanks Ed and everyone else who has commented. I think that I need to give FamilySearch the benefit of the doubt. It is probably far more likely these days that it is the usual problem of public trees on the site compiled with errors by individuals. "Same old, same old" as the saying goes.
    "People will not look forward to posterity who never look backward to their ancestors.” Edmund Burke

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