WHAT IS THE POINT? by "Fed Up"

[Rena]

I've been drawn to look at some names on my online trees.  I haven't checked everything but have noticed that Mr Nobody has incorrectly "corrected" the spellings of my kin.   Against the names of my kin that I have documentation to back the facts and additionally the ancestors involved are not some distant past shadows, they died when I was a baby.

What is the point of some people's actions of altering information that is backed up by documentation.

What drew these people on familysearch.org to "amend" my grandfather's middle Scottish names "Stephenson Dalglish"  to "Stevenson Dalgliesh" and what caused myheritage the amendment of my gt. grandmother's surname to "Mumford" instead of her actual surname of "Munford"?

[Sandrafamilytree]

I had a similar irritation on Family Search this week.

Someone had given my great-great-grandmother a new first name. There were around 15 sources already attached to the person... all with the same correct name, so goodness knows why they did that.

I have sometimes altered things on Family Search but I have always added a note, in an attempt to collaborate and explain my suggestion. Not that anyone has ever replied 😂

It really irritates me that this person changed a name and did not even attempt to explain why they thought they were right!

[emeltom]

Yet  another reason why I won't put my tree online!

[Pheno]

It's not the being online emeltom it's being online on familysearch.  Their aim is to have a collaborative tree that anybody can amend which is why you get the issues mentioned above.

I assume people use it because it is free but without ownership these things are bound to happen.

An online tree on a site where you own the tree is much more robust.

Pheno

[Top-of-the-hill]

  I had never looked at the family trees on FamilySearch, so I looked at one with the same fore- and surname as my gr gr grandfather (a fairly uncommon surname). I soon shut it down for the sake of my blood pressure!

[Erato]

For the life of me I don't understand why people get so upset by errors (even gross errors) in online trees.  I don't have an online tree anywhere so no one messes with my tree.  If there are mistakes, they're mine.  But I'm glad other people put their trees online because they often contain useful clues.  Just because you find a mistake doesn't mean the whole tree is wrong; just because there's no source given doesn't mean there is no source; just because the information is incomplete doesn't mean it can't be completed.

If you were to rummage around the specimen drawers in the Smithsonian or the Natural History Museum in London or any other museum, you'd find plenty of misidentified, mislabeled or incorrectly filed specimens.  Shocking!  Mistakes are made but life goes on.

[ajm314159]

^^^ like

[Treetotal]

I don't have a Family tree online, but the ones I have seen that relate to my line sometimes have glaring errors. A male relative of mine, according one online tree, married his second wife six years after his death? I usually message them with the correct info.
Carol

[Rena]

If you were to rummage around the specimen drawers in the Smithsonian or the Natural History Museum in London or any other museum, you'd find plenty of misidentified, mislabeled or incorrectly filed specimens.  Shocking!  Mistakes are made but life goes on.

... but why go to the trouble of physically altering somebody else's work that has been backed up by documentation?