Can I add existing profiles to my tree without being added as a trusted person?

Question

I would be happy to link into the existing "mega all one tree" without needing to ask permission to edit each person in my ancestry one by one.  There are already thousands in the profiles I loaded.  Getting permission for each one might take my entire life.

Comments

Not very clear what you mean about the thousands. Are you trying to upload from a gedcom or are you struggling to manually connect the relationships from profiles you have created to related existing profiles?

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I did load a GEDCOM and matched a few that came up.  But my question was in general can I just add people that already exist.  I see now the answer is yes, unless they are more recent and somebody controls them which requires to be trusted.

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No you cannot add people who already have existing profiles. We do not deliberately create duplicates.

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Let me say it another way.  I can link into existing profiles (add them to my family tree) if they are public.  Thus not duplicating them.  I cannot add people that are my relatives whose profiles exist if their profiles are controlled by somebody else in which case I need to ask to be added as a trusted person.

Answer 1

Lynda is right, the question is a little vague.  As I would interpret it, I think you are finding that some of your ancestors already have profiles here.  That's not unusual.  The older ones are most likely 'Open' privacy and can be edited if you have info to add.  Those of people born less than 150 years ago or who died less than 100 years ago may have a higher privacy level, and you would need to get on the trusted list to edit those.  I hope you are not saying that you have uploaded thousands of profiles that duplicate the ones that are already here, because that would mean that you may have to spend the rest of your life dealing with merges.

Comments

Dennis's advice is excellent. Getting specific, suppose you discover an existing profile for the mother of your grandmother https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Lynch-6816 . If that profile is Open, you can connect it to your grandmother's profile as her mother. However, if the profile is Private, you will need to communicate with the profile manager(s). I suggest that you send a Trusted List request (because you would like to collaborate on your great-grandmother's profile) and also ask them to connect your grandmother's profile as her mother's daughter.