I tried to do a good deed, and look where it got me! [closed]

Question

Sometimes when roaming around WikiTree, I see things that drive me crazy.  Often these are untouched gedcom uploads or results of merges that nobody ever cleaned up.  So yesterday I found one such profile (an upload from the notorious DeCoursey gedcom), an orphan, and I edited it to clean up the format and planned to leave the rest for someone else.  Then this morning I noticed that the narrative and sources included birth information but they were not in the data section.  So I added them.  Unfortunately, the birth date was 1941, and I didn't know any better.  Then I went to orphan the profile and WikiTree warned me it would become an unadoptable orphan.  So I tried to remove the birth year, and WikiTree wouldn't let me do that.  The person, whose surname is Persons (!), may still be living.  I could not find a death record.  I thought about adding his parents, because their names were in the birth record, but I could not find any information about the father, so WikiTree wouldn't let me add him without dates.

The result is that I have a profile I don't care about on my Watchlist, and no one who does care about him can find him.  If someone does a search on the Persons surname, he will find 37 listings for "Unlisted Persons."  So if someone wants to add a new Persons, is he supposed to contact every profile manager and ask who the person (no pun intended) is?  This is a recipe for duplication!

Maybe I am missing something.  What I'd like is a Persons person to come along and take this off my hands, or a Connector who wants a challenge.

Comments

Minnesota, Death Index, 1908-2017

Name:	Mary Anne Persons
Death Age:	89
Birth Date:	23 Sep 1908
Birth Place:	Windber, Pennsylvania, USA
Death Date:	22 Jun 1998
Death Place:	Brooklyn Center, Hennepin
Death Registration Year:	1998
Household Members:	Name Age Mary Anne Persons

Source Citation: Minnesota Department of Health; St Paul, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota, Death Index, 1908-2017

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Pennsylvania, Birth Certificates, 1906-1911

Name:	Mary Anne Marushin
Gender:	Female
Birth Date:	23 Sep 1908
Birth Place:	Somerset, Somerset, Pennsylvania, USA
Father:	John Marushin
Mother:	Anna Marushin
Certificate Number:	D-210131-08
Household Members:	Name Age Mary Anne Marushin Anna Marushin John Marushin

Source Citation: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Pennsylvania (State). Birth certificates, 1906–1910; Box Number: 206; Certificate Number Range: 208651-210900

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Pennsylvania, Birth Certificates, 1906-1911

Name:	Anna Marushin
Maiden Name:	Humunik
Gender:	Female
Birth Place:	Helca, Czechoslovakia
Spouse:	John Marushin
Child:	Mary Anne Marushin
Household Members:	Name Age Mary Anne Marushin Anna Marushin John Marushin

Source Citation: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Pennsylvania (State). Birth certificates, 1906–1910; Box Number: 206; Certificate Number Range: 208651-21090

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Pennsylvania, Birth Certificates, 1906-1911

Name:	John Marushin
Gender:	Male
Birth Place:	Teplicka, Czechoslovakia
Spouse:	Anna Marushin
Child:	Mary Anne Marushin
Household Members:	Name Age Mary Anne Marushin Anna Marushin John Marushin

Source Citation: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Pennsylvania (State). Birth certificates, 1906–1910; Box Number: 206; Certificate Number Range: 208651-21090

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U.S. Veterans' Gravesites, ca.1775-2006

Name:	Hiram H Persons
:	SERG US ARMY
Birth Date:	8 Mar 1821
Death Date:	29 Nov 1872
Cemetery:	Crystal Lake Cemetery
Cemetery Address:	Dayton Twp Waupaca, WI 54981

Source Information:

National Cemetery Administration. U.S. Veterans Gravesites, ca. 1775-2006 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006.

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parents of Hiram Persons

John D. Persons and Mary Anne Feagles

John is the son of Uriah and Elizabeth Dalrymple

Uriah Persons

 in the Abstract of Graves of Revolutionary Patriots

Name:	Uriah Persons
Cemetery:	Person's Pioneer Cem
Location:	nr Buffalo, Wyoming Co NY 86

Source Citation

Abstract of Graves of Revolutionary Patriots; Volume: 3

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Hiram's wife Jane Cross

daughter of Peter Cross and Elizabeth Ackley

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Dalrymple-927

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WHAT DO YOU MEAN ENUFFFFF?

I found SOLDIERS

I do SOLDIERS ! ! !

Anyhow, ham hocks. In good deep pot with water. Slice the skin so the fat underneath cooks out into the water. Cook slow in oven a couple hours. Meat will get real tender. The skin is dynamite good eating. DON'T throw it out. Sooo goood. For seasoning, I use a little garlic, onion, NO SALT. Hock is cured in salt.

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I hope you save the liquid too.  It would make a great flavorful soup.  (I don't eat much meat, but when I do, I always save the bones and scraps and make broth.)

I am going to add the father, maybe both parents, to my anonymous profile.  Then hope that a Persons genealogist will want to take over the profiles, and I will direct them to this G2G question for additional information.  

Once I figure out how all the people you've given me information about are related, maybe I can find some of the earlier ones already on WikiTree (did you look, by any chance?).  

Thanks for your help.  (If you want to put any of the information on profiles, maybe you can earn a badge this month.  )

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https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Persons-336

add Orrin/Oring to Hiram

add Leroy to Orrin

cooked the black eye peas in the juice !!

Answer 1

I have now linked Leroy up so he will show connected to the global wikitree with Tuesday morning's update ...

https://www.wikitree.com/genealogy/Persons-Family-Tree-397

Comments

Wow!  How did you even find him so fast?  I just created the profile.

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I guess I was creating Orrin when you were creating Leroy. So I just searched for him :)

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Good timing!

Answer 2

Julie,

You can also contact info@ and we can take care of it.

Abby

Comments

But Abby, what would that do in this case?  I want others to be able to find the profile, but if he is living, how can they?

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Our general guidance is if they are living without family or friends to manage their profile on WikiTree, the profile probably doesn't belong on WikiTree (there are obviously exceptions to this), in order to protect their privacy. I wouldn't want someone who didn't know me, even if they were interested in my surname, putting my name and details on the internet.

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So if I contact info, will they delete him?

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If no one wants to manage the profile, and it is living, yes, that is our policy.

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Thank you, Abby.  I will know for next time.

Answer 3

quote> I noticed that the narrative and sources included birth information but they were not in the data section.  So I added them.  Unfortunately, the birth date was 1941

I have run into this before. If you go the the death field, with no date and there should be a bullet to click on (in the same area as: uncertain, exact, before, after), that the person is "not living". That will allow you to have the birth date showing and save it as a profile that is deceased, that every member can see, ie: not a private, living profile.

You could add a research notes section, saying that it is uncertain if the profile is living or deceased.

Comments

But I think he probably is living.  I looked all over for a death record (FindAGrave, newspapers.com, Ancestry, etc.) and found none.

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If the profile is still living, then they really should be in the private section and there is nothing that other wikitree members can do to connect the profile, since we can't see it.