What is the definition of 'recently deceased relatives'?

Question

According to the Help index - Family Members are invited to create and improve profiles for living and recently-deceased family members.

Can someone tell me 'how recent' these people need to be?. 

Are they those that wouldn't fall under the 'open' category - ie older than 150 years or deceased for over 100 years?  Or something else?

Comments

I believe “recent” means not long, long ago, people who have died in the last 20 years or so, people like your grandparents or aunts and uncles.

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If thats the case shouldn't it be spelled out in the help?

Can someone tell me what message a 'family member' gets when they try to add older people?  Does it tell them the limit? (I'm doing a presentation and this is sure to be asked).

Is it really a relationship limitation?

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To save people hunting, the statement Veronica quotes is at this link:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Membership#Family_Member_benefits_and_limitations

I'm not sure there is a specific date threshold (except of course that Family Members cannot create pre-1700 profiles). Rather it may be that they can only create profiles as additions to already existing profiles for close relatives. They cannot use the "Add an Unrelated Person" form for example.

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Thanks Jim.  Yes, I think I read that somewhere that they can only add to their own family.  That makes sense but I can't imagine it would be intended to go back as far as 1701 (as it's not very recent or close) which is why I thought it might correspond with the 'open' profile time periods.

I'd really like to know what a family member was told in these circumstances but being a member can't really recreate the scenario.

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Find-a-Grave defines recently deceased as anyone who died after 1 Jan 2022. See:

https://support.findagrave.com/s/article/Memorials-for-those-who-are-recently-deceased

I don't know if WikiTree is using the same definition.

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Thanks Jillaine, that's interesting and quite limiting.

Answer 1

Members with a Family account can do almost everything that Full-members can do. What they cannot do is:

Family Members cannot fully participate in most projects and cannot edit categories or project pages.
They are not allowed to create or edit profiles of people that were born before 1700.

And Family Members see the advertisements that enable WikiTree to be free for everyone. (Wiki Genealogists do not see ads.)

Comments

Are you sure, Pierre? My understanding was that Family Members can only edit existing profiles for which they are on the Trusted List. The Help page says

Family Members can also:

• Edit any profile if they are on its Trusted List. (Wiki Genealogists can edit any Open profile.)

Also:

as they edit they see more frequent encouragements to sign the Honor Code. After 300 edits they cannot continue without signing.

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Yest, a Family member must be on the Trusted List to edit existing post-1700 profiles. But they can create new profiles all the way back to 1700, if so inclined.

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Thanks Eva. I agree they can create new profiles by connection to existing profiles. I suspect they may not be able to add unrelated profiles, though I'm not certain of that.

Answer 2

I imagine it would be hard to give a definitive answer.

Recent relatives can be rather subjective, different answers for generations, cultural or family or even legal reasons.

Restrictions are different in various countries.   For example, in Australia the latest official birth records are restricted 100 years ago or before.