What do I do with this profile of someone who may have been invented by Ancestry Family Trees?

Question

I found that profiles already existed on WikiTree for my 1st cousin 3 times removed and her mother, but the profiles were connected to a random man (Bradley-8241) instead of my 2nd great granduncle. I disconnected the relationship because it was easily proven wrong through census records, but this left Bradley-8241 unlinked. The profile had been created through a GEDCOM upload, and I was able to find the tree on Ancestry that the GEDCOM had been created from. This tree had full dates for the person (sourced only to Ancestry Family Trees), so I searched for the person on other Ancestry trees. I got about a dozen hits, but not a single one was sourced to anything other than Ancestry Family Trees (which really makes you wonder where the information came from to begin with). For now, I added the dates and locations that are reproduced throughout Ancestry onto the profile to help with identification, but I haven't seen anything to make me believe that this is a real person. There are parents for him on many Ancestry trees that do seem to have been real people, but there is no evidence connecting him to them and some evidence to the contrary because he wasn't living with the purported father at the 1850 census even though he would have been 15 at the time and the father may have had another son with the same first name with his third wife 32 years after the birth of Bradley-8241.

Answer 1

We generally don't delete profiles, even if they are uncertain. If the profile eventually (with research) turns out to be "not a real person" then it could be deleted by Wikitree admin, though I am not sure if even then it would qualify for that. You could message them and ask. Here is a help page with frequently asked questions about deletion of profiles Deletion FAQ  Here are links to info for adding flags to the profile so that volunteers who work on these kinds of profiles are aware.  Uncertain Existence , Template for Uncertain Existence

You can also talk to the  Profile Improvement Project for more guidance. 

Hope that helps

Answer 2

There is a Disproven Existence sub-project.  You may like to contact them:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Project:Disproven_Existence

Answer 3

Wikitree does not delete profiles because it is a "relational database" built on the linkages between profiles, i.e. parent, chlld, spouse relationships.  If Bradley-8241 is a bad version of a real person, he could be merged into that real person; then people looking for the bad version would be redirected to the real one.

However, since this came from Ancestry, it indicates that the bad version is already out there and we might well want to retain the bad version, with a suitable warning, to let people know that it is bad and why.  This is the mandate of the Disproven Existence Project.

Once you are convinced that no such person as Bradley-8241 ever really existed, post a "Disproven Existence Notice" here on G2G.  That sets a 1-week clock running which is really a challenge for the WikiTree community to find some documentation that would prove you wrong!  Typically, they don't, and then we would put the Disproven Existence label on him.  Since people who never existed never had parents, spouses, or children, we typically "quarantine" such a profile by removing any connections to others on WikiTree, although we put in links in the narrative so people who find the profile will understand what has happened.

Answer 4

I think I figured out who the profile is supposed to be! While looking at Ancestry trees, I noticed that there were several that had a person with the exact same dates, locations, and parents but a first name of John instead of Henry. I tried searching with the name John and found trees with actual sources! I'll try to overhaul the profile and add the sources tonight if I have time.