Typical experience on Family Search?

Question

I've been copying over sources from Family Search. I haven't been there in a long time and I'm finding many mistakes. I'm spending more time correcting mistakes there than adding and copying sources. I've only been working on my parents and grandparents! Are others encountering the same issues?

Answer 1

I do not rely on their trees or person profiles as accurate. I have encountered many of the person profiles conflated with others of the same or similar name. I do you use them as hints. I use FamilySearch.org for the actual records they have.

Comments

Same for Ancestry. Assume 50% or more error rate, however sometimes the errors will lead to hints that lead you to the correct answer.

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Thank you. I should mention that I rely on the Family Tree Maker database (2200 names) my father developed over 30 years for person profiles. It's extremely accurate and leads me to make corrections in FS.

Answer 2

Like all family trees and profiles on whatever site, the quality of the information depends on the person creating it, and everyone can make mistakes.
 Some profiles on FamilySearch have been properly researched and are as good as the best on Wikitree.
 There are also equally poor and conflated profiles on Wikitree just as there are on FamilySearch.
 Some of my earlier efforts here need a lot of improvement, and like you I try to improve FS profiles, but some are such a mess I give up.
 The difference I think is that WT has an implied emphasis on continuous profile improvement, and with tools such as Sourcer, Bee and WBE searching and adding sources is much easier.

Answer 3

I've wiped out my tree on there at least 3 times over last 8 years because of people connecting wrong parents, kids, wives, husbands thru-out my lines, and doing it with no credible sources.  Now I just go in use the search, and ignore the mess, eventually I'll just remove what I need to there in my saved sources there, & wipe the tree out again, and lock me down, so they won't be able to keep trying to create my tree.

Answer 4

On a regular basis, I use Family Search and Find A Grave to source all the profiles I update and create.  I cross check them for errors.  I also look at each source to see if the names in the Census and marriage records contain the correct names.   So far, so good! 

BUT!

I checked my 6th great grandfather Thomas Draper Sr. married to Sarah Toone...and darn if some idiot added his father as Richard Draper (no proof he is my 7th great grandfather)  The mistakes scream out!  Richard married in 1680 in Virginia, with children born in England?  Yeah, right!  How does that work? No sources, no records.  The only connection is that Richard is old enough to be my 7th GG and he did live in North Farnham Parish, VA, but he could have been a great uncle, or not even related.  Evidence is pointing to a good probablility we are Irish, not English.....lots of bogus information!

Answer 5

I would differentiate between 3 types of sources / informations on Family Search.

1) The Images from whatever source: They are the best quality often almost like "originals". Sometimes in bad image quality. I trust them. Unfortunately they are often missing.

2) The "Sources" created by FamilySearch coworkers. They are often in very good quality but also sometimes with errors. Some can be corrected, others not. I "trust" them with caution. 

3) The Profiles have the complete spectrum of quality. I don't trust them. You can find good informations and big mess. But I use them as hints. Sometimes I correct data and connections. But you need them for automatic match proposals.

4) My Profiles and Information. The quality? I do my best …  But that are not sources for me. That are results. But you need them for automatic match proposals, too.

Answer 6

Exactly why I joined WikiTree in the first place.

So many online Trees with Errors that it is impossible to fix them all and kepp them that way.

However with the emphasis on reliable Sources, WikiTree to me is the best place to concentrate my efforts.

Saying that I know there are Errors in my direct ancestry on WikiTree which I am hesitant about contacting the profile managers - which is my own emotional issue nothing to do with WikiTree.

Answer 7

I find that when you take the time to correct the mistakes, format the information correctly, and most importantly add a reliable source for each piece of information, then good research prevails and profiles tend to be left untouched by bad researchers.

Every now and then someone will come along and potentially mess it up, but it's fairly easy to undo that and the benefit of having good sources attached is that you can always use them to justify your position.

Answer 8

As with any family history site the trees on Family Search are only as accurate as the work of the person or persons who created them.

The sources or records that are on Family Search are accurate for the person described in the record, accepting that poor handwriting, odd spelling, mistranscriptions and poor indexing are problems that are not going to go away.

What people do with those records is another topic entirely. Over the past 10 + years I have found 'trees' that are very good and others that are a product of someone's imagination.

The problems come from what people do with those records. There is a lot of how to and how not to information on Family Search, just as there is on Ancestry and other sites.

If people can't be bothered to research and source and double check that the story they are creating is possible, plausible and supported by sources that belong to the person they are researching, there is almost nothing that can be done to convince the people that the family tree they have created could not possibly be accurate.

Sometimes I correct mistakes on FS, mostly I ignore the 'tree' and use the sources only.

Using RootsSearch can speed up the search process and is usually more accurate than the mess FS has made to their search process over the past few years.

Answer 9

Like others have said, the quality of the connections on FS is really variable.

However, I have discovered that if I am researching someone, it can be worth the time to fix things. Cleaning up the mess will often help the FS algorithm work better and find things it wouldn't find before.

I don't usually spend the time, just for the sake of fixing something—that gets into "someone on the internet was wrong" territory very quickly and there's no end to it. But if I'm stuck and FS seems stuck, it can help.

One big issue I've found is that there are FS projects trying to create profiles in their tree for everyone in a dataset, like the 1930 census or XYZ county marriages. The volunteers that are doing it will often just create new people instead of attaching the records to existing people. Then one person ends up with four profiles, each with one record attached. Merging these people (when appropriate) can be useful.

Answer 10

I’ve encountered some very accurate sourced trees and others completely inaccurate.  Loads of inaccurate indexing and I could not fix it despite trying, people randomly attaching profiles as possible children, knowing the information came from a source but the source is not attached or even mentioned, same person with multiple profiles, incorrect spouse, and dates that make absolutely no sense.