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I got a notification for a "volunteer opportunity" when I logged into FamilySearch today to check geographic information in their database. It turns out the research was to correct information on other member's trees without notifying the owner of the tree. The example of the kind of research I would be doing was to correct an ancestor's location that I absolutely knew nothing about based on the limited information the site provided me. The owner of the site had obviously keyed in the names of their ancestors rather than a geographic location, so any correction I might provide would be a bad guess. Needless to say, I went back to minding my own business quickly. Glad I never built my family tree on this site. They do have a wealth of information for being a free site, so I'm not totally knocking them.
Thanks for posting your experience. I do have a tree over there and have made others. Hopefully no volunteers "correct" a tree I made because I tried to do everything from sources.
I got a notification for a "volunteer opportunity" when I logged into FamilySearch today to check geographic information in their database. It turns out the research was to correct information on other member's trees without notifying the owner of the tree.
FamilySearch is a crowd source tree, users don't have individual trees, no one "owns" any part of the tree. They are asking you to contribute to the improvement of a collaborative project.
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The example of the kind of research I would be doing was to correct an ancestor's location that I absolutely knew nothing about based on the limited information the site provided me.
Well, don't do it then, but the site has no way of knowing what you know and what you don't - it's just asking you to contribute if you do have the knowledge. If you don't, then don't. You must have some connection to the ancestor in question though for the site to suggest it.
I love the site because it's truly free and they often send me things THEY find and ask if I think they fit my tree. I've found out so many things I didn't know, such as true nationality and how long, long ago some of the people in my family came here. I found a relative on my husband's side who had been looking for a family connection for years. I have no one to pass a tree down to, so if it disappears, I got quite a good experience for nothing but my time.
What I like about Family Search is the Mormons are serious about genealogy and I’m pretty sure they will be around long after I am gone. Hopefully the part of the global tree I filled in will live on also (documented as much as possible).
I feel with the paid services, my work is gone as soon as I stop paying or if I die.
What I like about Family Search is the Mormons are serious about genealogy and I’m pretty sure they will be around long after I am gone. Hopefully the part of the global tree I filled in will live on also (documented as much as possible).
I feel with the paid services, my work is gone as soon as I stop paying or if I die.
No, your tree remains on the website of subscription services even if you stop paying the subscription - At Ancestry, you can even still continue building and editing your tree without a subscription (you just can't access the records). They want you to come back again some day and you won't do that if they delete all your work. As long as your tree is public, it be accessible to others and remain there probably until the site ever shuts down (which is always a possibility for FamilySearch too). Even if you die, they don't know that you've died unless a relative informs them, and even then, they're happy to let a relative take over your account and potentially start paying the subscription too. They're in the business of encouraging people to build their trees, it would be counter productive for them to delete the trees for any reason.
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