Incorrect Links in FamilySearch™

Fixing FamilySearch™ Pedigree Linkage Problems

As I look into my own pedigree lines in FamilySearch™, I often discover that some of the information is no longer correct. Usually, the parents of one of my ancestors is no longer correct, often with impossible or unlikely dates or locations. This is more often a problem in Danish ancestry. In our work in our stake as missionaries, people ask me about their family information in FamilySearch™ and I find similar problems in their ancestral lines as well - also usually with Danish ancestors.

I am not entirely sure of the reasons for these problems, but it appears that other people who look into their ancestry see the option for resolving possible duplicates. Unfortunately, those not familiar with the distinctive cultural issues in Danish history combine records of people who should not be combined, in order to resolve these issues.

I intend to show here a few points of information that might help people recognize incorrect linkages in their pedigrees in the FamilySearch™ system.

In all of these situations or problems, it is very important to seek out the original or primary records to substantiate the real information. FamilySearch™ information alone cannot be trusted to resolve these errors. Sometimes, there are source documents listed in the FamilySearch™ information. In those cases, it is easier to resolve these problems.

Checking for Unlikely or Impossible Dates and Places

Often, the most obvious indication of an incorrect parent or pair of parents can be found in the birth, death and marriage dates. Mothers usually do not bear children when over the age of 40. Also, it should be obvious that mothers with death dates prior to the birth of their child is not possible. Look at the birth dates of parents, compared with the birth dates of the children. Sometimes, the parent is correct, but due to some combining with other people of the same name or simply erroneous data entry can account for this problem, but sometimes, it is the wrong people linked to your ancestor as parents. Another indication is unusual place-of-birth. During colonization or modern times, it is not unusual for people and families to move a lot during child-bearing years, but prior to those times, people usually did not travel far from their place of birth. 

For people with Danish or other Scandinavian ancestry, there is a particular problem because the people in those countries reused a small number of names extensively and, unfortunately, people have erroneously combined "duplicates" creating incorrect family linkages. I provide separate documents concerning Danish research, in particular, which should help in determining the correct information. See that information at the end of this article. 

Impossible or Improbable Family Sizes

Sometimes, there is an unusually large number of children in a family. When you check the children of a family, look for children who probably do not belong to the family. However, names should not be assumed to be unique for the children. In some cultures parents will name children with the same names as previous children who have died. It is best to take a look at dates to see whether they make sense. The spacing of children should be an indication of possible errors in incorrect children added to a family. Two years is normally a good space between children births, unless the child dies as an infant, in which case, a subsequent child may be born sooner.

Different Surnames

Depending on local culture, children with names different from their fathers surnames should be suspicious. There are countries where patronymics are used and children receive names based on the first name of their fathers or mothers. Again this is a case where original records should be consulted.

Repairing the Problems

There are various methods to be used in repairing incorrect family relationships in FamilySearch™. The best thing to do is to look at the "Person" view of the individual and look at the section that shows parents. Usually when there are suspected problems, there will be several sets of parents listed. As you look at the different sets of parents, you can most easily click on the "Preferred" box for that set and your pedigree view will show that proper linkage of the family. This, however will not fix the problem for other members of your family. When you have truly established that the correct parents are in the list, you can go to the other parents in that list (right side) and for each occurrence of the child click on "Edit Parents." you can there delete the relationship of the child to those parents. You should include in the comments why you believe that this particular set of parents is not correct. There may be more than one set of parents that need to be removed in this manner.

In some cases, there may not be the correct set of parents in the list and you may need to add the correct parents first. In this case, you must add the parents one at a time, then remove the incorrect parents as listed above.

Finding Sources

You can often find source information from right within FamilySearch™. This is in the "Hints" area. Usually these are records found in the indexing program of the church. You should be very careful to be sure that the people found are correct before adding them from these files, but it can be a very promising method of locating your ancestors and expanding your pedigree and family information in the system.

For particular areas of the world, there are other places you can go to online to search records for your family. The Ancestry™ and FindMyPast™ systems can be useful and the LDS church has agreements which allow you to use their extensive data files for searching.

For those people who have Danish ancestry, there are remarkable sources of information available for doing research online. I have a list of resources available that can help with this work. Also, I am writing some blogs which summarize methods you can use to do this Danish research, even with little or no knowledge of the Danish language.

- Joseph F. Buchanan