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Does your FamilySearch Family Tree feel cluttered or confusing? You’re not alone. Over the past 12 years, this incredible tool has helped millions connect with their ancestors, but it’s not without its growing pains.
Whether you’re dealing with original seed data errors or well-meaning “fixes” gone wrong, an untidy tree can make your family history journey frustrating..
Your FamilySearch Tree Branches are a Tangled Mess
Since 2012, the FamilySearch Family Tree has been live in its current form. While it has done much to build a one-world family tree and serve other family history related benefits, it’s not perfect. The tree’s collaborative nature means everyone with an account may contribute, leading to new discoveries, reduced redundant research, and simplified sharing of research, but also, an increase of mistakes.
Think about it: the original upload of data to seed the family tree already had a number of inaccuracies and redundancies. Over the past decade, FamilySearch users have worked to clean up their tree but additional changes and merges have changed the family tree. Some researchers continue to fight over who is whom, while others have made mistakes typical of beginner researchers.
The current FamilySearch Family Tree still contains many of the original errors that remain untouched, but new mistakes are being perpetuated. At best, these issues make navigating the tree challenging. At worst, they falsify your family’s history.
A Cluttered FamilySearch Family Tree Blocks Connection
Have you ever tried to make sense of all the mistakes in the FamilySearch family tree? It can feel like untangling Christmas lights in a dark attic. Incorrect details send you on wild goose chases, while duplicate records leave you wondering which version is accurate. Instead of discovering the stories connecting you to your ancestors, you're sorting through the noise.
And what about that deeper purpose of family history—to build a "welding link to the generations that have gone before"? When the tree is cluttered, achieving that sense of connection becomes nearly impossible. Errors and distractions take the joy out of the journey.
6 Simple Steps to Cleaning FamilySearch Mistakes
The good news? Cleaning up your FamilySearch Family Tree doesn't have to be overwhelming. These six practical steps will help you tidy up your tree so you can focus on what really matters: discovering and honoring your heritage.
1. Standardize Locations
One of the simplest ways to clean up the family tree involves standardizing locations. When you see a red exclamation mark next to a place name, it means FamilySearch is having trouble interpreting the location. Here's how to fix it:
Keep Key Details: If your record includes specific information, like a church or cemetery, include this in the description. For example, "St. Mary's Church" can remain in the details while the standardized location reflects only the city, county, and country.
Choose the Right Timeframe: Timeframe: Ensure the standardized place matches the historical period of the event. For example, suppose an ancestor was born in 1831. Verify that the location's name was historically accurate for that year.
Use a Reason Statement: For every event, source, and change made on an ancestor's profile, ensure you've explained the details in the "reason this is current" boxes. For example, when changing or validating a birth fact, write "standardized the location for the birth place based on the death record" or "this birth record identifies the birth date and place for John Franks and suggests the identity of his parents and their birthplace."
2. Edit Vital Information
Editing vital information, like names and dates, improves the visual clarity of your family tree but also leads to consistency on the platform.
Expand Abbreviations: Change abbreviations such as "Wm" to the full name, "William" (only if you have documents that support that expanded abbreviations). Include a reason statement for the name change: "William is the name given accurately over the abbreviation based on the death certificate."
Standardize Dates: For every event, improve the dates using the FamilySearch standardized formats, "Sep 17 1830" and "09/17/1830" are not standard formats. Change them to "17 September 1830."
Use Maiden Names: For females, the genealogical standard prefers that documents have their maiden names in the surname field rather than their married names. Doing so can visually trace their maternal lineage to their parents. If you don't have a maiden name, leave the field blank.
3. Consolidate Duplicate Data
Due to merges and updates from " third-party webs," profiles often have abundant duplicate details and sources. For each relevant fact, event, or source, reduce the profile to one fact, event, or source.
Identify all variations of the same date or location.
Combine the most complete and specific details into one entry.
Delete the duplicates, leaving a reason for the change, such as "Consolidated multiple dates into one complete record."
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4. Improve Source Connectivity
The FamilySearch profiles have facts and events on one screen and the sources on a s separate screen. FamilySearch has a feature that allows you to tag source to the facts, so ensure you've:
Link Sources to Events: From either the fact or source screen, tag each event to the source that provides evidence for that data. Add a reason statement in the event to explain why you've made a conclusion if data for events conflict.
Add Dates to Sources: On the source view, for each source, add the year the record was created to the date field. This allows FamilySearch to organize the records chronologically. Sorting sources in this fashion has some surprising research benefits.
5. Remove Unhelpful Notes
FamilySearch has a Collaborate tab for each profile. Here, you can find Notes where researchers share questions and insights others need to know. However, you may find unhelpful and meaningless notes resulting from the tree's initial seeding or imports of gedcom files to the tree. Here's how to handle this clutter:
Delete GEDCOM Notes: You'll frequently find unintelligible data referencing a gedcom file. These notes came from the import of such files in the early days of the FamilySearch family tree. Delete these notes since you can't track back to the original file.
Clear Nonsense Notes: Remove vague or unclear notes that don't contribute to understanding the researcher of a profile. For example, remove the entry where I found the words "Form" with no further explanation.
6. Detach Incorrect Sources
Not every profile has accurate sources linked to it. I have frequently found sources linked to a profile that doesn't pertain to the person in any way. These may appear thanks to researchers making the same by merging two persons of the same name but who were separate individuals. Here's how to detach them:
Verify Accuracy: If a source doesn't match your ancestor's life events (i.e., a U.S. Civil War record for someone who never left England), it's likely incorrect.
Detach with Care: If you opt to detach a source from a profile, explain why you made that decision in the reason statement box. You may say, "This individual never emigrated to the U.S.; this record does not pertain to them."
Keep Your FamilySearch Family Tree Branches Thriving
Use a gardener's care when cleaning up your branches of the FamilySearch Family Tree. Also, just like gardening, maintaining the health of your family tree is not a once-and-done approach. Regularly follow and check your direct ancestors to ensure there is no visual clutter and mistakes. By following these six steps, you're not just tidying up—you're creating a family tree worthy of all acceptances.
Have you tried any of these tips? Share your experiences in the comments below.
