If you are the person who has editing rights to a given person or family, you are always able to correct the information. Maybe in your own research, you discover something that puts your ancestry in a new light. If you know that you have editing rights but do not see the EDIT link, make sure you are logged on.
You can add sources, upload documents, photos, etc or send them in to be added. Please have a source reference with them.
If you do not have editing rights to a person but believe that you see something incorrect or have a source or believe a source is attributed to the wrong person, use the SUGGEST tab. (You can also Your information will go into a queue to be looked at. What the Smiths administrators will do is forward the information to the person who has editing rights, if there is one, for that person(s) to respond to, and possibly fix. Same thing for a grouping. If there is not anyone associated with a given family line, perhaps you would like to *claim* that tree.
If a person writes in and asks that a line that is not theirs be removed, will the admins just up and do it? Answer: No. If you believe that there is information that needs correction or addition, as can happen, please go the page you see the error and send a message, along with source references, to info@smithsworldwide.org or use the process above. Likewise, anyone who has submitted a tree who now believes the information for their line is incorrect and needs to be updated can directly contact the site with the information, and that is the appropriate way to do it; information sent that way will be checked with the people who are members. We do not change people's information without speaking, if possible, directly to the people who supplied it. Very often that person has spent a lot of time doing their own research and believes the line to be true. Understand that this doesn't mean all the time that a submitted line is always correct, and add the challenge where the line may indeed be correct but the DNA points to different parentage. If you know of members whose lines you think are wrong, encourage them, since it is their line and they are the member, to send in a message with the correction. Or, you can go to individual ancestor pages and suggest a chance, with documentation, for the ones you believe need a change and the procedure above will be followed.
Along with that, we expect since you have joined this project and are members, that if you have changes that need to be made, you will update or provide updated information on this site. There are lots of independent research sites on the internet, we fully expect that most people will use a variety of sites for research, and there are over 4000 people in the project, so the expectation is that you will send corrections or bring other facets to our attention to help keep this project accurate and up to date. The admins also periodically sent out emails to everyone asking them to look at their info and let us know of any new changes, omissions, or additions.
Bottom line is we believe this process shows respect for the researcher while also allowing for changes, with sources.
Example: Right now there is a line that, on DNA matches into a grouping but the line itself looks like it actually might go through some different people than the ones submitted. That member needs to let us know so we can update if it proves to be true. I also sent a message asking if there were changes that should be made. Or anyone who sees a line that looks wrong can send in the proofs. Also recently have had two people who are not members send in some great information shedding light on two different families. In the first case, we sent out a message to everyone in that group and asked them to respond with whether it looked solid or not, and also spent time checking the information as much as possible, and then changed, with agreement, the line to show an earlier ancestor. On the other, it was apparent with the information sent that an assumption made by a different member was not correct. Adding that it is really good to have something that sort of walks a time line with sources.
Anyway, point is that it's one big tree but it may or may not be pristine, but that is, of course, why we have this project.
